2006-James PetralliVocals, guitar2006-
Steve TerebeckiBass2006-
Joshua BlockDrums2006-2015
Austin JenkinsGuitar2010-2015
Jonathan HorneGuitar2015-2018
Jeff OlsonDrums2015-2018
Michael HunterKeyboards, synthesizer2018-
Matt YoungDrums2022-
Gregory CliffordDrums2018-2022
Cat ClemonsGuitar2022-
White Denim did not start with a name or even a clear intention. In March 2005, two Austin, Texas bands - Parque Touch (James Petralli, Josh Block, and Lucas Anderson) and Peach Train (Steve Terebecki) - played a show together at Beerland in Austin, Texas, after which Terebecki was invited to join Parque Touch on bass. The four members performed under absurdist pseudonyms: Bop English (Petralli), Nicholas Mallard (Block), Byshop Massive (Anderson), and Terry Beckins (Terebecki). When guitarist Lucas Anderson moved to Russia in February 2006, the resulting trio quietly renamed themselves White Denim and began building one of Austin's most respected live reputations.
The band's earliest recordings were made in a decades-old Silver Bullet trailer parked on the outskirts of Austin, owned by drummer Josh Block. The lo-fi, high-energy results - stripped back by practical necessity - became the bedrock of their 2007 self-released EP Let's Talk About It and the touring-only album Workout Holiday, which was sold exclusively at shows. Workout Holiday caught the ear of new online label RCRD LBL, which signed the band to re-record three of its tracks and release them as free MP3s - one at a time - over the first months of 2008. The band won "Best New Band" at the 2008 Austin Music Awards the same year.
James Petralli's approach to songwriting is rooted in visual art and language as much as music. He has cited Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel, Alfred Hitchcock, and Gertrude Stein among his creative touchstones, and
he told Relix he is always searching for "melodies and chords that don't always perfectly line up and resolve." Petralli also admitted that the band doesn't always know what his lyrics mean.
White Denim's fifth album, Corsicana Lemonade (2013), marked a significant commercial step forward - their debut on both the US and UK albums charts - and was partly produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who had taken White Denim out on a joint US and Canada tour the previous year.
In the spring of 2015, White Denim lost two members at once - drummer Josh Block and guitarist Austin Jenkins both left the band to work with a then-unknown soul singer named Leon Bridges. Jenkins played a key role in discovering Bridges, and together with Block, the pair co-produced Bridges' debut album, Coming Home, one of the most acclaimed soul records of the decade.
Rather than folding after losing his rhythm section, Petralli reacted by releasing a solo album under his old pseudonym Bop English, partly as a way of working through songs White Denim didn't have time to address. He then recruited guitarist Jonathan Horne and drummer Jeffrey Olson - both of whom had been touring with him on the Bop English shows - to form a new version of White Denim. The rebuilt band's debut album Stiff (2016), produced by Ethan Johns - son of legendary engineer Glyn Johns - became White Denim's biggest UK chart success, reaching the Top 20.
After
Stiff, Petralli and Terebecki left Downtown Records and built their own recording facility, Radio Milk, in Austin. The move gave them total creative and financial control - and a place to experiment without label pressure. Their 2018 album,
Performance, the first record made at Radio Milk, was also their first for the City Slang label.
The band's ever-shifting lineup changed how they create their material. "We sort of write to different musicians' strengths, for sure,"
Terebecki told Pop Break. "Different people bring different things to the table, different approaches, but we are always trying to keep it fresh."
In 2023, Petralli - by then relocated from Austin to Los Angeles - took a creative detour, collaborating with Oakland-based guitarist Raze Regal under the joint billing Raze Regal & White Denim Inc., releasing a full album via Bella Union in November 2023.
James Petralli comes from three generations of professional baseball. His grandfather, Gene Petralli, played as a first baseman in the minor leagues from 1948 to 1953 in the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees organizations.
His father, Geno Petralli, went considerably further, playing 12 seasons in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers from 1982 to 1993. He's best known for catching knuckleball pitchers and for being behind the plate when Nolan Ryan recorded his 300th career win in 1990.
His brother Ben also followed their father into professional baseball, playing as a switch-hitting catcher in the minor leagues in the Detroit Tigers organization after being drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2007.
James played baseball until he was 16, at which point music won out.
