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Hot off the heels of their summer tour, New Paltz-based band What? are making themselves known in the Hudson Valley music scene and beyond. Beginning with open mic nights at Snugs, the band\u2019s \u201cFunk Fusion Dance Party\u201d took them further upstate in a series of shows and music festivals.<\/p>\n
What? is a six-membered band composed of Ryan Perrone, vocals and instrumentals; Dan Steen, guitar; Jeremiah Mahoney, bass; Alex Endres, drums; Jared Nelson, guitar and keyboard and Owen Moore, saxophone. The band blends funk, ska and rock to create a sound entirely their own\u2014reflected in the ambiguity of their group\u2019s name. Over the summer, the sextet\u2019s tour took them places they\u2019ve never gone before, and to music festivals like the Summer Hoot at the Ashokan Center, Fencepost Fest in Broadalbin and Fledge Fest in Vermont.<\/p>\n
But the band started with Perrone and Steen, then in their first year at SUNY New Paltz, decided to get some friends together and play at whatever venue would take them. The town\u2019s vibrant house show scene set them up for notoriety amongst students with a love for local bands.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur first start was just us signing up for open mics around town, just as a consistent little group, and we would jam out wherever they let us, and people would like us and validate us. So we wanted to keep doing it, so we kept doing it,\u201d said Perrone.<\/p>\n
Since those humble beginnings, the band has kept a loyal following across all of the towns they\u2019ve toured. \u201cEspecially locally, we have a decent crowd that comes to a lot of our shows,\u201d said Steen. \u201cI know [people] through us playing our music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even outside of the New Paltz area, word of What? spreads into areas the band never could have expected. \u201cWe\u2019ve found our way into little unheard of towns,\u201d said Steen. \u201cLittletown, N.H. is not a place I knew of, but every time we go back we get some of the same people at our shows and they\u2019re always like, \u2018I told my friends to come. You guys are the coolest coming in here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of What?\u2019s success, outside of their vocals and musical ability, is their pure likability as a group. Their passion for music shines through in each of their performances, and the genuine friendship they have between each other is clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all live together. A big part of it for me is, I love these guys. I feel like that\u2019s the biggest aspect of it,\u201d said Steen. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go on the road and travel with a bunch of people I\u2019m not friends with.\u201d<\/p>\n
But still, What? is only beginning. Their goals aren\u2019t lofty \u2014 they want to afford a van, they want to be able to quit their day jobs and make music full-time. With an upcoming fall tour, they\u2019re hoping to make these dreams a reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe owe who we are today to the New Paltz music scene, and specifically to all of the places that have allowed us to find who we are musically,\u201d said Steen.<\/p>\n
What?\u2019s upcoming tour dates can be found on their Instagram page. They\u2019ll also be hosting their annual Halloween show at Snugs on Oct. 31.<\/p>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source oracle.newpaltz.edu \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What?, a six-member band that began with SUNY New Paltz students, continues to grow their local fame as their summer tour ends and their fall tour begins. Photo Courtesy of Tommy Krause. Hot off the heels of their summer tour, New Paltz-based band What? are making themselves known in the Hudson Valley music scene and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2013869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2013868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/What-On-Making-Waves-in-the-New-Paltz-Music-Scene.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2013868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2013869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2013868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2013868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2013868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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