Rewind the Clock: whenyoung in 2019

Rewinding the clock to a band that I only saw once, but their music videos still pop up on my Youtube page, because the algorithms know I love their music.

The band whenyoung came through Los Angeles in early 2019 where I got to see them at School Night. The trio was coming from London and included Niall Burns on guitar, Andrew Flood on drums, Aoife Power on bass and vocals. They being from the UK, this night at School Night was the only time I ever caught a set. I remember being blown away by their The Cranberries sounds. I wrote the following at the time: 

"Their tunes just have this addicting quality to it. And I just can't get enough of their lead vocalist and how she just stretches certain words for just a split second longer than might be seen as normal, but it creates a uniqueness to their sound."  

whenyoung at School Night

A one time encounter, but I've always kept this band in mind. In fact, their cover of "Dreams" by (of course) The Cranberries still occasionally pops up randomly as the next video I should watch on Youtube. I might be watching a video about personal finance (yes, I do have a love of personal finance and not just camera and music related topics) and the video will pop up (you can watch it here) next. 

whenyoung at School Night

I always hoped that if my personal finance video watching got me wealthy enough that someday I'd make a random flight across the pond to catch a set. Unfortunately, that does not seem like a future possibility as the band may have ended their run. Burns left the band sometime after the pandemic to return to school. (You can read the interview that I found that info here.) Flood and Power continued on, releasing their sophomore album Paragon Songs in 2023. It seems like the band closed up shop afterwards. Now not everything is a negative here in terms of the band. There is a happy news. Flood and Power got married (to each other). The duo returned to Ireland where they opened up a cafe called Beat Food in a small coastal town called Kilrush. Hmm, maybe I can just take a random trip to the coast of Ireland some day.

whenyoung at School Night

Back to 2019, the band was playing songs off their debut album Reasons to Dream. That album is filled with winners, especially the first three songs "Pretty Pure," "Never Let Go," and "The Others" that highlight Power's vocal prowess to blend a just a touch of traditional Irish sound within the over-all pop sound. The trio also knew how to compose music that immediately caught your attention such as the opening bars of "Future."

I actually took a photo of their setlist at the time where they played all my favorite songs from the album: Pretty Pure, In My Dreams, Blank Wells, Future, The Others, Given Up, Never Let Go.