Leland Whitty

Leland Whitty is a multi instrumentalist, most known primarily for being the saxophonist in the Canadian band BadBadNotGood. Like his bandmates, he has been credited with writing with several artists like Kali Uchis, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Daniel Caesar.^[1]

Leland Whitty
Whitty at Haldern Pop Festival in 2017
Background information
Born	(1993-05-20) May 20, 1993 (age 32) Toronto, Ontario
Occupations	Musician songwriter producer
Instruments	bass guitar saxophone synthesizer woodwind
Years active	2010-present
Member of	Badbadnotgood

Life and Career

Leland Whitty and Chester Hansen at the Come Up Show in 2017

Leland was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.^[2][3] He comes from a family of musicians. His father Brian Whitty, was a bassist, singer and songwriter, Leland's mother is a pianist and his brother is a drummer, who performs in his solo album Anyhow (2022). Leland started playing the violin at 6 years old, around 13 he started playing guitar. He attended Rosedale Heights School of the Arts hoping to be a better guitarist but his teacher suggested playing the saxophone.^[3] When Leland was in High School he used to be a rapper by the name of "Chompy Lee" which influenced the naming of the band's album "Chompy's Paradise".^[4][5]

Leland attended Humber College where he met his future bandmates Alexander Sowinski, Chester Hansen, and Matthew Tavares.^[5][6] Prior to joining BadBadNotGood, Whitty played with bands like the Tesseract^[7][8][9]

He would go on to play in their 2nd album BBNG2 on two tracks. Whitty joined in several of their live shows but would officially join the band in 2016.^[10] His first album within the band was IV.

In 2019, he collaborated with band member Alexander Sowinski in composing the soundtrack of the Canadian Thriller movie Disappearance at Clifton Hill, marking his first ever score. He composed a soundtrack for the short film Lost Keys in 2021.^[11]

He has collaborated with former member Matthew Tavares, on a live and studio, January 12th and Visions.^[12][13][14] January 12th was a fully improvised live album filmed at the Burdock Brewery alongside Matthew Tavares,^[15] the album was supposed to be released right before their tour of their upcoming studio album Visions but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[16]

Following that he released his debut album Anyhow in 2022 featuring his older brother Lowell alongside guest appearances by his bandmates Chester Hansen and Alexander Sowinski.^[1][17]

Artistry

Whitty has been musically inspired by several jazz and hip hop musicians such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, J Dilla, and Wu-Tang Clan in his composition.^[1][2] In his solo work he is described to be influenced by his collaborator Arthur Verocai, David Axelrod, and Wayne Shorter.^[18] His string arrangements are described to be reminiscent of John Luther Adams and Jonny Greenwood.^[1]

Discography

With BADBADNOTGOOD

Main article: BadBadNotGood discography

• BBNG2 (2012)
• III (2014)
• Sour Soul (2015) (with Ghostface Killah)
• IV (2016)
• Talk Memory (2021)

• January 12th (2020) (with Matthew Tavares)^[19]
• Visions (2020) (with Matthew Tavares)^[20]

Other albums

• Disappearance at Clifton Hill soundtrack (2019) (with Alexander Sowinski)^[21]
• Lost Keys (short film; dir. Amandla Baraka) (2021) (with Alexander Sowinski )
• Anyhow (2022) (guest appearances of Alexander Sowinski and Chester Hansen)