Formed in the summer of 2015, DNCE, which also features guitarist JinJoo Lee, bassist/keyboardist Cole Whittle, and drummer Jack Lawless, was born from Jonas’s long-brewing plan to launch an offbeat pop project inspired by the melodic R&B of Earth, Wind & Fire and Hall & Oates. “I had this vision for about five or six years, but I took some time to hit the reset button and figure out what I wanted to do next,” says Jonas, whose former group the Jonas Brothers started in 2005, went on to sell more than 17 million albums worldwide, and parted ways in 2013. “Once we got going on making this new music,” he continues, “it all just fell together so perfectly.”

In assembling DNCE, Jonas first rounded up some old friends from the road. Born and bred in South Korea, Lee met Jonas while playing lead guitar for Jordin Sparks (the opening act for the Jonas Brothers’ 2009 world tour) and later joined him on a tour supporting his 2011 solo album Fastlife. Also a former touring guitarist for artists like Charli XCX and CeeLo Green, Lee taught herself to play at age 12 in order to join in her older siblings’ band, POS. “I was the youngest and grew up watching them make music and put out albums, which seemed so cool to me,” she says. “At one point they didn’t have a guitarist, so I learned all their songs and they let me in. That was my whole teenage life.”

Another former tourmate of Jonas, Lawless grew up in New Jersey, played in bands in the Asbury Park area throughout high school, and dropped out of college his first semester to replace the drummer who’d quit in the middle of the Jonas Brothers’ fall 2006 tour. “I’d never rehearsed or anything — I just got on the tour bus, and my first time playing with them was at sound check the next day,” he remembers. Lawless then became the band’s full-time drummer, and later toured with indie-pop acts like Night Terrors of 1927 and Soft Swells.

A founding member of Semi Precious Weapons, Whittle started playing piano at six and took up bass at 12. “As soon as I picked up the bass I was addicted,” says Whittle, who hails from Richmond, Virginia. “At school I wouldn’t eat lunch; I’d just sneak into the janitor’s closet and practice bass the whole time.” After graduating from Berklee College of Music, moving to Brooklyn, and playing in the Big Apple Circus band for several years, Whittle joined his freshman-year roommate Tranter in forming Semi Precious Weapons. Initially an underground party band known for their outrageous live show, Semi Precious Weapons had a twist of fate when their longtime fan Lady Gaga invited them out on her worldwide Monster Ball tour. Whittle and his band then spent two years straight on the road with Gaga, later toured with Ke$ha, and broke up in late 2014.

Almost as soon as they started playing together, DNCE had a palpable chemistry and easy camaraderie that they hope to carry over into their audience. “We really want this to feel like a party,” Jonas says. “We want everyone to feel like they’re in on this little world that we’ve created for ourselves.” (Asked to describe DNCE’s live show, he adds: “It’s like going to some club in Europe at 4 a.m. and everybody’s all sweaty and looks like they’re in the Village People. We’re all from different worlds, but we’re all here together.”) And though the band name has its own wacky origin — it’s the next best thing for “when you’re too drunk to spell ‘dance,’” says Jonas — there’s also a deeper meaning that’s got to do with the shedding of self-consciousness. “It’s incomplete, it’s imperfect, but it’s still all right,” says Lee of DNCE’s name and guiding philosophy. “You don’t have to be a great dancer to dance — you can dance however you want to, and still have so much fun. That’s really the beauty of this whole thing.”

Independent music label from Tokyo,Japan.

Contact:
vls.00.vls [at] gmail.com

Boys Get Hurt

Jonah Ray has some friends over to his house to drink, listen to music, and converse....with sexy results.

Let There Be Light is an alternative rock band from Buckinghamshire, UK, lead by guitarist 
and songwriter Damian Carruthers. Described by Songeist.com as an 'uplifting blend of 
traditional rock and strident acoustic song-writing', Charley Simmonds on vocals and Rik 
Cunningham on guitar complete the trio. Looking for inspiration further afield than their 
immediate musical contemporaries, LTBL are as influenced by their passion for sci-fi 
movies and culture as they are the abrasive anthems of Deaf Havana and the upbeat US 
folk-punk of Yellowcard. With their ongoing mission to combine music with art, Let There 
Be Light is a fresh ray of sunshine through the familiar window of British rock.

Let There Be Light released their latest single and video 'Heaven', featuring the vocal 
talents of David Pickup, in September 2014. Introduced by Stephen Jenner of Sky High 
Radio as 'The best song from an unsigned artist I have heard in years', the track was 
produced by James Routh (Sonic Boom Six) at Regal House Studios (Dead Havana). 

After 'Heaven' garnered nationwide radio play – and even attention as far as the US - Let 
There Be Light supported the single with a full UK tour. During the tour, besides his 
chance to bring 'Heaven' to the stages of the UK, Damian suffered the indignity of being 
bitten on a very intimate place by a false widow spider, putting an end to emergency van 
stops in front of bushes on the motorway.

Forming in late 2012, Let There Be Light spent the early days of the band writing their 
début EP, which they recorded over three days in a country farmhouse in Norfolk with 
James Routh during mid 2013. The 'In The Shadows' EP sold out instantly upon its limited 
edition release; copies snapped up by the small, but passionate, local following Let There 
Be Light had built through their rousing live shows at venues such as The Dublin Castle, 
The Crauford Arms and a sold-out hometown show at Wycombe Town Hall. The band 
promoted 'In The Shadows' on a UK Tour opening for reggae fusiliers XOVA through late 
2013.

Grab a slice of 'Heaven' on iTunes and watch the bittersweet promo video on YouTube
now, dedicated to all those whose lives have been touched by cancer. All proceeds from 
the single will be donated to the Macmillan Cancer Trust. For the rest of 2014, true to their 
ethos of combining music with art, the band will be working with cancer-survivor and 
painter Joanne Herbert to offer a musical backdrop to her short story chronicling the 
journey from her diagnosis of the earth-shattering disease to the triumphant all clear.

Cooking Vinyl is an independent record label based in London, UK. A hugely diverse roster of acts are currently signed to the label, from The Darkness to legends including The Orb, Shed Seven, to veteran protest singer Billy Bragg, rave pioneers The Prodigy, plus Elles Bailey and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Cooking Vinyl has been in existence since 1986 and has issued over 400 releases in that time.

Pre-Order The Romantic: https://brunomars.lnk.to/theromantic

AFTERS EP - OUT NOW
Contact: info@adamlambert.co

Clair Bear Hambridge is following