Fresh from releasing their debut album, DNCE are the latest cover stars of tmrw Magazine.
The casual photos by Henry Dean took place on the streets of London back in October, when the band were overseas for the Radio 1 Teen Awards and Rays of Sunshine concert. The band were also interviewed by Niall Flynn, where they spoke about their individual sound, keeping the band a secret pre-launch, creating music that makes people happy, and so much more.
DNCE officially introduced themselves to the world in 2015. Whilst lead singer Joe Jonas was already firmly in the public eye, he kept his plans on the quiet, meaning that the launch of the band came as a surprise to everyone. Bassist Cole Whittle said, “Strategically, we kept the band like a ninja secret at the beginning. Nobody said anything. Nobody said anything about anything. No one knew Joe was working on anything. No one knew anything at all.”
“It was amazing at the beginning, seeing people like ‘oh DNCE, that crazy new band with the cake song!’, and then people realising it was Joe, or me, or any of us. I think right now we’ve reached a cool medium where everyone’s at peace with who we are. DNCE’s a new thing that’s not gonna go anywhere anytime soon.”
With the launch of the band, came ‘Cake By The Ocean’, ‘Toothbrush’, and a whole host of other incredible tracks which feature on their debut album. It is widely known that DNCE’s sound is eclectic, and Cole explains how he would describe it. “I think we all have a very visual connection to music and when I close my eyes and I think about it, I see a house party. Like one of those weird mansions and there’s a different coloured light pulsing out of each room,” he said. “Some of the rooms are really sexy. Some of the rooms, the doors are locked. Some of the rooms are wild and there’s snakes and smoke and dragons. Some of the rooms are filled with cake and toothbrushes. It’s a house party. Every room is a different song, that’s how I picture it.”
Listening to their debut album will, on the most part, fill you with happiness as it is laden with catchy, uplifting and fun tracks. Joe explained why they like to create music which makes people happy. “What we try and do is create stuff that’ll put a smile on people’s face, there’s so much crazy stuff going on in the world these days – we like to be able to hopefully take you out of that and give you some happiness for the hour and half that we’re playing,” he said. “Cake was kind of like the launching pad for us, it was our introducing song to the world. It was just the wackiest idea that we could have come up with, so everything from there is kind of just easy for us. It’s more simple, and free, and wild. I think if we can do that, we can do anything else. Create what we want to create.”
Joe also spoke about being in a band a second time round, this time with friends rather than his brothers (Jonas Brothers, in case you’ve been living under a rock). He revealed that there’s less pressure and more of an opportunity to be truly honest with one another. “I think it really helps – not having to sugar-coat anything. We’ve all be in situations before where the smallest creative criticism can turn into a huge fight. We’re honest with each other and we can communicate in the right way.”
“We’re lucky to have each other and just get it. We all support it and together want to make it the best that it can be. I mean, I did it with my family – that alone is enough to make it explode. Then you add working together and performing together on top of that and it’s like even crazier. We’re honest. There’s less pressure [with friends], but where I’m at in my life helps too. I’m older, I make my own decisions. I don’t have to think ‘oh my parents are in the room, can I say the word fuck in this song?’ It feels good to do it this way.”
DNCE’s full interview is available to read in the latest edition of tmrw Magazine, which can be bought now.