According to the story of their band, I Don’t Know How But They Found Me (stylized as iDKHOW) are a lost relic of the 1980s, but have come back to play concerts all over the country. Of course, front man and bassist Dallon Weekes is tight-lipped in regard to this matter.
“I will admit to nothing,” Weekes said, “but allegedly, it was very fun, and we had a good time.”
The performance in question occurred at the Riot Stage at the 15th annual Riot Fest, a rock music festival at Douglas Park in Chicago, IL. Dallon Weekes, a slender six-foot-tall man wearing dark sunglasses and a flower button-down, has been working with bands for over ten years. Before playing with iDKHOW, he was playing bass for Panic! At the Disco, and he fronted a band called The Brobecks with bandmate Ryan Seaman before that. The latter band, whose song “Bike Ride” was included in the setlist, still has an influence on the current project.
“The Brobecks was a band that I did for maybe six years and we reached this plateau, and that next step never really came; so, that project kind of died,” Weekes said. “I think this new thing we do will always be haunted by the ghost of The Brobecks.”
One reason The Brobecks will always haunt iDKHOW is a similar lineup, as Seaman also played drums in that band. That, combined with continued appreciation for the project, assures the music created during that time in his career will not be neglected.
“No matter how far we get into it, I think we’ll always play a Brobecks song here and there because that project still means a lot to me,” Weekes said. “The fact that people know about them and sing it back to us is crazy to me.”
Despite hype from previous bands, iDKHOW surged ahead with its own momentum. This project being his most recent, Weekes didn’t want his past with Panic! At the Disco and Seaman’s with Falling in Reverse to streamline their success, though Weekes admitted it would have been easy to do that. Instead, they wanted to earn fans all on their own.
“When we were playing secret shows, it was to rooms full of people that didn’t know or didn’t care who we were or what other bands we were in,” Weekes said. “So, it was a challenge to win them over, but it was one that we really thrived on. The fact that we started to win people over and won some fans of our own that are now coming to these shows, it’s a really great feeling.”
Their debut EP, titled “1981 Extended Play,“ was released on Nov. 9, 2018 through Fearless Records. While they haven’t released anything since, Weekes hoped to get an album out six months ago but is now just hoping to get it released as soon as possible.