Band History, New EP, and NBA Championship Predictions: In the Green Room with The Whips
The Whips have hit the ground running in 2026, with no plans to stop anytime soon. Following the release of their record From Kansas, With Love in early March, these Kansas boys kicked off their tour by the same name at Treefort Music Festival in Boise, Idaho. They have since crossed through multiple states in the Midwest, and will be wrapping up their tour in Brooklyn, New York this summer.
I first encountered The Whips when they posted about needing a photographer for their Chicago show last month. From the moment I met the band, I could tell there was something special about this group of guys playing music together. Easily the most fun I’ve ever had at a show, so I followed up and asked if they’d be willing to sit for an interview before their Minneapolis show, to which they agreed.
Learn where the band started, the experiences behind their songs, and their (passionate) predictions for the NBA championship all intermixed with laughter, sarcasm, jokes and fun; The Whips are more than just a band, but a small family of incredibly talented musicians.
The Whips in Chicago, IL | (from right to left: Max Cooper, Max Indiveri, Quinn Cosgrove & Miles Patterson)
Max Cooper: Do you need us to spell our names?
Mari Silveyra Garcia: For what, the record? I think I do know how to spell all your names. Don’t test me on it though. Okay so how about you all introduce yourselves? Tell me your name and your role in the band.
Max Indiveri: Hey, my name is Max Indiveri. Uh, you can spell it. M A X I N D I V E R I. I play guitar and I sing in the band. And I make sure that these guys get home safe, too.
Max Cooper: My name is Max Cooper, spelled M A X C O O P E R. And my favorite food is pizza.
Quinn Cosgrove: My name is Quinn Cosgrove. I play bass, and Mari, please don't ask me to spell your last name. I won't be able to do it.
Mari: It’s okay, you don't need to know.
Miles: My name is Miles. I play drums and I also-
Max Cooper: Miles what?
Miles: Miles Patterson.
Quinn: Jesus.
Miles: And I also record and produce our new stuff.
Mari: Do you want to do, like, a little, like “and we are The Whips”?
Miles: Oh, yeah. One, two, three:
Together: And we are The Whips!
Mari: Okay, cute. So, tell me about where y'all are from, how you met and a little bit of the backstory here.
Miles: We are from Kansas City. Yeah, we all went to KU at one point.
Quinn: That's true.
Miles: But [Quinn] and I-
Quinn: Yes
Miles: Have known each other since kindergarten.
Mari: Who was your kindergarten teacher?
Quinn: Oh, no. Who was our kindergarten teacher? Was it Ms. Novelano?
Miles: No…
Quinn: Our kindergarten teacher was Ms. Novelano, that’s what I think it was. And we've known each other since then. We've known each other since kindergarten.
The Whips in Minneapolis, MN | (Miles Patterson (drums) & Quinn Cosgrove (bass))
Miles: He was the kind of kid that would bring his acoustic guitar to recess and play for all the girls. He was a ladies’ man.
Quinn: That's true. It's true.
Max Indiveri: Nothing's changed.
Quinn: And then we formed a band on the bus in, uh, seventh grade. Yeah. And I’ve told this story so many times, I’m trying to tell the abridged version. He came to me on the bus and said, “I learned drums. Can we start a band?” And that was when we were thirteen years old. And we're twenty four right now.
Mari: What was the OG band name?
Quinn: Whiplash is what the OG band name was, but that didn't last very long.
Max Indiveri: No, that had to be changed.
Miles: Thank you, Quinn’s mom!
Max Indiveri: Shout out Quinn’s mom.
Max Cooper: Why shout out your mom? Explain.
Max Indiveri: For many reasons, but she picked our band name
Quinn: She picked our band name. After we were Whiplash, she said The Whips would be a good name. We said thank you Mom, we will listen to you. Moms are always right!
Mari: So where do you two come in?
Quinn: I forgot about that. They're kind of important to the story.
Max Cooper: Let's start with Max.
Max Indiveri: So, in high school, I was playing with this classic rock cover band called Joyride. We did a lot of seventies covers. We were led by a keyboard player, played a lot of Billy Joel. We played this charity benefit concert called the Love Concert that was in the roof of a church, and it was ran by the Shawnee Mission East people back home in KC. And I just remember being in the crowd and playing “Africa” and I think the first time I ever saw Quinn was him just like, going crazy to “Africa”. And I was like, What's wrong with this guy? And then I slowly got to know him and love him and realized that that's just like, the joy that exudes from him all the time.
