WHATMORE at Coachella 2026: From YouTube Foundry to the Gobi Stage

There’s something visceral about discovering an artist through a music video — not just hearing them for the first time, but stepping into their visual world.

In June of 2025, WHATMORE burst onto the scene with “eastside w my dogs,” a charmingly chaotic DIY music video shot on a hop-on, hop-off tour bus in their hometown of New York City. As tourists look on, the five-piece “boy band” out of LaGuardia Performing Arts School, trade bars oozing energy and genuine joy.

With a steady stream of music videos, creative skits, unconventional shows and their genre-blurring debut album, WHATMORE’s musical skills have not only captured the hearts of their hometown but fans around the world, myself included. At the end of 2025, we welcomed WHATMORE to Foundry, YouTube Music’s incubator for independent artists. And less than a year from their debut single, they earned a spot on the Coachella lineup.

We caught up with the band just moments after their performance to dig into the method behind their collective madness. This interview has been edited for length.

Have you carried that mentality into building your community online too?

Yoshi T: Throwing shows and shooting videos in these places that we all hang out in creates a real homey vibe. This is going to sound like a tangent but whenever we get styled with clothes, we always feel really uncomfortable, because we just like to be ourselves. That's the brand we've been pushing this past year. It radiates out of us and that connects to the online presence as well.

Visuals are such a huge part of your story. What role does the music video play in your artistic expression?

Jackson August: I’ve heard people say the music video is dying and it's all about vertical content. I don't think that's true, because all the greats build worlds. There’s a world built into WHATMORE, and the music video to me, encapsulates that. I think about 10 years from now when we’re making something. In my head, the world has just started forming. We're laying the groundwork.

From vignettes to viral Coachella promos, you go beyond music videos. How important is building the WHATMORE lore?

Yoshi: We had a lot of ideas for short skits, even honestly, before we had any of the music so they come from a real, fun place. But the skits have also strategically been about “how can we make a two minute video that makes you fall in love with us?”

Jackson: Everything is based upon conversation. Conversations or interactions we've had. It’s similar to writing a song where you have an experience, and you write your way through it. It's the most amplified version of just going back to your homie, like, "you won't believe what just happened.”