Surrounded by stickers and hand-drawn Sharpie graffiti covering the walls of First Avenue’s 7th Street Entry greenroom, WHY NOT sat on the room’s worn leather couch, an eerily calm energy wafting off of the three boys in the Twin Cities-based, self-proclaimed “bombastic pop” group.
Made up of Henry Breen, Isaac Dell and Josh MacGregor, March 13 marked the band’s “VERY WHY NOT” EP release concert at the staple local venue. As the music of one of the opening artists rangout overhead during their soundcheck, it was clear that anticipation was rising for the musicians.
“We always have a really good time here,” MacGregor, the band’s drummer and bass-face extraordinaire, said over the kick drum and energetic melodies pounding overhead. “I think the vibe makes us play better and it just always turns out to be a fun time. This show is going to be great.”
WHY NOT has been a force in the Twin Cities experimental rock and pop scene since the band formed as 14- and 15-year-olds. Although none of the members attend the University of Minnesota, the trio has made appearances at Radio K’s in-studio sessions and this year’s “Back to Skool” concert, they’ve headlined the Varsity Theater in the heart of Dinkytown and have been playing house parties and concerts in the Como neighborhood before the trio had even graduated highschool.
The evolution of the group has expanded from rock-inspired bass lines and moshpit-worthy riffs in their earlier tunes, like “No Suggestions Here” and “Pink Hat,” to their newly acquired electronic-punk-pop mesh of autotune, Ableton-blended hyperpop and the strong drum and bass lines of their newest EP.
“When we started out we wanted to be way more broad and wanted to be way more intricacy-focused, but now it sort of shifted towards a more songwriting-forward and less raw focus,” Dell, the band’s lead guitarist, explained. “But also, who knows what the future holds?”
Spontaneity is something the trio strives for in their music creation, and when it comes down to it, they make the sounds that they want to make regardless of the genre. For WHY NOT, their music marks the growth they’ve gone through since starting the band, and they explained that listening to their music brings you on a personal journey of their growth and time together.
“I think our old stuff definitely had a lot more hunger and angst to it,” MacGregor said. “We’ve basically been making music since being 15, so we’ve kind of grown up in real-time and you can hear the progression.”
Filled with features from local musicians like Papa Mbye and Lupin, their “VERY WHY NOT” EP showcases a new sound that highlights matured music production and electronically-focused elements, themes that the band hadn’t fully mastered in the past. Sunday night’s stage was lit up with the band’s newest songs and included surprise performances from every feature on the freshly-released album.
“We’re not going to play a set unless Papa make’s a guest appearance in every set,” Henry Breen, WHY NOT’s lead singer and bassist, laughed into a microphone after the local experimental musician and artist had made an appearance in Huhroon’s opening set and jumped on-stage again, joining the band to perform their song “CASKET.”
Stacked with an entirely local lineup, the EP release show included both experimental-punk rapper Huhroon and whimsical, fairy-esque singer and songwriter Raffaella as its openers, promoting the wide variety of local music found in the Twin Cities. Although both sets created entirely different audience responses, both packed the main floor of the venue with Dr. Martens and corduroy pant-wearing attendees. By the time WHY NOT took the stage, the energy in the room crowded any empty space left in the audience.
Filled with drastic green and blue lighting effects, high-intensity vocals and moshpits forcing nearly the entire audience to dance, WHY NOT’s return to 7th Street’s stage proved the band’s skill and talent as their set compelled every viewer to sway to their new sound.
“As you grow as a person, your tastes and your intuition changes a lot,” Breen explained before the show. “Since [our music] is all recorded, we’ve had the ability to see the progression and history of it all, and this EP is just adding another chapter.”
