Precious Moments, Mini-Van Rock, and the Saturn Return: A Conversation with Wishy [PENNY 4.2 COVER]
- Erin Christie
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
This piece originates from the brand new Penny print issue, Penny 4.2. Find links to read the printed version below, with this piece starting on page 24.
Interview by Erin Christie
It’s the first of June and Torna’s Tightrope Studios in Greenpoint, New York City is the afternoon’s backdrop for a brief photoshoot with Indiana-born indie rock 5-piece Wishy. In the insulated studio space, drummer Conner Host is in the midst of teaching vocalist/guitarist Nina Pritchkites how to properly wield a set of drumsticks as guitarist Dimitri Morris sits criss-crossed in front of a wall of amplifiers at the opposite side of the room, taking his turn in front of Penny photographer Emma Hintz’ lens. Meanwhile, Mitch Collins (bass) and Kevin Krauter (vocals, guitar) speak with Torna opposite a well-equipped switchboard, as a pot of coffee bubbles and brews on the burner. Everyone’s slightly squished for the next hour, but comfortable nonetheless; any pockets of air remaining in the space are filled with laughter, quiet chatter, and the intermittent click of Hintz’ flash.
In the last year since the release of Wishy’s debut album Triple Seven (via Winspear), the group of five have gotten quite used to lingering afterimage, learning to pose for editorial photo features and chime in with the suitable-enough answers to questions from taste-making music blogs who can’t seem to stop seeking them out for comment. It all makes sense, however, given the star-making quality of the band’s heartwarming brand of perfectly propulsive and nonchalantly nostalgic tunes, capitalized with the Spring arrival of their 21-minute Planet Popstar EP.
Comprising and giving new life to bonus tracks that never made the August 2024 album, the EP’s 6 tracks are anything but discarded runts of the litter; instead, they’re strong enough to stand on their own. Expanding on the former release’s exhibition of heartfelt ‘minivan rock’, it plays out like the A-side of a homemade cassette submerged in a time capsule dated at the early aughts, with side B fittingly rounded out with tracks of similar feeling from Avril Lavigne, Liz Phair, Throwing Muses, The Cure, and My Bloody Valentine. One can picture a faded Lisa Frank sticker or a hand-written memo beckoning one to ‘Play Me’, written in glittery gel pen, adorning the tape’s plastic casing.
Lyrically, the songs are as genuine as they come — the feeling embedded in the tracks’ fleeting moments of full-hearted yearning (“you’re the star in my dreams tonight”), bittersweet loss (“I’m just another one of your trips around the sun”), and acceptance of life’s small victories (“I found a way to be grateful everyday”) don’t feel caricatured or trite, and that’s part of their magnetism. There’s a level of closeness and enlightenment that can be derived from the diary entry-like quality of the words, and the interplay between fuzzed-out yet glossy shoegaze passages and blissfully strummed indie-pop melodies fleshes things out, evoking a feeling of home. More than anything else, the Planet Popstar EP is also an unapologetically fun and easy-going listen; as it whizzes by, it’s impossible to avoid wanting to replay ‘over and over’ again.
As a result of their infectiousness, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind for Wishy (previously called Mana) since breaking onto the scene and spontaneously catching fire, as Nina Pritchkites recounts when we meet at the basement dancefloor of Nightclub 101 on the Lower East Side later that day, ahead of her band’s headline show in the main room that evening. For one, the night prior, Wishy also closed out their run of dates supporting fellow indie-rock sweethearts Momma with a sold-out show at Warsaw, the culmination of a few weeks playing some of the largest venues Wishy has ever had.
WISHY AT WARSAW
Photographed by Emma Hintz
Touring is a particular highlight for Pritchkites, too, with the last two years allowing her to afford to do so for the first time in her musical career. Thinking about her favorite moments from this period of time, she fondly recounts days spent in the van with her bandmates over the last year in particular, listening to their collective favorite paranormal podcast Otherworld, or watching one of the boys’ anime fixations via a laptop (dangerously) propped up on the dashboard. “One thing is that I’m high maintenance; one of the boys can sleep on the floor,” she laughed. Between stops on the road, the band is plenty privy to leisure, too, taking up amateur ghost-hunting at abandoned sites on their route or taking quick pitstops at kitschy roadside attractions across the Midwest (the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri particularly sticks out — “It’s actually insanely creepy. There are all of these rooms with painted murals from floor to ceiling; it’s like the Sistine Chapel”. Other notable locations include the Grand Canyon and the Four Corners — where the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico meet.
While pivotal roadtrip-style memories and inside jokes are formed in the back of the van, an allowance to dream is also cultivated — each city that passes and each new experience had along the road fosters an even more enlivened belief in their band and in the direction they’re headed. Pritchkites notes, too, that Wishy’s frequent touring and their congruent uptick in connection also arrives in the midst of her Return to Saturn, an astrological period spanning the ages of 27 to 30 in which all of your houses are aligned, presenting a “come to Jesus” moment where you’re meant to grapple with existential queries and discover who you’re going to be. While it would be utterly human to let this unique astrological plane generate self-doubt and internal pressure, her perspective is decidedly much more hopeful and grounded — to her, traversing this complicated, revelatory period while witnessing her band’s first real taste of triumph is even more validating of not only her personal choices, but of Wishy’s as a collective, too.
“In my head, when you’re first starting your career as an artist, you have to do way more grunt work before you enjoy the fruits of your labor,” Pritchkites explained, referencing how her back has been hurting on long drives. “But I’ve always kind of known our band was going to do bigger things. Like, not to toot my own horn, but we all just believe so much in our music, and that sounds corny, but when you do that, you go places”.
This also speaks to the welcome risks the band took with releasing the Planet Popstar EP, an opportunity to broaden their horizons and place a stamp on their early-days versatility. This willingness to experiment is made especially clear with Pritchkites’ inclusion, “Chaser”, a 90s bubblegum-rock number decked out in syrupy-sweet, chugging guitar lines and decadent synth-laden reverb, amid an inner monologue of will-they won’t-they. It’s a cut sonically unlike any other in Wishy’s catalog, and that’s perhaps why it fits so well among this specific collection of tracks — it’s self-assured in its different-ness.
“I was kind of insecure about [that song] and I still feel shy about singing it”, Pritchkites admitted. “It was originally more of a ‘countrified’ pop song and Kev likened it to something Tom Petty would’ve written. But we started to make it poppier by messing with synthesizers and such”.
“I can definitely see why someone would say this EP is not cohesive maybe because of it, but I personally like that in music that I like listening to”, she continued. “Also, you can literally do whatever you want when you’re in a band — I think a lot of people think they have to stick to one genre and stick to what they’ve already been doing, but that doesn’t sound very fun. I think of Alex G, and how he has such a diverse way of songwriting, such as sporadic pop moments with autotune. I just respect that a lot”.
As made clear here, Wishy’s motto started and remains that of pure earnestness — driven by friendship, creative curiosity, and an intrinsic desire to have fun, they create a listening experience without ego, and without expectation of their listeners or of themselves. Physically driven forward in their shared min-van, Wishy’s next pitstop might be the Biggest Ball of Twine (Cawker City, KS), a haunted location as shouted out on Otherworld, Planet Popstar itself (which Pritchkites notes would visually sit somewhere between Kirby’s Dream Land, the set for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and somewhere futuristic with ‘extremely green grass’), or the eventual ceremony inducting them into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. Either way, their destination will make perfect sense, and I can’t wait to hear about it.