Have you ever come across a band and asked yourself the question, “How does the world not know about this band?” I’ve asked myself that question at least a hundred times about, Whosah, an indie-pop band from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Whosah is a five-piece band made up of three brothers and two good friends. If you head to the Midwest, you can find them performing anywhere, literally. Between college campuses, bars, music venues, and probably graduation parties, they basically never leave the stage. They have shared the stage with multiple well-known artists like Mat Kearney, Betty Who, Hippo Campus, and even my pre-teen love, Jesse McCartney.
Whosah released their sophomore EP, Work in March of 2016. It has gathered over 200,000 streams on Spotify. The band recently released a new single titled, “Make A Move,” which has been killing it on Spotify as well. I asked the band how it feels to have a single that had over 26k streams before even playing it in their hometown.
“For the most part, just humbled. It has made us really motivated to keep making more music. We weren’t sure what to expect in response to the song, and we’re just really excited to keep playing it and keep playing more songs,” said the band’s drummer, Dave Grimes.
The band is currently on a fall tour which is very creatively called the “We Wrote A Song Called Make A Move and Wanna Play It For You” tour. Awesome, right? I asked the band what their new single is about and how it came together.
“Make a Move is about the tension in any relationship where you’re trying to understand each other and work things out no matter what’s going’ on. But as we were writing it, it evolved into being more about how do you come together with someone you don’t see eye to eye with. Sometimes that means committing to treating the other person like a person, even if you don’t know they’ll do the same to you,” Whosah’s frontman and songwriter, Spencer Grimes said.
The band is about halfway through the tour and from the looks of it, they are having so much fun. They have played at venues in Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Dakota. They will even head to Wyoming and Pennsylvania later this month, and early October to play at a few college campuses. I asked the band how the first half of the tour has been.
“It’s been wild. The first time we played “Make A Move” live was our first ever show in Nebraska. We were at a place where we were feeling fully behind the song’s message and vibe, and just didn’t really care if people like it or not. But, people got super into it, and quite a few people sang all the words,” drummer, Dave Grimes said.
The drummer, added, “Personally, I didn’t expect a lot of the shows to feel as summery as they were. A lot of the shows have been outdoors in super nice weather; the sunshine and maybe a hint of nice breeze during a set always reminds me of how great it is to be alive.”
I attended the band’s hometown show at The Triple Rock in Minneapolis. From the moment I walked through the doors, I knew it was going to be such a fun night, and I was right. When Whosah took the stage, smiles formed on everybody’s faces. The band’s energy and love for what they do was radiating off them the entire set.
A standout moment was of course when the band played their newest single, Make A Move which so happens to be a song that literally makes you want to move. I don’t think I stopped dancing and screaming along to the lyrics of every song until they left the stage. My favorite moment of the show was their encore performance of Destiny’s Child’s, “Say My Name.” The song wasn’t originally on the setlist, but once a fan yelled it out, they couldn’t resist, and I’m glad they did! The vibe in the room was incredible, and everybody was singing along to every lyric.
I asked the band if they could only play one of their songs to somebody who has never heard their music, which they would choose.
“Ghost Town. It says the most about who we are and sounds the most like we wanna sound,” said lead singer and talented tambourine player, Spencer [Grimes].
So, if you have never heard a song by Whosah, go give “Ghost Town” a listen on either Spotify or Apple Music. If you want to see it being played in action, watch the studio performance of it on YouTube.
I asked the band what Whosah fans can expect in the near future and Dallas, the band’s guitar player, Dallas Erdahl, summed it up nicely.
“More shows. More tunes.”
The best part about attending a Whosah show is that you know you truly feel wanted the second you walk into the show. The fans are great, as is the band.
“We write music to get to know people. So whether you’re hundreds of miles away on a smartphone or face to face with one of us at a show, we hope you feel free to be yourself. We genuinely want to get to know you,” said Dave Grimes.
Whosah is one of the most energetic, fun, and friendly bands that I have ever met. If you have never been to a Whosah show, put it on your bucket list, you can thank me later.
