WU LYF members surprised at own split, start new band without singer

Manchester’s WU LYF shocked many when they broke up suddenly last November, but few were left more bewildered than members of the band themselves.

Frontman Ellery Roberts revealed that the band were “dead” in a cryptic message posted on Facebook, with little heard from him since. But now drummer Joe Manning has spoken to NME about the situation leading to the break up.

“We all knew it wasn’t working. There’s no one explanation for it. There’s a million reasons that don’t amount to much more than it just didn’t work,” he told the publication before adding: “None of us knew that was going to happen before we read it on the internet… There’s nothing cryptic in that message for me; it’s personal, and I don’t know why he had to do it like that.”

WU LYF released just one record, their debut album Go Tell Fire To The Mountain in 2011. The others in the band, Manning, bassist Tom McClung and guitarist Evans Kati, have now gone on to form Los Porcos, with a track of theirs streaming below. They play their first live show tonight, at Salon in London.

[via Pitchfork]