Exclusive Premiere: Little Whales’ Wispy New Song ‘All Paths Led Here’

Hardcore punk, math-rock and emo are just a few of the sides to Mumbai-bred, Chicago-based singer-songwriter Vrishank Menon. Guitarist and songwriter at Death By Fungi and Little Whales, the former had an EP release with the no-holds-barred Die in Bombay in 2019 and now Menon is releasing songs off Little Whales’ new EP An Exercise in Patience.

With two out of five tracks out so far – “Seventeenth Century Artisan” released in 2017 and “Faults of Youth” was out earlier this week – the EP offers reverb-heavy folksy emo on the latest, “All Paths Led Here.” Inspired by indie artists such as Owen and dream pop/ambient artist Grouper, Menon notes the song also had a math-rock arrangement before it became a “reverby acoustic song” over the course of two years. In metaphors and very real scenarios of longing and relationships, Menon employs layered vocal melodies over a simple guitar line with bandmate and producer Apurv Agrawal heightening the mood with synth and production elements.

Little Whales was originally a solo project but Menon invited Agrawal in as a permanent member owing to their longstanding association, which included setting up their studio DBF Funhauz in Mumbai. “Having Apurv on board is awesome cause he’s hands down the best producer from India (for me at least) and is a voice I can trust,” Menon says. A visualizer video made for “All Paths Led Here” by Pune-based visual artist Anusha Menon sees a lone guitarist seated on a branch of a swaying tree as the mist rolls in.

With the EP releasing song by song, Menon hopes to set up a band in India and one in the U.S. to play shows “when touring becomes possible again.” He adds, “I actually already had a U.S. lineup but the show we were planning is no longer possible ‘cause of COVID-19. But anyway, it will be a long time before I can make an informed decision on it.”

Watch the video for “All Paths Led Here” below.