Western Grip to Release LP ‘Follow Your Nightmares’ via Vina Records

Western Grip began in October 2024 as a one-off collaboration between William Edward Haring (vocals, guitar, piano, percussion) and Shane Patrick Johnson (vocals, bass, guitar, organ, synth, percussion). What was meant to be a single live experiment quickly solidified into an ongoing project.

William had been invited to open for a touring noise artist at Café Berlin in Columbia, Missouri. Shane came on board to help build the set. Armed with a newly acquired 40-year-old analog drum machine and only two rehearsals, the pair developed a sound that felt immediate and fully formed – fusing outlaw country narratives with post-punk, dub, and noise textures.

After the show, a fellow artist remarked, “I really like what you did tonight, it sounded like doom country.” The phrase stuck.

Western Grip began performing across the Midwest, writing the material that would become Follow Your Nightmares. George Sarafianos of Highway Demon described the project as sounding “like if Magnolia Electric Company-era Jason Molina fronted Big Black.” The lineup includes former members of Jowlz, Fliight, Blights, and New Tongues.

Western Grip’s songs are built on drum machine pulses, dry bass lines, and reverb-heavy guitars, leaving space around the vocals. They move slowly but deliberately, with stripped-down outlaw narratives at the center. The album opens with “In the Dark,” plunging the listener into dense reverb and exposed melancholy.

Shane recounts:

“We rented a space for a few hours to write, and the bones of this song are the result. Bill sang this question off the cuff, and it stuck. This song is heavy, and the repetition and space are intentional. What happens when an entire apartment building accidentally falls on your head? Hard to ignore what your eyes tell you these days.”

“Back Pills,” the first track written by the band, stretches minimal structures across jagged textures. Shane notes:

“All the lyrics are direct quotes from people in an Emergency waiting room. We both thought it had a Slint-like feel since we’re both fans of Pajo.”

Western Grip ‘Follow Your Nightmares’ album artwork

The title track, “Follow Your Nightmares,” was added at the last minute during recording. To one member, it feels like a love song. To the other, it feels like the end of an empire.

Other tracks followed their own paths, shaped by similarly specific moments. The record finishes with “Conclusion,” leaving a sense of thematic closure.

The band explains:

“We had been using this sample from Nimrod Workman talking about the gun thugs in Harlan County when we played live, and it just seemed right to add it as a parting gift to the record, a warning.”

The fiddle passage was sourced from archival material at the Library of Congress, then processed and reshaped to fit the album’s stark sonic palette.

Follow Your Nightmares Track Listing:

1. In The Dark
2. Stick and Poke
3. Follow Your Nightmares
4. Sidewalk
5. Back Pills
6. Conclusion