“I went down to Guatemala pretty broken and fairly convinced my career was done”: Thunderpussy’s Whitney Petty on how the Mike McCready-approved rockers were restored by fire to reemerge triumphant with an album of Led Zeppelin-sized riffs

Thunderpussy lead guitarist Whitney Petty prayed for this. A handful of years ago she was at rock bottom, depressed and creatively lost. 

Her Seattle-born all-woman classic rock-inspired band left the major label it had signed to and her relationship with Molly Sides, the group’s Grace Slick-like lead singer, had frayed. 

But Petty found solace in new surroundings. She moved to Guatemala, met local musicians and indulged in a new spiritual side. The result is the band’s exultant new sophomore album, West.

“I went down to Guatemala pretty broken and fairly convinced my career was done and there would be no more Thunderpussy,” Petty says. “But when I went down there, the whole script flipped.”

It began with internal investigation, bolstered by traditional Mayan fire ceremonies. She asked questions of the flames: “What’s next for me? What’s the new chapter?” When the answer came, Petty knew she had a path forward.

“A voice came to me,” she says. “It said, ‘You’re an entertainer. Stop crying and bitching. Pull yourself up.’ I thought, ‘Okay, that’s true! Maybe I can do it.’”

The dynamic musician first found the guitar when she was 12, stunned by the spectacle of the bright orange instrument her father had bought her. She spent as much time perfecting her windmills and glam rock facial expressions jumping on a bed in front of a mirror as she did working on scales.

Now she’s part of a loud, lithe and empowering group that’s co-signed by Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, who gifted Petty one of his signature Gibson Les Pauls.

In Guatemala, she honed her drumming and record producing chops as much as her sense of the world. She’s at peace now, welcoming the sonic future. Her depression lifted. 

“Next thing you know,” she says, “I’m playing music again.” The nine-track West, which is the result of more than five years of honing the guttural songs on the LP, rises molten from Thunderpussy’s rock volcano. The band will debut it live at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, backed by the hometown symphony.

On the album, Petty bows her electric guitar (like hero Jimmy Page) on the nine-minute epic, Misty Morning, and ravaging opener, I Can Do Better. She takes advantage of her organ-like POG and Cry Baby Wah, too.

But more than any piece of gear, the new record was about powering through – songs, takes, the pain of the past. “Goddamn,” Petty says, with a deep breath, “it turned out good.”

• West is out now via Trash Casual.