Specs Sunday; What Is Whale Machine?
A whale...and a machine?!
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Who killed Kennedy? What is Whale Machine? These are the three burning questions that not just every American has, but every human alive has, and today I’m going to try and answer one of these enthralling inquiries.
So personally, I think that it was the Cubans who killed Kennedy, but I won’t rule out the theory that it was maybe the CIA or even Lyndon B. Johnson.
Just kidding. The real question I’ll be answering for you is what is Whale Machine?
The internet describes a whale as a “very large marine mammal with a streamlined hairless body, a horizontal tail fin, and a blowhole on top of the head for breathing.”
A machine is defined as an “apparatus using or applying mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function and together performing a particular task.”
When is comes to JR Specs and his cousin Jimmy, Whale Machine is a music making duo that has worked on their album Whale Machine: Emissary to Atlantis Arc for over three years.
I reached out to JR about Whale Machine recently and he went in depth about what, how, and who Whale Machine is. He stated that the other half of Whale Machine, Jimmy, is about five years older than him and when Jimmy was in high school and college, he was a rapper.
This was one of JR’s first real music inspirations.
JR said “That def inspired me to rap on one level.” I and many JR fans do want to thank Jimmy for lighting a fuse in JR Specs and creating an artist that we love to listen to.
The family affair really began in 2015 when JR said that Jimmy let him produce one of his tapes. Specs was able to goto a real studio, which JR recalls as his “first legit music experience”.
Once this happened, Whale Machine became more of a thought in the brains of JR Specs and Jimmy. JR said that he and Jimmy started to gradually make more and more music when JR was back on break from UConn.
That then festered into the two getting more serious about making music together. “Eventually we just fucked around and made an album over the course of about three years.”
This album helped JR come out of his shell a bit as an artist as he said in a tweet about Whale Machine.
The Maine native began to transition from just being a rapper to getting into singing and I think that this comes out best on my favorite song from the album, LARPing!.
LARPing! is the fourth track on Whale Machine: Emissary to Atlantis Arc and absolutely slaps, bangs, hits, whatever you want to call it. The song is great. The funky beat with JR’s voice makes a beautiful sound that makes you want to both groove and relax at the same time.
This project from Whale Machine is so different from anything JR has ever made and it just works.
“We can blast off like Apollo, I’m tryna follow.”
Now, the Whale Machine aspect of the duo is explained a bit more through the groups cover art.
It appears that the duo crafted a submarine/aquatic attack vehicle that fully resembles a whale. Maybe a sperm or beluga, no too sure.
The whale machine has a turret looking weapon on the port side of the vessel to ward off Megalodons or other sea monsters.
Well, I hope that answered your question and you can live the rest of your life knowing what a whale machine is.