Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek were feeling pretty low in the winter of 2014. They had each gone through a romantic breakup; the band they used to play in, Smith Westerns, had broken up, too. Things were looking pretty grim until the day Kakacek brought home a tape machine, and an impromptu recording session made way for a new songwriting outlet. They called their new band Whitney.

HEAR COMPLETE SESSION AND MORE ON NPR MUSIC HERE