Max Indiveri: And, then they invited me to come to a rehearsal, to try out for The Whips, essentially. And, so we did this rehearsal in their high school basement. And then afterwards they took me to Johnny's Tavern-
Quinn: No! Not this part!
Max Indiveri: And they called their old guitar player, and they fired him in front of me!
Quinn: On the spot, on the spot!
Max Indiveri: And that really set the tone for the rest of it.
Quinn: I'd like to put this on the record. We fired our old guitar player on the spot for this man.
Max Indiveri: Yeah, which was a compliment, but was vaguely intimidating in a way.
Max Cooper: They were in high school. They didn't know any better. They've grown.
Max Indiveri: Yeah, we were like sixteen. And then….
Max Cooper: So, I think Quinn DM'd me on Instagram and he said, “we're going on tour and we need a keyboard player.” And I was like, okay, cool. So I said, okay, I jammed with them, and they asked me to join the band. Yeah, that was it, it was a quick story. It's not like anything crazy.
The Whips in Minneapolis, MN
Quinn: I looked up the word piano on Instagram, and he was the first thing that came up. Instagram, a beautiful thing sometimes.
Max Indiveri: We had some other folks that we were like, kind of excited about. And you were like the last audition because we had literally just looked up the word piano on Instagram
Quinn: As like a last-ditch effort.
Max Indiveri: And I remember saying like, well, unless this guy is like Billy Joel, like, we're probably gonna go with this other person. And then you came in and took one solo, and we were like, okay, so he's Billy Joel
Quinn: Blew our minds! Yeah, it was crazy.
Max Indiveri: And yeah, we've been together ever since.
Quinn: That's true.
Max Cooper: Six years.
Mari: Wow, six years!
Max Cooper: Six with the four of us, yeah.
Max Indiveri: Think about if we started a savings account back then, where we would be?
Mari: I could be getting paid to be here
Max Indiveri: Oh shit
Quinn: Just wait till we sell you on what you could invest in. You could be your own boss.
Max Indiveri: Have you ever wanted to own a piece of a nice vacation property? Two weeks a year.
Quinn: Two weeks a year. If you sell it, you could be getting paid to vacation.
Max Indiveri: Paid to vacation!
Quinn: Have you ever heard of a Timeshare?
Mari: Um....anyway, so you consider yourselves in the genre of 2000s pop. Tell me more about some of your musical inspirations, whether that's bands, songs, things in that realm.
Max Cooper: At first we were inspired by a lot of funk like Vulfpeck and-
Quinn: We love a lot of like the early 2000s pop. And I don't know, I think that not enough people are trying to bring that back. You know, I miss the days of LMFAO and the Black Eyed Peas. Oh, and I don't know. I just don't think enough people are doing like, contemporary pop rap.
Max Indiveri: …that's not what we do?
Quinn: No, I'm doing a bit. Man. I'm sorry.
Max Cooper: Give the mic to Miles
Quinn: I shouldn't have done that. Can we cut that?
Max Indiveri: Is there any way that we can just make it so we only sound cool?
Mari: Yeah. Um. I'll just send y’all my Venmo and you can-
Max Indiveri: Oh, word. It's like a sliding scale?
Quinn: I know you're gonna do us so dirty. I can see it coming.
Mari: I would never!
Max Indiveri: She's a journalist, she has an ethical code.
Max Cooper: Miles, who's our inspiration?
Max Indiveri: At first it was really just, like, pretty singularly Vulfpeck because we were all jazz school kids and the Live From Madison Square Garden video came out, and I remember practicing that every single day in jazz school and being like, we need to make music.
Miles: That’s a lie, he doesn’t practice.
Max Indiveri: I practice! Let me talk. But then, like, in a really beautiful way, we've kind of gone from that to making the pop music that kind of incorporates funk elements, but really focuses on meaning and message in a way that I think is, is exciting to me and hopefully to all of us. I think that’s a really cool spot to be, and who knows where we'll go? You know, maybe we could be the next Limp Bizkit!
