Whale Feral

For an avid music fan, picking apart a song from Gainesville’s rising southern jam band, Whale Feral, is a delightfully unique experience. Listeners can press play on a song once, twice or a dozen times and still hear things that were unnoticed the first time around.

The band, which consists of Ricky Cagno (guitar and vocals), Will Bethea (bass and vocals), David Havens (drums) and Matt Urban (lead guitar and vocals), has mastered the ability to blend a variety of genres that, when played together, create an irreplaceable, electrifying sound.

“We describe our sound as southern fusion because our sound is influenced by multiple genres,” Urban said. “A big part of our sound is the responsive stream of consciousness that we have while playing; it allows us to have complete musical freedom and gives us the ability to improvise while maintaining the collective groove.”
Playing music is a collaborative experience, and for all members to orchestrate this fusion of rock, the relationship between band members needs to reflect that same unified bond between genres in their music. Thankfully, Whale Feral goes way back.

Two of the band members, Cagno and Urban, would play music together while going to high school in Tampa. Cagno ultimately moved to Gainesville and later convinced Urban to move out with him. Bethea, who was Cagno’s roommate at the time, used to play the sax but quickly learned bass to join in on Cagno and Urban’s routine jam sessions. It wasn’t until Havens was introduced by a mutual friend that the band was finally born.

While only having officially formed in December 2016, Whale Feral has quickly developed a devoted fan base, becoming a force in Gainesville’s bustling music scene.

“Gainesville is a really cool town because of how much it celebrates creativity,” Cagno said. “This place is full of artists of all kinds. Videographers, photographers, audio engineers, writers, musicians and concertgoers have, together, created this community that is bound to keep churning out great stuff.”

On the band’s Bandcamp, listeners can enjoy a live recording from the High Dive of some of Whale Feral’s most popular songs, like “Alligator” and “Tommy’s Song,” from the comfort of their homes. It’s here that fans can get a taste of their indistinguishable blend of rock, jazz and reggae.

Relix Magazine, the second longest running music magazine in the United States after Rolling Stone, was attracted to Whale Feral after discovering their 5-track live album on the band’s Bandcamp site.

The publication then invited the band to perform at their studio in New York City on March 6 after selecting them as of one of their up-and-coming artists.

“Relix is the magazine for the jam band community, and just the fact that they noticed our music on bandcamp was huge. Add in that they offered to let us come play for them in New York as well as be in the magazine; it’s almost too much,” Urban said.

The band said they have a couple songs in mind of what they want to play at Relix, but they won’t be entirely sure until they’re in the room.
Whale Feral also announced that they’ll be starting a tour March 2 while they travel up to New York for the performance. In addition to their Relix Magazine show, they’ll hit Washington, D.C. on March 4.

It’s hard enough for a musician to battle the stress of a life-changing show, but members Bethea and Havens, who are currently UF students, have to put just as much time with the books as with the instruments.

“Organizing our school load prior to the road and the use of downtime allow us to keep our head above water with our workload overall,” said Bethea.

The band strategically plans shows so they don’t conflict with exam schedules. With a concert like the Relix show, it was important to take advantage of the upcoming Spring Break. This is a perfect example of how when band members respect and look after one another, the music reflects that same intimacy.

As for now, the future of Whale Feral is limitless. After the Relix concert, the band said they hope to grow as people, expand their horizons and start taking their music across the country, hopefully going to Europe as part of their dream tour.

While no one knows for sure what the future holds, there is one thing for certain: We’re going to be hearing a lot more from Whale Feral. - The Alligator

Maybe one of the biggest mistakes a band can make is staying in a place where they are too comfortable. It becomes so easy to rely on your devoted fans that unfailingly make it out to every gig at your regular venue. Combating the curse of contentment and diving headfirst in to something new is exactly what Whale Feral, Gainesville’s beloved jam band, has on tap over the next few months.

Composed of Matt Urban, Will Bethea, Ricky Cagno and David Havens, Whale Feral is an intriguing anomaly of the Gainesville music scene. The hallmark of their style is that you never really know what’s in store during a live performance. They keep their crowd coming back by constantly switching up the songs they play and the ways they play them. In the style of their influencers, the Grateful Dead, Whale Feral targets the excitement of putting on an untamed live show that isn’t anchored to a single genre.

