Get snowed in with Why?'s Eskimo Snow

Yoni Wolf of Why? answers all your musical questions.

By Tom Carbone

Published Nov. 10, 2009

Back in 1998, seven artists who focused mainly on experimental and indie hip-hop started Anticon, a San Francisco-based independent record label. Known for their frequent collaborations and unique approach to music and art, the founders, known as the Anticon Collective, have steadily released material since their conception and have gradually gained more fans and press along the way.

Yoni Wolf, Anticon founder and creator of Why?, one of the label's most successful bands, has been recording music for a large portion of his life. Before he even went to high school, Wolf was experimenting with rapping and recording using an old four-track he found in his father's synagogue.

What began as a solo endeavor slowly turned into a more serious collaborative effort in 2005, resulting in Why? releasing three albums as a band. Earlier this fall, Why? put out their third record since 2005, Eskimo Snow. Since his earliest recordings, Wolf has been known for his tendency to rap and speak lyrics over self-produced beats.

Lyrics and wordplay have always been one of Wolf's strongest talents as a musician. Many credit Wolf's descriptions of events and feelings as some of the best around today. Like most writers, Wolf's lyrics have a variety of influences.

"There's a little of everything in there," Wolf said. "Sometimes it's autobiographical, sometimes it's made up. Lately I've been listening to a lot of MF Doom."

In albums Elephant Eyelash and Alopecia, Wolf focused on rapping, but that formula certainly changed this year with Eskimo Snow. Recorded at the same time as Alopecia in 2008, Eskimo Snow is an album that wasn't released for nearly a year and a half after it was done being recorded and is a polar opposite to the work Wolf has done in the past. Instead of focusing on Wolf's rapping, harmonies are emphasized and the instrumentation from the band has become a lot more complex.

"We went into the studio with about 20 different songs and started recording when we realized there were two pretty distinct things happening," Wolf said. "And instead of making it one long weird, sort of eclectic album, we decided to make two different albums that were a bit more homogenous."

Sometimes when artists realize this in the studio, they release a double album, but Wolf decided to wait for a while to release Eskimo Snow. Wolf explained the delay between the albums.

"We had actually finished Eskimo Snow before Alopecia, but it didn't feel quite right," Wolf said. "We toured for another year and a half after (Alopecia) and then decided to go back into the mixing studio to finish it up."

Fresh off the heels of a successful release, Why? has been featured on ABC and Fuel TV for Eskimo Snow and are now touring the nation with plans to go overseas at the end of the year.

Yoni Wolf and company are playing this Wednesday at the Firebird in St. Louis and promise a wide variety of material, from the new albums as well as older fan-favorites.

"Things are on the incline now," Wolf said. "We're not one of those blow up bands. We're steady climbers."