Y.O.U.N.G are a Manchester based 5-piece that formed in early 2017. They consist of singer songwriter/guitarist Chez Davis, rapper/keyboardist Ben Donaldson, guitarist/producer Jamie Skehan, bassist Tom Whitehead and drummer Graeme Smith (AKA DJ Yetii).

Chez and Jamie met in a local music studio where Jamie started adding beats and breaks to Chez’s punk pop guitar songs. They added Ben after a chance meeting at a film fair between Chez’s father and Ben’s uncle Clive ‘Wiggy’ Donaldson, the infamous white haired dancer from 90s TV show The Hitman and Her.

After Ben’s auditions (and with the initial lineup in place) the band wanted to start collecting fans the old school way. They toured as soon as they could and managed to bag 2 UK and European supports with Australian pranksters The Janoskians. This opened up their accessible pop/rock/alt hip hop sound to a young audience early and gained them a very considerable online following from which to start engaging with their own material.

Y.O.U.N.G’s sound is a mashup of influences drawn from the core songwriting members differing musical backgrounds. Ben, the band’s rapper and keyboard player draws on influences from OutKast, G eazy and Loyle Carner through to Linkin Park. He brings his own energetic style of rap and vocal hooks to the songwriting, as well as adding FX textures and synths to the Y.O.U.N.G sonics. He has had previous releases as an individual on Universal records (AATW) and has featured on two number one compilation albums. When not recording or playing live with the band, Ben plays hype-man with the bands drummer Graeme (collectively 'Yetii) at dance events at Manchester’s such as Warehouse Project.

Jamie, the guitarist/producer has produced EDM for over 4 years with numerous releases on labels such as Sony and Spinnin records and has clocked up plays on BBC radio 1 as well as club support by some of the worlds leading Dj’s with millions of Youtube views for his work. Jamie played guitar in various indie rock bands before finding himself more and more in the engineers chair, programming beats, shaping sonics and creating sound beds. He plays guitar for the band onstage whilst in the studio his production gives Y.OU.N.G their own unique musical hybrid for Chez and Ben to lay vocal ideas over.

Greame and Tom are the rhythm section, they keep the whole thing movin and a’groovin. When not hitting skins for Y.O.U.N.G, Graeme Dj’s dance sets to euphoric Mancunian clubbers at the Victoria Warehouse and Northern Quarter hang outs.

Chez Davis is the lead singer/songwriter and lead guitarist of the band. Writing quickly and instinctively, he bombards Jamie with raw songs and guitar parts to finalise and colour in. The teenage Chez was in a Pop-Punk band, he brings the rock edge to Y.O.U.N.G.

Chez first picked up a guitar in his early teens and has worked with a host of big name music producers at the same time as playing for Manchester City & Burnley youth teams til the age came where he had to make a decision. It was football or music, music won and always has. He still currently holds the all time goal scoring record at Manchester’s most famous professional footballer producing stable Fletcher Moss Rangers. His unbelievable single season tally of 100+ goals (76 for the A team and 35 in other matches in the same season for the B team) beating all other Fletcher Moss forwards, records including the likes of now professional players such as Danny Welbeck, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard & Ravel Morrison.

He chose music…some would say he’s mad, but as the song says, You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do… (or something like that).