Interview: IDKHOW on their new EP, touring, and more.
I Don’t Know How But They Found Me (now abbreviated as iDKHOW) have had a very busy year, touring across the UK, and the US (alongside Waterparks), and dropping their debut EP in the form of ‘1981 Extended Play’.
After departing from Panic! At The Disco as their touring bassist late last year, Weekes has been able to focus his attention 100% on the iDKHOW project with bandmate Ryan Seaman, and the duo have since signed to Fearless Records, where they are able to navigate their growing popularity while maintaining creative control entirely.
Coup De Main caught up with Dallon Weekes and Ryan Seaman ahead of iDKHOW’s London show this past August - to discuss signing to a label, creative freedom, and upcoming music…
Right now, it’s pretty crazy, because now that we have that green light, we want to get stuff out as soon as possible...
COUP DE MAIN: You’ve been playing some unreleased songs in your live shows - we are particularly excited about ‘Social Climb’! What can you tell us about that song?
DALLON WEEKES: A lot of the songs that I’ve written for this project are about my experiences in Los Angeles. ‘Social Climb’ in particular is about some of the more toxic aspects of LA culture. I don’t hate LA necessarily, but there’s a lot of toxic things that happen there for the sake of fame, and money. I saw a lot of it while I was living there, and it’s just all really terrible. It affected me and my family and friends, and I think writing about it was just my way of processing and dealing with all this terrible stuff.
CDM: How long did you live in LA for in total?
DALLON: About nine years.
CDM: And it’s better for you now that you’re not living there anymore?
DALLON: Yeah, I’m back home in Salt Lake City now, and I prefer it so much more.
CDM: You’ve just signed to Fearless Records to release future iDKHOW music under. How did your signing with them come about?
DALLON: Well, everything that’s happened with the band so far is thanks to the fans, and them getting behind what we’re doing. The attention that they brought our way also brought music industry attention, so there was a little bit of a war happening between labels over us - that’s why it was so long in between releases because that was getting sorted out. But it finally came down to who had the best deal to offer us, and that was Fearless. The thing that won us over was being able to have 100% creative control over everything that we do.
CDM: Which is kind of rare to be able to have in a label.
DALLON: Yeah, absolutely. Especially these days. But having that was the most important thing for me.
CDM: Do you have an estimated release date on the iDKHOW record yet?
DALLON: Maybe.
CDM: One that you can talk about?
DALLON: No, no.
CDM: Has the album changed since we last spoke? I think in our interview last year it was finished.
DALLON: See, that’s the thing, when we were doing it DIY style we had a plan, and a timeline, but as more attention came our way those plans had to change, and that’s why it’s been so long between releases because we had to get our label stuff sorted out. Now that that’s sorted out we can get back onto a new timeline, and hopefully not leave people waiting so long for the next release. But there is a plan, and we hope to stick with it and to get more music out for people as soon as possible.
CDM: Has it been important to take your time with the roll-out of iDKHOW music?
DALLON: While the label choices were being made, it was a lot of ‘hurry up and wait.’ But after that decision got made, and it was finalised, it’s been ‘rush, rush, rush,’ so that we can get content and music - we’re making videos and things so that we can get this out as soon as possible. Right now, it’s pretty crazy, because now that we have that green light, we want to get stuff out as soon as possible. But that’s a good problem to have.
CDM: Is ‘Choke’ still lyrically your favourite song on the iDKHOW record?
DALLON: I think so, because it all happened really effortlessly. It’s just one of those that seemed to write itself, it all came together really quickly, and that’s what I like about it.
RYAN SEAMAN: Right now it’s ‘Choke’, but it always changes, just depending on what kind of mood I’m in. There’s a couple of others that are my favourite but I’m not sure I should talk about them.
CDM: The live iDKHOW show sees you play iDKHOW songs as well as The Brobecks songs (‘Bike Ride’) live. What’s it like now, playing a mixture of older and newer songs in your set?
DALLON: I really love it. I think most people never had a chance to see The Brobecks, because no-one really cared at the time. There’s a lot of songs that I wrote on that project that still mean a lot to me today, so it serves a couple of purposes - one, I get to revisit those songs that I really love, and two, it helps us from giving away all of our secrets before the record comes out. We want to be able to hang onto some stuff so fans can be surprised.
RYAN: It’s crazy for me playing old The Brobecks songs because I was in The Brobecks so many years ago with Dallon--
CDM: It must be super nostalgic.
RYAN: Yeah. I just think about all the times we played for nobody, and now you fast-forward the clock ten years later and we’re playing old songs that people just now are discovering, from our past project. So it’s a really weird feeling.
DALLON: It’s nice to be able to give those songs a second chance.
RYAN: I really enjoy playing them.
CDM: And you just debuted ‘Do It All The Time’ live too! What was it like to play that for the first time?
DALLON: It’s a little bit nerve-wracking the first time you play a new song for people, especially when we don’t really have a chance to rehearse it before we flew here.
RYAN: We’ve only rehearsed this stuff a handful of times. I don’t live in Utah yet, but I’m planning on making that transition soon.
CDM: What was running through your mind writing the lyrics for ‘Do It All The Time’?
DALLON: It’s probably the most sarcastic song that I’ve ever written. The whole attitude and philosophy of ‘do whatever you want’ is very popular these days, and it shows up in a lot of pop music. It’s been a popular philosophy for a long time, ‘Do what thou wilt' - it's totally fine. I think that philosophy is pretty flawed because it fails to take into account that what you want might be bad for your or for someone else, and so I think it’s a pretty selfish philosophy to have. I wanted to try to reflect that in a song that mimics and mocks those kinds of ‘do whatever you want’ songs. Hopefully I did that effectively enough that people understand that I’m poking holes in that philosophy. It’s kind of a terrible philosophy to live by.
iDKHOW’s EP ‘1981 Extended Play’ is out now - click here to purchase.
Watch the 'Do It All The Time' music video below...
