What Now (band)

What Now
What Now Move Like a Sinner shoot
Background information
Origin	Ballito, South Africa, London
Genres	Rock, indie rock, alternative rock
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Hey and Argh, Sheer Sound (South Africa)
Website	whatnowband.com
Members	Tyron Layley Ryan Morris Adam Jenkins

What Now is a rock band from Ballito, South Africa, currently based in London. The band consists of Tyron Layley (lead vocals, bass guitar), Ryan Morris (guitar and vocals), and Adam Jenkins (drums). The band's name comes from an old surfing video.^[1]

History

Early years (2001–2006)

Having grown up in Ballito, Ryan Morris and Adam Jenkins met at school and recruited Tyron Layley after overhearing him singing at a friends house. In 2001, the band started practising in Ryan's dad's garage. Their early influence were bands like Green Day and Foo Fighters. It wasn't long before it was performing their first shows at local venues and skate parks, and later in Cape Town and Johannesburg. In its first year, it had recorded their first EP Drive-In, designed the artwork themselves and printed the CDs at home. The EPs soon sold out and the band decided to record a full-length album. The band's début album Revenge of the Oompaloompas got great radio play on the big South African stations and it was the band's first taste of real success, but their dreams were bigger. As they didn't want to be "trapped" in South Africa, they turned down an offer with a South African label and in 2005 they left their families and friends behind, and moved to London to pursue their music career.^[2]

Hiatus and Reformation (2006–2009)

The first months of living in England were hard and within six months of being in the country, Ryan, Adam and Tyron moved into separate flats and decided to split the band. "It was a very dark time for us; we were all cramped up in a one-room apartment in a very dodgy area known as Lewisham. We were broke, missed family and I think we kind of lost ourselves," explains Ryan.^[2] For two years, they explored different bands and developed separate tastes in music, before meeting again by chance and getting back together. Taking influence from their individual music experiences, they developed a fresh sound with elements of indie, pop and rock and began recording again.^[1]

Take Control EP (2010–2012)

On 15 November 2010, it released an EP titled Take Control, which was mixed and mastered by Tyron Layley (with the exception of the track "Toy Soldiers”, mastered by Ed Woods).^[3] The digital release of the record consists of four songs, including "Toy Soldiers", "Move On" and "Run", for which music videos were released.^[4][5] The physical EPs, available on the band's website, have a bonus track: "Best You Ever Had"^[3] or "Summer Drive",^[6] depending on the version of the EP.

Towards the end of their EP campaign the band supported Young Guns on their European tour which included Germany, Poland, France and the Netherlands.

Move Like a Sinner (2013–present)

Asked to record a song for the hit TV series CSI: NY, What Now started experimenting with new sounds.^[7] The song called "Move Like a Sinner" was featured in season 8 episode 9 of CSI: NY, "Means to an End".^[8] Upon completion of the track, the band realised what their new musical direction was and started working on their second full-length record. The album Move Like a Sinner, which was recorded in a home studio and mixed and mastered by Tyron Layley, was released on 11 March 2013 through Hey and Argh label.^[9] Rolling Stone magazine wrote, Move Like a Sinner is "slick. From crisp production to the booming songs (“Lovers & Liars”), this is meant to entertain on a large scale."^[10]

DIY ethics

The band has become well known for it's DIY ethics. From their very first EP the band were printing off covers and pressing the CD's in their garage. Since then they have adopted a DIY approach for all their releases and music videos. Their last two releases, Take Control EP (2010) and Move Like a Sinner (2013), were mixed and mastered by the band's lead vocalist, Tyron Layley. They work closely with their friends in Float Media, a videography company based in London, to come up with concepts and build sets for the music videos.^[8]

Members

• Tyron Layley – lead vocals, bass (2001–present)
• Ryan Morris – vocals, guitar (2001–present)
• Adam Jenkins – drums (2001–present)

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

Music Videos

References

External links

• Official Website
• What Now on Myspace
• What Now discography at Discogs