Why Don’t We band members talk name, YouTube success
Kidsday reporters, center from left, Sophia Wennerod, Maggie Johnston and Mia O'Connell of Port Jefferson with the music group Why Don't We at Webster Hall in Manhattan. The band members, from left, are Corbyn Besson, Daniel Seavey, Jack Avery, Jonah Marais and Zach Herron. Credit: Newsday / Pat Mullooly
On Dec. 4, we interviewed a brand-new band, Why Don’t We, at The Studio at Webster Hall in Manhattan. It’s a small theater like the one you’d see in an old school. It’s in a great location near Union Square.
We interviewed the band Why Don’t We, and they are Corbyn Besson, Daniel Seavey, Jack Avery, Jonah Marais and Zach Herron. After the interview we went to their concert. There were only about 100 people there, and many were family members of the band. We asked questions about their everyday life, school and their band. We realized we had some connections and we are all into the same music genres.
We took some pictures, made musical.lys and had fun!
We found their band name very unusual and asked them how they came up with it.
Corbyn said, “The band name is kind of cool because it kind of came spontaneously. It was kind of like when this opportunity was thrown at us, we were like, ‘Why Don’t We?’ And we thought about it and we went with it because it is a clever little catchphrase. And because of that, we wanted to make little slogans like, ‘Why don’t we spread some positivity?’ ‘Why don’t we love one another?’ and that kind of thing. Hopefully we can make some sort of positive impact on the world.”
We asked them about the good and bad parts of being in a band.
Zach said, “What is good, we get to go onstage together and get to experience all of this together. We are like brothers.”
Daniel said, “I don’t think we have been a band long enough to know any negative side of it.”
Jack said, “There are times when one of us gets a little stressed out, but we work hard and we get tired.”
They were really nice and answered our questions easily. They used to go to public schools, but now that they’re living their dreams, they are either home-schooled or go to an online school.
They started singing very young, like 3 years old, and they all knew they wanted to pursue their dreams. One member made a video of himself singing and playing the guitar and posted it on YouTube.
They are from all over the United States, including Texas, Minnesota and Portland, Oregon. We think they are going to be a big hit. Two of their songs are “Taking You” and “Nobody Gotta Know.” Check them out on YouTube and look for them to come back to New York soon!
