Joe Jonas has packed a good deal of living into his 26 years. A show-business veteran since childhood, he is best known as a member of The Jonas Brothers with his siblings Kevin and Nick.
The trio enjoyed massive success including a pair of chart-topping albums on the Billboard 200. They were also hugely popular with the Disney Channel audiences appearing in numerous shows and movies.
Disagreements among the brothers saw the trio break up in 2013. Joe had recorded a solo album two years earlier. “Fastlife” debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200 but rapidly fell off the chart and was not deemed commercially successful.
“I intended to try for solo success again with a second album,” Joe revealed. “But I much preferred being in a band. It felt more comfortable than when I performed solo. I wanted to have other people with me who love music as much as I do.”
The obvious first choice was Joe’s best friend and former housemate, drummer Jack Lawless. Jack had played in the Jonas Brothers band since 2007.
Next up was guitarist JinJoo Lee. She played for Joe on his solo concert tour in addition to backing artists such as Jordin Sparks, Ciara, Charli XCX, JoJo and Cee Lo Green.
The line-up was completed by Semi Precious Weapons bassist Cole Whittle. Joe got to know him while writing songs with the New York-based band’s frontman Justin Tranter. With Cole playing on the demos of their songs, a friendship developed which saw Joe invite him to join the new band.
But what about a name. Several suggestions were made and rejected until they were in the process of writing a song about being too drunk to spell the word dance.
“The song was called DNCE, all in capital letters,” Jack explained. “The idea just came that we should call ourselves after the title of this song. It’s an unusual name and attracts interest from both the mis-spelling and being in capital letters.”
“DNCE without the A is not a perfect word,” JinJoo added. “But you don’t always have to be a perfect dancer to dance and enjoy dancing. Similarly, you don’t always have to make perfect songs to enjoy playing music or for people to enjoy hearing your work.”
“The name also applies to our style of music,” Cole remarked. “We don’t create the type of tracks made by dance music DJs and producers. Our stuff is a nice blend of pop, dance and funk. But we definitely expect people to move to the music when they hear our songs.”
Although there is one ballad, Jinx, on “SWAAY,” the band’s debut EP, lead single, Cake by the Ocean, typifies their musical style. One of the songs to emerge from Joe’s work with Justin Tranter, it was recorded under the guidance of Swedish production duo Mattman & Robin, Mattias Larsson and Robin Fredriksson.
Released last September, Cake by the Ocean got off to a slow start but has now sparked enough interest for the song to have reached number ten on Billboard’s Hot 100.
“It’s number ten and still climbing,” Joe smiled. “To have done so well with our first single is truly amazing. Our debut album will be out later this year so we hope this will be equally popular.”
Did Joe have Jonas Brothers fans in mind when writing songs for DNCE?
“Not necessarily. I hoped they would be interested to hear the music I’m doing now. But the songs are basically created for our own enjoyment and in the hope that others will share the pleasure we get from them. We want everyone to feel like they’ve been invited into our little world.”

in
brief

April Towers

Nottingham-based duo April Towers have just released their latest single, Silent Fever.
Charles Burley and Alex Noble have been best friends for 13 years and made music together since 2007. Despite this, it was only in the electronic pop music of their April Towers project, which began in June 2013, that Charles and Alex found complete harmony in the songs they created.
“We did quite a bit of musical experimentation in our earlier years,” Charles explained. “Neither of us actually disliked any of the tracks we made but there was always one of us who liked the songs more than the other.”
“We felt we’d found our place in the music world when we started making the April Towers tracks,” Alex stated. “We’re still experimenting in the sense that we use a wide range of instrumentation to create our music. But it’s all in the electronic pop genre which we both absolutely love.”
Silent Fever is the most recent post at (no www.) soundcloud.com/april_towers
Their musical output over the past year can also be found here. Some of the tracks are offered for free download.

Augustines

American indie-rock trio Augustines have just released the video for Are We Alive, lead single from their forthcoming third studio album.
The band do not appear in the video. It was filmed in Bristol, England, and features local concert-going legend Jeffrey Johns, better known as Big Jeff. Renowned among fans and bands for his love of live music, it is entirely appropriate that he should star in an Augustines video as no band are more interactive with their fans.
The Are We Alive video can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi4Mjh_nVOY Videos for more of the band’s singles are also posted on YouTube. So too are their previous albums, “Rise Ye Sunken Ships,” credited to We Are Augustines, and “Augustines.” Both can be heard in full.

Lorde / David Bowie

Following his disapproval of Lady Gaga’s tribute to his father at the Grammy Awards ceremony, everyone wondered what film director Duncan Jones would think of the tribute to David Bowie at the BRIT Awards.
After an introduction by Annie Lennox and David’s long-time friend, actor Gary Oldman, who accepted the BRIT Icon Award on his behalf, David’s backing band played excerpts from some of his most popular songs. This was followed by New Zealand songstress Lorde, who David had described as the future of music, performing the track voted his best song in a 2012 poll conducted by Digital Spy, his 1973 hit single, Life on Mars.
His son used Twitter to thank all concerned for a tribute which he described as “just beautiful.” The entire piece can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7l3y7LOzLc.

Birth of Joy

Dutch indie-rock trio Birth of Joy recently released their new single, Hands Down. It is the second track taken from the band’s forthcoming album, “Get Well.” The official song video is posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LdwMOvlINg
You Got Me Howling was released last December as the lead single. The video for this is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F2WG5bos8c
Numerous other Birth of Joy videos can be found on YouTube. There is also a full one-hour concert video filmed last year at the Down The Rabbit Hole music festival. It is posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH_rwuO7U-c

Weezer

Weezer’s latest self-titled LP will be released on April 1. Dubbed “The White Album,” the band recently released LA Girlz as the fourth single from the LP.
The official song video is the latest of many posted at www.youtube.com/user/WeezerVEVO/videos
Among these are videos for King of the World, Thank God For Girls and Do You Wanna Get High?, the three singles previously taken from “The White Album.”
Frontman Rivers Cuomo described the new LP as an “LA beach album.”
“The songs were inspired by my experiences hanging around the west side of Los Angeles. Particularly on the beach at Venice and Santa Monica. I’d put a message on Twitter asking if anyone wanted to hang out and I’d get together with those who responded. I wanted the album to make listeners feel like they are there with us on the beach no matter where they actually are in the world.”