iDKHOW & Joywave

I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME, or iDKHOW is the new project led by frontman, multi-instrumentalist, and mastermind Dallon Weekes. The group has yet to release their debut album but already have a string of hit singles under their belt including “Choke”, which clocked over 42 million Spotify streams and “Do It All The Time”, which posted up 22 million Spotify streams as well as a debut EP, 1981 Extended Play that impressively bowed at #1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers Albums Chart. They have earned acclaim from Ones To Watch, DIY Magazine, Alternative Press, and graced the cover of Rock Sound, the magazine proclaimed iDKHOW, “the hottest unsigned band in the world.”  

 

Dallon Weekes made waves in Panic! At The Disco from 2009-2018, touring around the world and picking up Gold and Platinum plaques as a key songwriter on the chart-topping Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! and more. In 2016, he introduced iDKHOW at a small show in Los Angeles before denying its existence for months to follow. The project formally revealed itself prior to hitting the road and performing on the mainstage at UK’s Reading and Leeds Festivals as well as sharing stages with the likes of Twenty One Pilots, The 1975, Billie Eilish, The Killers, The National and Blink 182, just to name a few. 

 

With a curated storyline - iDKHOW was initially believed to have been a band from 30 plus years ago that never got their big break. A band that time forgot. But in 2017, an anonymous donor began to release recovered video footage of iDKHOW. The videos, released out of chronological order, span the years 1964 to 1983 and hint to a different story than that of a band lost to obscurity. As this footage of iDKHOW has surfaced in the past three years, fans, music historians and conspiracy theorists have converged on internet platforms to debate the story of iDKHOW.  

Cleanse is Joywave’s fourth studio album and is the follow-up to 2020’s Possession which  released on March 13th 2020 as the world shut down. With a virus ravaging the world and no  possibility of touring for the foreseeable future, Joywave frontman Daniel Armbruster was once  again able to dig into his own psyche and see what surfaced. The 10 tracks that make up Cleanse were conceived, written and recorded in Armbruster’s home studio when  “reminders of our fragile mortality were everywhere, punctuated by the ongoing pandemic and  civil unrest,” he notes.

“Cleanse became the words, encouragement, and occasional cautions  that I would want to share with you if this was the last time we spoke,” Armbruster reflects. Highlights on the album include the catchy and clever “Buy American, “ the introspective “After  Coffee” which celebrates the pleasures of the mundane, the ambient groove of “Pray For The  Reboot,” the brooding and expansive “The Inversion” and “Every Window Is A Mirror” which  according to Armbruster recalls “our inability to understand the experiences of others.”

“This is the first time since Joywave has been a known entity that I can remember no one  explicitly asking me to make a record. Our third LP, “Possession”, came out March 13th 2020,  and the world stopped just a few days later. Our whole album cycle was dead on arrival. We had  spent close to 18 months making and setting up that record. It was crushing to watch everything  we had worked so hard to roll out in just the right way obliterated in an instant. 

But creatively, the timing couldn’t have been better. Something more positive began to emerge.  With our dense touring schedule shelved, I was able to reflect on past travels and appreciate  them in a new way. But reminders of our fragile mortality were everywhere, punctuated by the ongoing pandemic and civil unrest. The music began to encompass all of this. It became the  words, encouragement, and occasional cautions that I would want to share with you if this was  the last time we spoke. And with all this time spent looking inward came the realization that  there were still a few chips I was carrying on my shoulder that I needed to let go of. Maybe you  have those too. 

One of my first jobs ever was at a car wash. I thought of the band, after years spent on the road  taking a breather. Going through that wash process. Watching all the dirt and mud stripped  away. Coming out the other side refreshed and rejuvenated. Still having experienced everything  from before, but no longer wearing the scars. 

Welcome to Cleanse - Daniel Armbruster

A confessional and introspective singer-songwriter, Savannah Conley has crafted a body of work that stretches across genres. Being raised in Nashville by a background singer mother and session guitarist father culminated in an intrinsic need to tie her life experiences to songs, using music as the backdrop to put her feelings into something tangible with the hope that others might find comfort in them, too. For a songwriter that would eventually be awarded with the John Lennon Songwriting award at just nineteen years old, release her debut EP at twenty-one, and receive acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone and NPR, saying Conley's music resonates with listeners would be an understatement.

The release of her 2021 EP Surprise, Surprise marked a tonal shift in Conley's discography. Equal parts gritty and poetic, the 6-track EP demonstrates Conley's sheer desire to leave it all in her songs, singing about everything from losing sight of oneself to knowing when someone is wrong for you. The body of work was applauded by the likes of Nylon Magazine, CLASH, and Rolling Stone, solidifying what so many already knew of her: when it comes to powerful storytellers, she can easily sit with the likes of Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker.

If Surprise, Surprise was Conley's coming-of-age story, her upcoming music is the sonic embodiment of coming to terms with how tumultuous life is. Her first single of 2022 is "Always Gonna Happen," an ode inspired by the cheeky moments one predicts the outcome of a situation and further solidifies Conley as a whip-smart, powerful songwriter. "Always Gonna Happen" is the musical embodiment of everything Conley has experienced -- and lived through -- throughout the most formative years of her life, from the complete abandonment of religion to experiencing the overwhelming, snarky feeling of knowing her foresight and judgment was correct.

"There was a moment when I realized that this is the first time in my life where things have actually happened to me," Conley describes. "My co-writer Marshall and I looked at each other and talked about the shit that has happened that we haven't even talked about before." After spending years believing the world was one way, the rug was pulled out from underneath Conley, forcing her to navigate life with new eyes. "When you figure out the world isn't what you thought it was, it makes you question a lot. "Always Gonna Happen" plays into that; it's about trusting my instincts to get away from situations and people to move forward in life."

Since the release of Surprise, Surprise, Conley has shifted perspectives in regards to making music. To put it in Conley's own words: there are no more kid gloves. "As a woman in the music industry, you're scared to be deemed hard to work with if you're too vocal about direction and decisions," Conley states. "There was a point where I just made the decision to be more involved by trusting my decisions and advocating for myself. This is the most involved I've ever been, it has my stamp all over it."

At its core, what ties all of Conley's music together isn't the heartache or confusion but the community Conley has created through music, something she experienced last year while on tour with fellow songwriters Samia, Jade Bird, and Briston Maroney. "When I'm writing, it's a purely selfish experience of needing to get whatever I'm experiencing out of my head," she explains. "It isn't gone until after it's done. I hope it can help people that have felt similar and let them know they're not crazy. At the end of the day, everything we make is about unity. You might not know each other, but there's a bonding experience because you've gone through the same things."

With her upcoming music, Conley hopes to give some peace to her fellow 20-somethings that, like her, feel everything so deeply it sometimes feels all-consuming. "There are things in your 20s that are never going to happen again," Conley explains. "There are situations you experience that make you feel like your world is falling apart, but you learn to get back up. These new songs are all about experiences that I thought were going to wreck my life forever... and then they don't. We're all still standing."