Nick Whetro is Icarus Himself. And after leaving Northern Indiana in ‘04, to relocate to Madison, Wisconsin, he started writing songs and ended up forming the group National Beekeepers Society (a sort of a slacker rock/garage pop group), which has released two albums; self-titled debut in ‘07, and “Pawn Shop Etiquette” in ‘08.
Whetro has now taken the refined distortion of National Beekeepers Society and combined it with his minimalist songwriting style and wry/quirky vocals to make a basement-tape-beauty of an album entitled "Coffins," under the moniker Icarus Himself. This release follows Icarus Himself's self-titled debut EP which surfaced in February, 2008. "Coffins" was created with the help of fellow NBS member Karl Christenson on baritone guitar through an assembly of effects pedals, as well as added input from the other half of NBS and members of garage/folk/punk band Sleeping in the Aviary. The majority of the album was recorded by Ricky Riemer at Science of Sound in Madison, then additional tracking and mixing was engineered by Kris Hansen (NBS) at Leyden Jar Studio.
Indie record label Science of Sound, also based in Madison, WI, picked up "Coffins" a couple of weeks after Icarus Himself self-released the album and re-released it on May 2, 2009.
"Where many have compared the guy to Beirut and Neutral Milk Hotel (I’ll give you the lite-psych of “This Means Nothing”), to these ears it’s more Spoon-noir shuffling." -World of Wumme
"The solo outlet of National Beekeepers Society's Nick Whetro. Icarus Himself emphasizes what lurks under NBS's reassuring guitar fuzz...he accompanies his death 'n' degradation tales with lonely echoes, double-tracked vocals, and the occasional drum machine." -The Onion, Madison A/V Club
"Confused characters traipse through a cold, ill-fated world, in which everything and everyone are imperfect and death rattles the bones of both the living and the dead." -The Isthmus
"...Whetro makes great use of macabre lyrics over music that is oftentimes soft, or at the very least unassuming." -Delusions of Adequacy
“With a few guitars, a drum machine, and a whole lot of dissonance, Whetro has masterfully done with a couple albums what many agonize to accomplish with endless releases--which is to create something uniquely his own.” -Dane101.com
Read more...