Whimsy and the Bee Announce New Album ‘HISTORY’
LISTEN HERE | History
Whimsy and the Bee’s History feels less like a collection of songs than a record that has been waiting years to reveal what it was actually about. Released on October 2nd, the full length album brings together material written by frontman Chris Connors across a 14 year period, including expanded versions of songs first heard on the band’s live EP The Rest.
There is a lot happening musically. Indie folk sits at the centre, but the record regularly wanders into alternative and art pop territory, with acoustic guitar and bass joined by piano and violin. The arrangements are given plenty of room to move, sometimes settling into a groove before gradually opening into something much larger and more atmospheric. Connors also avoids obvious harmonic choices, which gives even the quieter sections a slightly unpredictable quality.
What makes History work as an album, though, is the connection Connors eventually found between songs that were originally written independently of one another. The record opens with “Back to the Start” and closes with “Alive or Dead (I Don’t Give a Snip),” and those two tracks effectively provide the boundaries for everything that happens between them.
“Back to the Start” begins from a fairly uncomfortable place. There is powerlessness, frustrated hope and a desire to find some kind of peace in circumstances that cannot necessarily be changed. By the closing track, Connors has arrived somewhere different. The problems have not magically disappeared, but the need to control them has loosened. Acceptance, gratitude and contentment begin to take its place.
That movement gives the songs between them a purpose beyond simply filling out the tracklist.
One of the album’s most interesting moments comes with “Buddha in a Bonnet.” The song deals with the unsettling possibility that our understanding of reality might not be as reliable as we like to think. Connors does not turn that idea into something particularly bleak. Instead, uncertainty becomes strangely liberating. If our assumptions about the world are incomplete, there may be far more to experience than we previously allowed ourselves to see.
“Young Fish” approaches similar questions of identity from a different direction. Inspired by Connors’ time living in Nashville, the song looks back at his resistance to reshaping his music around the expectations of the commercial industry. Rather than recounting that experience literally, he turns it into an allegory about maintaining your identity when the environment around you keeps suggesting that you should become something else.
Connors’ lyrics regularly work this way. Personal experiences are present, but they are rarely handed to the listener with every detail explained. Third person stories sit alongside first person streams of consciousness, leaving enough ambiguity for somebody else to hear their own experiences in the songs.
Near the end of the record, “Beyond the Noise” provides one of its most effective changes of perspective. It is the only song on History written by Kendra Connors, Chris’ wife and collaborator. Chris connected strongly enough with the song that he encouraged her to record it for the album, and its placement immediately before the finale feels deliberate. After so much questioning, it offers a moment to stop.
The story behind History makes that sense of resolution even more fitting. Connors had been releasing music independently since the mid 2000s under various names before stepping away from releasing music for seven years. When he eventually returned to these older songs, he began noticing that material written years apart seemed to be having the same conversation.
Kendra encouraged him to bring the songs back to life. That process initially produced The Rest and eventually developed into History. The album also completes a seven album conceptual series, the first six records of which were released through Connors’ solo project Spirit of the Void.
For History, the songs previously heard on The Rest were rebuilt with a full band. Violinist Lexi Nakahakala Bergen and bassist Tim Krohn spent several months rehearsing with Chris and Kendra, with the group collectively developing the arrangements over a three month period. The instrumental performances were recorded in December 2025 before the material was sent to Nashville drummer and percussionist Joe Morin.
After delays during mixing, the band returned to Jay Condiotti, who had previously recorded The Rest, for the final mix. The album was self recorded at The Spofford and Oak Recording Room, mixed by Condiotti at Jay Bones Musicland and mastered by Stephen PettyJohn at Ethereal Mastering.
There is something appropriate about an album concerned with relinquishing control having such a long and complicated route to completion. These songs spent years apart before Connors recognised the larger story connecting them.
History ultimately begins with somebody wanting the world to be different and ends with somebody becoming more comfortable with the possibility that it may not change. It is that progression, rather than any single track, that gives the album its weight.
Whimsy and the Bee members:
Christopher Connors: Acoustic guitar, vocals
Kendra Connors: Piano, vocals
Lexi Nakahakala Bergen: Violin
Tim Krohn: Bass
Joe Morin: Drums, percussion
History Tracklist
Back to the Start
Keep Your Head
Young Fish
Buddha in a Bonnet
Let the Sun Set
Beyond the Noise
Alive or Dead (I Don’t Give a Snip)
Release Information
Artist: Whimsy and the Bee
Album: History
Release Date: October 2
Genres: Indie-folk, alternative/art pop, acoustic singer-songwriter
Similar Artists: The Dodos, Miniature Tigers, Fleet Foxes, The Avett Brothers
Artwork and Press Photos:
History LP cover photo by Bo Jo Connors
Additional photos by Joey Wheeler
PR: Leopold Oakes , [email protected]
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