Singer and songwriter Kevin Whelan has always made music, most famously in the ‘90s and early 2000s, when he sang and played bass for an indie rock band called The Wrens.
But though The Wrens released their last album, The Meadowlands, to nearly universal acclaim in 2003, the New Jersey band never released another record. They didn’t break up, but members got married, had kids, and began professional careers. Life just got in the way.
But Whelan himself never stopped making music, even though it took a backseat to his own family and a pharmaceutical day job. That all changed in 2013, when Whelan’s 15-month-old son, Ryder, was diagnosed with autism.
“That kind of drove me at that point back into writing,” said Whelan. “The concerns about not understanding what to do, what life is going to bring us, and all of that,” said the singer-songwriter, who channeled all the worry and fear surrounding his son’s diagnosis into new songs.
Now Ryder has grown into a healthy 8-year-old boy who teaches his parents about love and beauty each day. This includes helping them focus on what’s important in life and digging deep to overcome challenges, even during a pandemic that’s been tough on special-needs kids. Ryder–who has limited speaking ability but loves music–even inspired his father to finally put out his next album, which includes songs his dad has been waiting to release for almost 2 decades.
“I released my last record when I was thirty-three, and I sort of waited,” says Whelan, who is now 51. “And I was hoping things would be different and life kind of took over, right? Jobs, work, and all that kind of stuff… I think [Ryder] really inspired me to realize that there are more important things in life. He inspired me not to wait. He inspired me that every moment is precious, and we can’t sort of do a Jenga strategy for our lives and think it’s going to work out. It just doesn’t happen that way.”
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The new record, Observatory, isn’t a Wrens album, because that band is on hiatus. But it includes songs Whelan initially wrote for their next album, as well as 3 of the band’s 4 original members (including Kevin’s brother Greg Whelan). Kevin Whelan describes their latest record–-which will be released by Sub Pop Records on Dec. 10 under the band’s new name, Aeon Station–-as an extension of where that music left off.
“Aeon Station is sort of like the continuation of that life story,” said Whelan, whose latest album includes a sprawling collection of songs written in 17 years since The Meadowlands, as well as songs (like “Fade,” which you can listen to below) written for his autistic son.
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“It’s across this long span of I wasn’t even married then I got married then I have my children and then with autism,” said Whelan, who poured all the emotion, confusion, and love that come with parenting an autistic child into his latest album. The new album’s title, Observatory, was also chosen for Ryder.
“I picked that specifically for him because of the way he observes the world,” Whelan said. “He taught me that he might not be communicating in the normal way, but he is certainly observing and living in the exact same place that I am all the time.”
Observatory will be available for purchase on December 10, 2021.
Source: The Autism Site Blog