Quinn: Maybe we could- give me the mic. Maybe we could be the next Eminem!
Mari: I'm also just curious, what are your personal favorite artists or songs?
Max Indiveri: I've been listening to “Boston” by Augustana so often
Max Cooper: Lately I've really, really enjoyed the Zelda soundtrack of Ocarina of Time. I love that video game. And the soundtrack is amazing. Yeah.
Quinn: Thank you for that answer, Coop
Max Cooper: You’re welcome
Quinn: I've been on a big Dijon kick.
Miles: Thanks to me
Quinn: I just figured him out like-
Miles: I introduced you to him
Quinn: You did, I'm sorry. I know you've been on him for like, a year or two, and I'm just now getting on it. I'm so late to the game, but it's been amazing.
Mari: So my college town that I said that I was visiting, that's where Bon Iver is from.
Quinn: Really? That’s awesome
Mari: And so Justin Vernon is doing his big Eaux Claires music festival for the first time since pre-Covid, this summer, and Dijon is playing the festival.
Quinn: What? Are you going?
Mari: I am not because I can’t take the time off
Miles: Where?
Mari: In Eau Claire, Wisconsin this summer. Oh, it's gonna be sick. If you guys go, I would go! Just pick me up on your way from Kansas.
Quinn: We’re gonna have to talk about this off camera, but we’re going.
Max Indiveri: Just hit up Justin and have him book us
Mari: Yeah just be like hey can we get The Whips on the lineup? Anyway-
Quinn: Miles, what’s your favorite that you've been listening to lately?
Miles: Uh, Kaiit. Miss Shiney. Yeah. This girl, she's fire, she makes R&B. Um. Malcolm Todd, he drops heat. His sister's awesome too [Audrey Hobert].
Max Indiveri: Can I add Paramore to my list
Mari: Hayley Williams or Paramore?
Max Indiveri: So old Paramore, I've been listening to Riot and also the one that “Fake Happy” is on. It's like lowkey, it's kind of funky. They’ve got that one song that's inspired by Talking Heads up on there. It’s pretty good.
Mari: I have tickets to see her this summer!
Max Indiveri: Are you going to see her and Mag Bay?
Mari: I think so
Max Indiveri: If you're seeing the Chicago show Rico Nasty and Magdalena Bay are opening. And they’re both so good
Max Cooper: For Paramore?
Mari: Yes, well Hayley Williams.
Max Indiveri: And then on the rest of the tour, Annie DiRusso is opening
Mari: I’m SO mad she’s not opening for my show
Max Cooper: We LOVE Annie DiRusso.
Max Indiveri: I wanna see Annie so bad
Max Cooper: We’ve already seen her!
Mari: Isn’t she only opening for the South American leg?
Max Indiveri: Yeah I think she’s only out of the country. But she tours all the time.
Max Cooper: Yeah we saw Annie
Miles: Yeah we saw her, and she was fucking badass
Max Indiveri: [Mari] saw Abby Holliday and Landon Conrath!
Mari: Yeah, I covered Abby and Landon for the magazine!
Quinn: Oh really? That’s sick
Mari: I love them!
Mari: Okay, next question. Let’s talk a little bit about the EP. It has been a little over two months since you released From Kansas, With Love, and this has been your first release since 2023, yes?
Max Indiveri: Yes
Quinn: Oh no, that is true
Miles: We’re slow
Max Cooper: No way
Mari: Talk to me about what that time in between looked like, writing, recording, inspiration and themes for the album?
Max Indiveri: It was honestly a time of big transition for all of us
Quinn: We were coming off the biggest tour we had ever done
From Kansas, With Love Album Cover (+ Collage Elements)
Max Indiveri: The biggest tour we had ever done. It was kind of a period of great transition for us because we were coming out of being a college band, and then all of a sudden graduating and having to deal with, like, all the normal midlife crisis things, in addition to also being an old band crisis things. And as we were all getting settled in our new life, I know a lot of us were experiencing different facets of life. You know, I went from being in a really serious long term relationship to suddenly being single and living a solo life. And I know that some of us kind of experienced that in the inverse. You know, some of us fell into cutesy wootsy love, uh, and some of us got real boy jobs and kind of that's what this record is about. It's like the experiences that you go through whenever your brain develops for the first time. It becomes meaningful
Quinn: We were like, becoming adults in real time. You know, we had just graduated and we were figuring out what we were doing with our lives and our music. And where we were going.
