NATURE'S PILL | VINYL RECORD (LP)

Wishy, "You can do what you want to do (every day is yours)/ Baby, it's your life/ (That's right) It's such a sick ride." That's Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites, Wishy's dual vocalists and songwriters, wrapping their voices around each other, symbiotic, coming to terms to with a conclusion: Life is, simply put, f***ing crazy. In the whirlwind first few years of the band, there had been breakups, new love affairs, and yearning all while Wishy stormed the indie scene as an instantly beloved new act. That revelation by way of pep-talk arrives in the chorus of "Sensational." Originating through Krauter's experimentation with drum loops, the song is what should be an unholy fusion of sugary grunge and dream-pop. Yet Wishy's latest jubilant remix of the past bears all their trademarks: zany lyrics transfiguring melancholia into freedom, an instant classic chorus that already feels like an old friend. It's all quintessentially Wishy, and yet unlike any Wishy song you've yet heard-which made it the perfect song to give their vibrant sophomore album 'Nature's Pill' it's name. Wishy's origins go way back, to when Krauter and Pitchkites met in high school in Indianapolis. Some years and a few projects later, they joined forces to form Wishy, rounding out the lineup with guitarist Dimitri Morris, bassist Mitch Collins, and drummer Conner Host. The group's musical synergy was intense from the jump and the beginning of their career has been a prolific burst: the 'Mana' and 'Paradise' EPs in 2023, debut LP 'Triple Seven' in 2024, and a follow-up EP 'Planet Popstar' in 2025. After those releases met acclaim and the band's stature rose, the conception of 'Nature's Pill' was fundamentally different. The entire project was a more collaborative effort. After writing separately for all of their debut, Krauter and Pitchkites sat down to write together as much as solo; Morris and Collins contributed to the writing process. The group reconvened with 'Triple Seven' co-producer Ben Lumsdaine in Los Angeles, where the quintet packed into a tiny studio and tracked half the songs live in the room, imbuing the album with the immediate energy of a band in sync after heavy touring. It gave them the ability to synthesize an even greater array of touchstones this time around, with the '90s dream-pop and alt-rock of 'Triple Seven' fusing with '80s college rock and '00s indie. "We were getting a bit more twee with it, embracing the young hipster headspace we had in high school," Krauter says. Just as their sound is often a swirl of various alternative and indie traditions, Wishy's new songs collide the highs, pitfalls, and banal detritus of human experience alike. 'Nature's Pill' re-examines some of Wishy's favored themes under new lights, jumping off from breakup songs to more abstract meditations on forlornness, romantic intention, lust. "We take that stuff and almost write in a fictional, hypothetical frame of mind," Krauter explains. "The songs capture romantic frustration and neurotic desire and the melodrama that ensues from simply being a person with emotions experiencing relationships and inner turmoil. But it's embellished-nothing we do is overly confessional." "It's historical fiction," Pitchkites quips.