why make clocks

WHY MAKE CLOCKS was formed in 1998 by songwriter Dan Hutchison and multi-instrumentalist Brian Wiksell as a duo. After building a vast catalog of over 70 demos, Why Make Clocks self-released a 4-song 7" vinyl EP called The Transient Swivel. After expanding to a full band Why Make Clocks self-released a self-titled CD-R EP. The first Why Make Clocks LP, Fifteen Feet And Twenty Degrees, was released on Rubric Records in 2002, and set a tone of downbeat americana-tinged music with lush instrumentation.

After expanding to a full band Why Make Clocks self-released a self-titled CD-R EP. The first Why Make Clocks LP, Fifteen Feet And Twenty Degrees, was released on Rubric Records in 2002, and set a tone of downbeat americana-tinged music with lush instrumentation.

Over the next few years, Hutchison led the band through several changes in its lineup, ranging from a seven-piece band including a string section, to Hutchison touring the US all alone in the dead of winter. A lineup that included Squidboy singer/guitarist Eric Kennedy and A Is Jump drummer/pedal steel guitarist Phil Sterk also toured as backing band for singer-songwriter C. Gibbs, who was one of several additional musicians featured on the second Why Make Clocks LP Midwestern Film, released in 2006 on the Des Moines-based Barely Bias Records. (drummer Pat Curtis, also of North of Grand, was another)

After self-releasing a CD-R EP in 2007, Ego Reflector, Why Make Clocks found itself pared down to a duo of Hutchison and drummer Will Tarbox, who together decided to move the band away from alt-country in more of a guitar-driven rock sound. Hutchison and Tarbox recorded the third Why Make Clocks album, These Things Are Ours, and it was released on Sleep On The Floor Records in August 2009 after Chuck Hoffman, long acquainted with the band through mutual friends and collaborators, joined on bass.