Members of Chicago's Walsher Clemons may be young (they still have day jobs and live in their parents’ homes), but they already have a huge sound. Self-described as “the spawn of Michael Jackson and Phish,” Walsher Clemons’  debut album Dancing & Praying delivers a "funky, soulful, yet poppy gumbo of genres." Created by Frank Minella (guitar, vocals), Patrick Walsh (guitar), and Michael Campo (drums), Craig Urban (bass), Alif Muhammad (piano), and Riley Pettrone (vocals), Dancing & Praying—which drops September 1—chronicles the struggle of trying to break away from a suburban, 9-5 lifestyle while chasing the dream. Today, we're excited to premiere the band's latest single, "Dance Like a Lunatic." Give it a listen above.

Minella and Walsh talk to Myspace about just how real that struggle is—the members went to college for a year but decided music was more important. "The whole college campus lifestyle really just wasn't for us," they said. "We all gave it a shot, but ultimately we all felt that returning to Chicago and getting the band back together was what all we really wanted to do."

Hometown: The Chicagoland area, mostly from the southwestern suburbs. The band itself was born at Lyons Township High School in LaGrange.  We played a few shows at the school; LT football rules!

Homebase: Still in the Chicago-area.  We love the city and ultimately that's where we think we'll end up, but for now, some of us are starving artists fresh out of college trying to do what we love.

How did you all meet? 

Most of us met in high school.  The original band was just Frank, Pat, and Mike, but as we grew into more serious musicians, we decided to add Pat's cousin, Riley, to sing lead.  That's when Frank made the legendary jump from bass to guitar, and Craig took over bass duties full-time after he answered a heartfelt Craigslist ad.  Alif settled in on keyboards about a year ago, also from a very kindly-worded online ad.  Craigslist has been very good to us.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

The variety for each of us individually is pretty wide, but as a band we would probably say Michael Jackson, Phish, Steely Dan, Dave Matthew Band, and Stevie Wonder.

Is the Phish comparison a good thing? What do you think of jam bands?

Phish rocks!  Plus Pat looks like Trey a little bit.  We're a fan of jam bands, and we would mostly consider ourselves a jam band, even though we don't really go on 20 minute musical adventures.

Why are you called Walsher Clemons? What does your name mean?

One day, an old high school friend of ours called Pat (whose last name is Walsh) "Walsher Clemons".  We don't really know why he said it or how he thought of it, but the name just kind of resonated with us, and we imagined it would look killer on a tie-dye T shirt.

How does living in Chicago influence your music?

Chicago has a righteous music scene full of jazzy chords and intense drum beats.  We have been throwing that into our music recently and it has been very fun and interesting for us.

What's the craziest thing that a fan has done for you so far?

At our last show at House of Blues Chicago, a woman threw her bra on stage.  It landed just in front of Frank, and Riley eventually threw it back to the woman because she was asking for it back.  I don't know why she would throw it up and expect to get it back, but we thought it was very kind of Riley to return the bra.

Why is your album called Dancing & Praying?

The title was originally inspired by an excerpt from the lyrics on the song "Jungle." We felt that those two words described our current situation. We are dancing along and making people dance while praying that we can make this dream a reality.

What is "Dance Like a Lunatic" about? Why did you choose it as a single?

"Dance Like a Lunatic" is representative of the 9-to-5 grind and the desire to let loose afterwards. We chose it as a single because it gave us goose pimples, and we knew that it was likely to have the same effect on the masses. Plus, who can't relate to working all week only to go cray on the weekend?