In 2015, Joe Jonas announced his first project since the Jonas Brothers officially split: a band called DNCE. Joe recruited guitarist JinJoo Lee, bassist and keyboardist Cole Whittle, and drummer Jack Lawless, who worked with Joe back in his JB days.

JinJoo told Interview Magazine the meaning of the band’s name.

‘DNCE’ is ‘dance’ without an A. It’s not a perfect word, and you don’t have to be a perfect dancer to dance. Life is just sometimes not perfect.

On September 14, 2015, the band premiered their debut single, “Cake By the Ocean,” on New York’s Z100. The song blew up and soon found a place in the background of an AT&T commercial. This drove more people to check out their music and boosted sales and popularity.

On October 23rd, 2015, the SWAAY EP was released, and a few months later the band announced they would be touring with Selena Gomez in the summer of 2016.

On November 18th, 2016, the self-titled debut album was released.

On June 15th, 2018, the People to People EP was released. This was their last project until their hiatus due to Jonas and Lawless continuing with the Jonas Brothers starting from February 28th, 2019. As of now, they are on hiatus.