Walk the Moon released their third studio album, What If Nothing, this month and celebrated with a high-energy, but intimate, show (which was full of dance moves) in New York City.
The band’s iHeartRadio Album Release Party included a performance of many songs from the new album, which follows 2014’s Talking Is Hard – an album that featured their chart-topping, multi-platinum hit "Shut Up And Dance.”
What If Nothing, produced by Mike Crossey, Mike Elizondo, and Captain Cuts, features 13 songs, including lead single "One Foot," in addition to other previously released songs like "Headphones," "Surrender," and "Kamikaze."
Here’s what we learned at Walk the Moon’s iHeartRadio Album Release Party:
The album's title came out of a voice memo that singer Nick Petricca left for the band.
Lead guitarist Eli Maiman explained: "Nick was out on a drive, and just was having all these thoughts and feelings about this record that we were making, because it was really a process for us. There was a lot going on emotionally. We ended up needing to communicate in ways that we had never communicated before, you know, at a deeper level. And so, in the middle of this rambling, meandering voice memo, there was this brilliant phrase; it just came down to 'What If Nothing,' and it really stood out, just instantly. If you watch the little videos that we've been posting, that's actually [the voice memo]. Someone was saying that we had written it, or scripted it, but it's absolutely just Nick thinking out loud and then getting used in a way that he hadn't intended."
There was a time where the band questioned whether they would continue or not.
Petricca recalled: "I don't think there was a point where we were ever like, 'No.' But, there were times where some of us questioned whether the band would continue. I remember getting together with Eli to write music, and we were just kind of looking at each other like, 'I don't think that we can write today. Maybe we can talk about some things, but I don't think we can write yet, and that was before Kevin [Ray]'s wedding. The wedding was this beautiful coming together. It was just so pure, and joyous, and fun. Shortly after that, we got back together in a studio for the first time in so long, just the four of us, just to write. No tour, no managers, no audience, no friends; just the four of us and our awesome engineer. And that's when 'Headphones' and 'All I Want' just started to come out of us, some of these songs with this new energy.”
Original article by Nicole Mastrogiannis at iHeartRadio