The three members of Whenyoung (Aoife Power, Niall Burns and Andrew Flood) aren’t trying to fit in. They’ve never fitted in. With each other, however, their individual lifelong quests for acceptance are met. They found each other in a pub in their teens; the only pub where they belonged. They’ve flocked together since.
The confidence possessed by the band may sound easy but it’s a result of a lifetime of toil and dedication. The threesome aren’t new to this and don’t shy away from the time they’ve spent studying their craft. Whenyoung is a band born from the ashes of a previous iteration – Sisters. With the fresh start of this new name however, the stars seem to be aligning.
Wind back to the mid-2000s and Limerick, Ireland. There were three displaced teenagers yet to find their tribe. Costello’s Tavern was their oasis, their gateway; a pub with a jukebox that brought them together when they were too young to drink legally.Crucially the music they were playing on said jukebox was what Power was listening to: The Strokes, The Pixies, bands. Upon discovering Costello’s she met Burns and Flood soon after.
Power grew up playing music. Her father performed traditional Irish songs, she learned classical violin, moved onto guitar, and soon stopped aping Joni Mitchell. Burns was the black sheep, crushing his parents’ dreams of being a sporting hero after discovering The Strokes and picking up a six string. Flood was plodded in front of a piano as a kid but didn’t take to it. At 14, he got into drums after saving up for a kit. With everyone around him being fanatical about rap, he whiled away hours rummaging in HMV, and pouring over the NME.
After finishing college, the three would-be band mates decided that they needed to move somewhere bigger in order to grow themselves both personally and artistically. Following a stint in Dublin for Burns, the three of them all eventually found themselves in London and the formation of Sister came shortly after.
While the early shows may have been scrappy, grungy and lo-fi the core of the songs were there. Even though Sister started to gain a following in the local scene, the three band members felt they needed change to get to the next level. That change manifested in them adopting the name Whenyoung.
During the summer of 2018 the band settled in an East London studio with producer Alan O’Connell [The Big Pink, Klaxons] to record their debut ‘Reason’s to Dream’. Following their 2018 EP, they mined the ideas they’ve written over three years. It wasn’t easy, but none of the great debuts are.
The title is more about finding reasons to keep going in your life, for acceptance and happiness. Indeed in ‘Something Sweet’ the album ends on a note of warmth and love. It’s what they’ve found in each other, and in that connection they hope others will multiply. If Whenyoung can create a space for other misfits to find their soulmates, that’s more than they can dream for.
The Fat Angel Sings 