Miles: We were just throwing shit at the wall. Trying new stuff. We work in Logic. We record in a 10’ x 10’ bedroom and just try anything. It sucks now, but it's gonna get better.
Max Indiveri: There's no guarantee.
Mari: There’s never a guarantee, though.
Max Indiveri: Yeah. That's true. “Tomorrow is a mystery. Yesterday is history. Today is a gift. That's why they call it the present.” And I wrote that. And no one's ever said that before.
Mari: Yeah. Original quote. First time that's ever been said.
Mari: Okay, this is a personal question, as in I just need to know for myself. Who is Sadie?
Max Indiveri: Oh!!
Max Cooper: Oh, that’s a callback to a song I wrote a few years ago. There is no Sadie, Sadie is someone that friendzones you. Really quick, I have like my own solo project, and I wrote a song called “Sadie” and it’s a song about getting friendzoned. So, it’s literally a callback to that song, there’s no one named Sadie, Sadie just rhymed with crazy. And I really liked the name. So it’s just a callback to that song. What’s the line again? Now I think I’ve gone crazy, you remind me of Sadie [“Tired of Pretending” - The Whips] and the line in my song “Sadie” is Sadie you’re not some average crazy.
Quinn: May I? I like to think that like Sadie is an idea-
Mari: Sadie is just a feeling we all have
Max Indiveri: Sadie is a concept
Max Cooper: Woah, now you’re just changing the complete meaning! I guess it’s like movies, it can mean whatever you want.
Max Indiveri: Wait, is Sadie an anagram for anything?
Quinn: Yeah!
Max Cooper: No, you guys are overthinking who Sadie is, Sadie is no one.
Mari: And then, in kind of a similar vein, I noticed a little bit of a theme specifically with “I'm Beggin” and “Tired of Pretending” of like… okay the lyrics I wrote down were my own girl hates me from “[I’m] Beggin” and you said I’ll pretend to be in love with you from “Tired of Pretending”, and so it seems like there’s a bit of a relationship that’s like, not working? Or not mutual? And so, I guess I’m curious in general the inspiration behind the things y’all write, but specifically that’s an overlap I noticed.
Max Cooper: Max and I like writing sad boy songs sometimes. Back when I wrote “[I’m] Beggin”. I didn't know what else to write. It’s not like it’s about, well I guess it is about stuff. I don’t know how to explain it. But I’ve found that writing love songs is the easiest thing to do, and we’ve all been through heartbreak before and being with someone that you don’t want to leave. A lot of my songs aren’t about a general person, but they’re about experiences.
Max Indiveri: Yeah I mean both of those songs honestly Coop definitely took the lead in writing, and I don’t know he’s such a wonderful soul and he has a really sensitive heart, and I don’t know it’s a pleasure to be able to share in those emotions. Even if you’re not going through it right now you know, everyone’s been through those moments.
Max Cooper: Group hug, you guys
Mari: Awww.
Mari: Okay, this is my favorite question to ask. If the record was a drink, what kind of drink do you think it would be?
Max Indiveri: Oh shit
Quinn: Oo, if the record was a drink what would it be?
Mari: You can all have different answers too
Max Indiveri: Give me a Twisted Tea
Quinn: I was just gonna say something twisted!
Max Indiveri: It’s a Twea! Cause it’s like, reflection, late night talks, and to me that’s a Twisted Tea.
Max Cooper: As someone who only drinks water and soda, I’d say…
Quinn: What kind of soda is it?
Max Cooper: Come back to me on that
Quinn: I think we are some kind of fashionedy, bitter but maybe it’s got a little orange in it, a little sweet, maybe there’s a cherry pop in there, and you’re having it at sunset. You’re on the porch of your farmhouse, watching the sunset in your swing and you’re thinking “I’m in Kansas, and I love it”. And I’m sending Kansas, With Love! Wink!
Miles: In a similar way, I’m going with a sunrise sunset.
Max Cooper: Good question
Mari: Talking a little bit about tour, what has it been like being back on the road for the first time in a few years? Favorite cities, favorites parts of tour. I will answer, Chicago is their favorite city, Chicago is the best show they’ve ever done.