Whale Feral is an intriguing anomaly of the Gainesville music scene. The hallmark of their style is that you never really know what’s in store during a live performance.

Through what the band considers to be pure luck, their latest live album made it in to the hands of the music tastemakers at Relix. Relix publishes articles and playlists of live music from all around the country. In light of their upcoming feature, Whale Feral has decided to hit the road for a mini-tour this March.
Working their way up to New York and then back down, the band is planning to stick to the true rock lifestyle of couch-surfing from city to city. It worked out perfectly that they will be simultaneously releasing their latest EP. Once they return from their travels, the band is excited to celebrate their new EP with their Gainesville fans.

The guys shared that the process of recording this EP really helped them to figure out who they are as a band. Each member comes from a different musical background with varying stylistic differences that contribute to the eclecticism of their sound.

“You can only be so prepared until you get to the studio,” said Urban about the recording process.

Cagno described Gainesville as “an incubator for a lot of good things.” It’s through the support of our artistically-inclined community that the band is able to branch out and travel.

Some of the band members are still students, which makes it harder for Whale Feral to do the amount of traveling that they’d ideally like to do. They have a giant calendar that has taken over the majority of the wall, so they can keep everyone’s busy schedules straight. It’s all about maximizing the influence they can have with their music.

Maybe one of the biggest mistakes a band can make is staying in a place where they are too comfortable. It becomes so easy to rely on your devoted fans that unfailingly make it out to every gig at your regular venue. Combating the curse of contentment and diving headfirst in to something new is exactly what Whale Feral, Gainesville’s beloved jam band, has on tap over the next few months.

Composed of Matt Urban, Will Bethea, Ricky Cagno and David Havens, Whale Feral is an intriguing anomaly of the Gainesville music scene. The hallmark of their style is that you never really know what’s in store during a live performance. They keep their crowd coming back by constantly switching up the songs they play and the ways they play them. In the style of their influencers, the Grateful Dead, Whale Feral targets the excitement of putting on an untamed live show that isn’t anchored to a single genre.

Whale Feral is an intriguing anomaly of the Gainesville music scene. The hallmark of their style is that you never really know what’s in store during a live performance.

Through what the band considers to be pure luck, their latest live album made it in to the hands of the music tastemakers at Relix. Relix publishes articles and playlists of live music from all around the country. In light of their upcoming feature, Whale Feral has decided to hit the road for a mini-tour this March.


Working their way up to New York and then back down, the band is planning to stick to the true rock lifestyle of couch-surfing from city to city. It worked out perfectly that they will be simultaneously releasing their latest EP. Once they return from their travels, the band is excited to celebrate their new EP with their Gainesville fans.

The guys shared that the process of recording this EP really helped them to figure out who they are as a band. Each member comes from a different musical background with varying stylistic differences that contribute to the eclecticism of their sound.

“You can only be so prepared until you get to the studio,” said Urban about the recording process.

Cagno described Gainesville as “an incubator for a lot of good things.” It’s through the support of our artistically-inclined community that the band is able to branch out and travel.

Some of the band members are still students, which makes it harder for Whale Feral to do the amount of traveling that they’d ideally like to do. They have a giant calendar that has taken over the majority of the wall, so they can keep everyone’s busy schedules straight. It’s all about maximizing the influence they can have with their music.


So, what is the vibe of a Whale Feral show like? The word that kept coming to mind while I was jotting down notes at their last show at High Dive was “community.”

You couldn’t tell the difference between friends and total strangers because everyone was there to have a good time. Everybody was singing along to classics and dancing into the late hours of the night. Time seemed to flow at a different speed within the environment that their music created.

Urban put it perfectly when he said, “You’ve got to be able to handle the jams.”

The laid-back personalities of the band members are clearly mirrored in their performance style, and it really draws the audience into the experience of live music. Although Whale Feral will be spending a little time gigging outside of Gainesville, they will be back with new shows for our city in March. - Gainesville Scene

"It’s hard to capture the essence of the group’s sound in just one sentence...In a single song, you can hear undertones of hip-hop, funk, bluegrass, reggae, and jazz all blended seamlessly for a powerful delivery." - The Florida Basement

"After the majority of the crowd arrived on the green, the local band Whale Feral opened for a star-studded speaking lineup..." - The Gainesville Sun