This is the party you don’t want to miss, no matter what your musical preferences are. The mix of catchy and almost pop-like melodies with explosive, hard-hitting impro noise is captivating. It’s thrilling battle of two opposites you can’t take your ears off!
Whatever Happens Don’t Be Yourself’s 5th album, “Tales of No Consequence” is set to be released on February the 27th, and we celebrate the start of 2026 with the release of the first single of the album.
Today the song “What’s My Chances” will be out and it can be heard here:
Bandleader Nils Are Drønen has this to say about “What’s My Chances”:
Is typically one of the tunes that wasn’t meant to be on the record but ended up being the first single of the album. We only had one day of rehearsal before the studio recording and I hadn’t pitched the tune to anyone in the band, but still I had a feeling that it was something there we could work on. The turning point was just before the session (playing the guitar and having a great cup of tea!) when Nelly, the lead singer, came in asking what I was playing and started to sing some bluesy licks on top of it. Later the rest of the band joined in, and I guess the rest is history.
Formed in 2015 by Nils Are Drønen, the 9-piece orchestra Whatever Happens Don’t Be Yourself has from the start been an improvisational hotbed for both the young and upcoming musicians and more seasoned players in the Bergen jazz scene.
For this project, Drønen has brought together a band of nine very different musicians: percussionist Snorre Bjerck with a background from world music (Mari Boine, Sainko Namchylac and Jon Balke), four of the hottest young musicians from the Norwegian jazz/impro scene – Isach Skeidsvoll, Aksel Røed, Rasmus Lagerberg and Torkil Hjelle (General Post Office, Paal Nilsen-Love), guitarist Mads Berven (Kniv og Taffel), Barcelona-based trumpeter Audun Waage (Jo Jo Mayer), and the Norwegian Grammy nominated vocalist Nelly Moar.
Recorded at the Havnelageret Studio in Bergen with Daniel Birkeland as producer and mastered by Zlaya, with cover art by Lasse Marhaug, tracklisting on “Tales of No Consequence” is as follows:
1. Opus X
2. What’s My Chances?
3. Stormy Nights
4. Where the Sky is the Highest
5. Seventy-Two
6. Green Candela Blues
7. Tales of No Consequence
8. School Bus
“Tales of No Consequence” is now available to pre-order on Vinyl at:
Webshop
Bandcamp
This live performance by WHDBY is a powerful statement of free music combined with written material. The live sound of WHDBY is inspired by the free spirit of artists such as Art Ensemble of Chicago, Charles Mingus, Alice Coltrane, Steve Reich, Wayne Shorter, Fats Waller and Derek Bailey. WHDBY has played at the AMR Jazz Festival in Geneva and at the Nattjazz Festival in Bergen to name but a few.
More information about Whatever Happens Don’t Be Yourself can be found on the band’s Facebook page at facebook.com/WhateverHappensDontBeYourself