Quinn: You took the words out of my mouth!
Max Indiveri: It's been so special to be back out on the road. One of the biggest trips about being a band is when you first start out, kind of no one cares about you. And then slowly but surely, people start to care about you. And so like tonight, we had a line outside the venue to start the night and that means the entire world to us.
Quinn: Yeah having lines is new
Max Indiveri: Yeah, I mean, it never stops being crazy to me that the music we made in our basements and apartments matters to people outside of our city limits and it’s the most crazy gift I could ever ask for
Quinn: Okay you said favorite cities, I would say where we are right now, Minneapolis.
Max Indiveri: Minneapolis!!
Quinn: Minneapolis is definitely one of my favorites. I would say you nailed it, I'd say Chicago.
Max Indiveri: Chicago!
Quinn: Chicago is most certainly maybe top two or three, at least
Max Indiveri: What are your top three?
Quinn: Well, I can't reveal like-
Mari: In no particular order
Quinn: Okay in no order, Kansas City, obviously, because it's home. Chicago. Hmmm, and I don’t know. I think I leave number three ambiguous. I think it could be a lot of different-
Max Indiveri: Cop out
Max Cooper: It's like when the director is like, “it's up to the viewer's imagination.”
Quinn: I don't know, I love every city really. I love every city we’ve ever been to.
Miles: I’ve gotta say, on this tour, Brooklyn. Brooklyn, New York
Quinn: It’s going to be!
Miles: Brooklyn, New York just has a special place in my heart
Max Cooper: I would say all cities are my favorite cities. Probably my actual favorite would be home. I love playing in Lawrence, there’s something about it that just feels special, I don’t think anything could beat it. Unless we played at Madison Square Garden and I don’t even know if that would beat it. I love playing in Lawrence.
The Whips in Minneapolis, MN (Top) & Chicago, IL (Bottom)
Max Indiveri: Hey, who do you think is gonna win the NBA championship?
Miles: Oh my God
Quinn: THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS !!!! I know-
Miles: The Knicks
Quinn: Shut up.
Max Indiveri: He’s a Knicks fan
Mari: I was wondering where this was going
Quinn: Please put this in. I know that the San Antonio Spurs will win the NBA championship please and thank you.
Max Indiveri: I'd like to talk direct to camera if I could, please.
Miles: Break the fourth wall
Max Cooper: I hope the Spurs win, but if they don't, I think Thunder are gonna unfortunately win again.
Quinn: Don't say that, I don’t wanna hear that.
Max Cooper: I just said if the Spurs lose, I think Thunder. Yeah.
Mari: Okay, just to wrap it up. What's next for The Whips? Close to wrapping up the tour yeah?
Quinn: Lots of new music if we have anything to say about it
Max Cooper: Probably our last show ever
Quinn: Yeah, probably breaking up as a band
Max Cooper: That’s the goal, that was our goal.
Max Indiveri: Yeah breaking up and then getting back together and then breaking up
Quinn: For the reunion tour, and then going on a reunion tour.
Max Indiveri: No, but in a meaningful way. We’ve found such a beautiful creative flow together in Miles’ wonderful apartment. And we’ve found so much gratification out of releasing music that people care about that I really can't imagine any other way to spend our time than to create more stuff that people can care about. You know, I think that’s cool. What’s next for you?
Quinn: Yeah, what’s next for Mari? We have some questions for you.
Mari: Haha, so what’s next for Mari is currently I am a music teacher, and I do not like it.
Quinn: Yeah!
Mari: So, I am quitting at the end of the school year, and will be starting at Columbia College Chicago in the fall for my masters
Quinn: Oh yeah! Congratulations!
Max Cooper & Miles: Congratulations!
Mari: Thank you! So yeah, masters in arts & media management in hopes of doing more of this nonsense? Getting more involved in the music industry, doing pretty much doing anything but working with middle schoolers
Max Indiveri: You’d rather hang out with us?
Mari: You mean I’m not hanging out with middle schoolers right now?
Max Indiveri: We can do 6-7 if you feel out of place
Mari: Okay I think we’re good to wrap it up here…
All photos shot & edited by Mari Garcia
