The early period of Walk the Moon was very nebulous.

And there was a long period of time when there wasn't, there weren't regular band members and I was struggling to find a stride and get out there.

And what I found in these guys is that we didn't come together because we were pals or even because we liked the same music.

We came together because we were all obsessed with playing music for for our lives.

And everybody is is so damn passionate and so dedicated.

And uh and I'm lucky to be, lucky to be here, man.

She took my arm.

I don't know how it happened.

We took the floor and she said, Oh, won't you dare me back.

Just keep your eyes on me.

I said you're holding back.

She said, shut up and dance with me.

This woman is my destiny.

She said, Oh.

Shut up and dance with me.

Hey, I'm Nick from Walk the Moon.

My name is Eli.

I play guitar in the band Walk the Moon.

Hi, I'm Sean.

I play drums for Walk the Moon.

Uh, my name is Kevin Ray and I play bass guitar in the band Walk the Moon.

And welcome to our Young Hollywood backstage diary.

Young Hollywood.

We are Walk the Moon.

We are from Ohio, but we are here in Hollywood at Third Encore Studios and we are going to rehearse.

Join us.

All right.

Uh, yeah, so this is the first time we've been in this space.

Um, but it's already been, it's already been great.

It's really cozy.

It's quiet.

Got our practice.

Yeah.

Uh, Eli, do you want to introduce your area?

This is Eli's area.

Yeah, Stage Right.

Guitar Land.

Pedalboard number 5046.

Yeah.

I don't know what else there is to say about that.

Um, so I do a lot to to get this pedalboard functioning and it still fails on me and revolts often, as my bandmates will, uh, attest to.

Um, but one neat thing is I do have all the names of the songs programmed onto the pedal.

This is Little Baby and this is Avalanche and uh other songs.

Like, Dance, shut up and Dance.

So, I've got, I've got all my stuff programmed in here, um, so that it's really easy to get to.

You never know what's going to be happening during a show.

Any number of distractions could be happening.

So, for me, if the pedal just says, ready to play, shut up and dance, then I can't mess around.

When we rehearse, just the four of us, uh, we, we practice a lot of singing.

We, uh, we don't play with any tracks or any pre-recorded music happening.

Everything that you hear at a Walk the Moon show is totally live.

So, we, um, we practice a lot.

check check check check Sounds.

I I am a, uh, I'm an over-preparer.

So, I will, uh, typically change my strings for, uh, any given rehearsal and every single show.

Um, make sure that I'll, that my gig, that my whole like rig is working as it should, which it usually isn't.

So, um, like today, we're having two repairs done on the, uh, on the guitar rig so that we can perform on Jimmy Kimmel tomorrow.

One of the most important parts of this whole experience, this whole Walk the Moon thing is playing the music live and and for all of us and uh, it's great to to to have a different experience every day, even though we might be playing the same music.

It's just it's a lot of fun.

Never gets stale.

Oh.

Fuck, we're good.

We're getting so good at this.

So, a few months ago, I like went into a hairdresser for the new, uh, a new haircut.

Um, the hair thing has been a journey, an epic journey.

Um, we, we never really,

And Nick is exhausted from that journey.

I explained to him what I wanted to do.

In like five seconds, he pulled up like 50 pictures online of like dudes that had that haircut.

He's like, uh, let me just do this.

We had no sense of style when it came to our hair.

And, uh, it just slowly started coming about and then we realized like, hey, you know, we can really do anything we want.

Um, he gave me a mohawk.

So that's uh, that's what I did.

Um, and now at this point it's just, it's gotten to the point where we're putting color in our hair and doing weird things, but it's like really become an expression.

Well, the space we usually rehearse in in Cincinnati is about the size of, uh, your average studio, neighborhood, apartment's kitchen.

Uh, so we wanted a space with a little more wiggle room and to it.

Yeah, a little umph.

And, you know, we we grew up playing bars and and little, you know, little restaurants, little venues and stuff and you get so used to being all up in everyone's face, it becomes just part of the rock and roll trip.

And when you have all this space, like you've been dreaming of your whole life, you're like, oh my god, what do I do with this?

Hey, everybody, we are Walk the Moon.

Thank you, Young Hollywood, for joining us here at our Backstage Diary.

We'll see you next time.

Shut up and dance with me.