Seattle Band Black Whales on Overcoming Health Struggles and Luke Temple’s Songwriting Genius
In Our Headphones
KEXP
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
DJ Larry Mizell Jr. fills in for Evie Stokes this week to sit down with Seattle band Black Whales. The group recently put out their first album in 11 years, A Guide To Photographing The Sun. Singer Alex Robert details coming back from a serious health episode and finding solace in music. They also share a song from Luke Temple and gush about his songwriting prowess. Temple’s “Echo Park Donut” comes from his 2026 album, Hungry Animal, out now Western Vinyl.
Produced by Dusty Henry
Mastered by: William Myers
Production support: Serafima Healy
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is In Our Headphones. I'm Larry Myzel Jr. I'm in for Evie Stokes today, and I'm joined by Alex and Greg of Seattle's Black Wales. What's up, fellas? Hey. How's it going? It's good to have you here. Thanks for having us. You know you guys are a veteran band. He started in 2009 or eight? I think it was nine. Nine? I mean, it's hard to keep track. That's when the first record came out. |
| 0:21.8 | Yeah, and it wasn't really... |
| 0:23.4 | We just kind of did it. |
| 0:24.6 | Understood. So it wasn't, no significant starting point, but. Understood. It was kind of, kind of, uh, hazy how it comes together sometimes. Yeah, just friends and had mutual interest in music. Right on. |
| 0:42.5 | And you dropped the record last year, a guide to photographing the sun. |
| 0:43.5 | Am I saying that right? |
| 0:46.0 | That's it last July? |
| 0:46.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:46.8 | Yeah. |
| 0:49.2 | First record in like 11 years. |
| 0:50.3 | Wow, yeah. |
| 0:52.8 | That was a rough decade, I'll say. |
| 0:53.3 | Yeah. |
| 0:55.4 | It was forced to change. Right. It's the kind of way of, I'll say. Yeah. It was forced to change. |
| 0:55.6 | Right. |
| 0:57.3 | It's the kind of way of putting it. |
| 1:01.4 | Yeah, so COVID probably did have something to do with, like, the record taking its time. |
| 1:02.7 | Oh, yeah. You also had brain issues. |
| 1:05.8 | I had some health issues. |
| 1:07.2 | Okay. |
| 1:08.4 | And, yeah, COVID, we were all just sitting around like everyone else. And we'd |
| 1:13.3 | recorded that record we put out last year before that. And then that happened. And then my brain |
... |
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