Related posts: thesoundalarm.com / Interview By: Amy Rebair and Stephany Delgado Tell us little about yourselves, your roles in the band, and how the band became to be? Jenny Electrik: I was just starting to play music again when I met Seth at a lower east side bar. He was waiting f or a blind date, who was running late. I was the bartender. A f ew minutes into the conversation, we realized our mutual love of music. It turned out Seth was looking f or a bass player f or his avant-jazz band. I had just picked up the bass a f ew months prior. He asked me to join his new band Dynasty and we’ve been creating and evolving ever since. What is the influence behind the name Dynasty Electric? Seth Misterka: Well, I came f rom jazz music and the original name of the project was Seth Misterka Dynasty, inspired by the jazz composer Charles Mingus’ Dynasty. T he name was later shortened to just Dynasty. I wanted the band to be like a f amily. Af ter the departure of our original drummer, I started programming beats, and we renamed the project Dynasty Electric. Are there any musical acts that influences or inspire you? Jenny Electrik: I played in a Beatles cover band when I was a teenager. When I went to college, I put music aside f or a bit. A f ew years later, I heard the Bjork album Homogenic, which spawned a musical resurgence in my lif e. Shortly af ter, I met Seth and started playing improvised music, which terrif ied me and broke all my boundaries. Seth Misterka: Originally I was inspired by artists like John Coltrane and Sun Ra. Honestly, I’m pretty much inf luenced by the entire spectrum of music, even country. I’ve never looked to just one artist or genre f or inspiration. I just love music Jenny Electrik was supposed to be on bass, and then became front woman. What prompted the change? Seth Misterka: Early on we went on tour in Calif ornia as an instrumental trio. I remember sitting on the beach in LA and Jenny was like “You know I can sing too. I think we could write some great songs together.” I thought it was a perf ect idea. As an instrumental band, there was a ceiling as to how f ar we could take things. It really opened us up to a wider world of music and opportunity. Coming from Brooklyn, where the scene is heavy on an electronic pop sound, what sets you apart from your other counterparts in the scene?
Jenny Electrik: We experiment with many dif f erent genres. Our album “Golden Arrows” is a mix of psychedelic electric rock and pop, hip-hop, sof t-rock, dance, and reggae. We are now working on some dub step and country inf luenced songs. Seth Misterka: We’re probably the only band that would open f or the Meat Puppets on one tour, then Curren$y on the next. We are genre-benders and shape-shif ters. We sound a little like a lot of stuf f yet like nothing else because we throw it all in a blender. How was working with producer Ski Beatz, whose worked with artists such as Jay-Z and Camp Lo? Seth Misterka: In 2009 we starting attracting some attention f rom hip hop circles because of the way were mashing up rock music with beats and samples. I remember thinking it would be cool to collaborate with a hip hop producer and all of a sudden Ski Beatz and Dame Dash came into the picture. Working with Ski Beatz was really amazing; we just had a great creative chemistry right of f the bat. As soon as we got together we just kept spinning out song af ter song. Ski is like a Z en master in the studio, and we learned so much f rom working with him. And we were able to show him all things that we know about like electric guitars, theremin, psych rock etc. T he track “Golden Arrows” was the very f irst song we wrote together… It reminds a little of old school New York hip-hop like Run DMC, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, mashing up rock rif f s and hip hop beats. Most of the tracks were recorded in Woodstock, NY at an estate Damon was renting. I remember f eeling like there was so much music in the air up there, it was almost like you could pluck a song f rom the sky. T he whole thing was a magical experience really. Your album Golden Arrows came out in early May, how has your fans reaction been to it? Jenny Electrik: We are so blessed! T he reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. T hank you so much everyone. You’ve recently participated in the Mermaid Parade, could you share with our readers a bit about what it is? And how was it performing? Jenny Electrik: Yes! Last summer. It was super f un. We got on our bright green school bus, picked up a bunch of colorf ul characters f rom House of Yes in Bushwick- mermaids, stilt walkers, dancers, painters, and mystics. It was exhilarating to drive down Surf Avenue in Coney Island, through a sea of people, on the roof of the bus. Green Bus Tour is an organization I started with my f riend Charlie Gonzalez, as a way to promote sustainable living, creativity, and health through eco-consciousness, yoga, and music. What do you have planned for the summer? How about until the end of the year? Jenny Electrik: We are spending the summer in the New England Beach town of Westport, MAwriting music, creating art, and gearing up f or the f all. We will be recording another f ull-length album in NYC. Anything else you’d like to add? Jenny Electrik: Our new label, No Shame is releasing Dynasty Electric Love this f all. It’s a package centered around our new single “Electric Love”. It includes three remixes, two by Cid D Kid and one by Sam Walker & Tony Grund, and a music video directed by Casey Anderson. For more information on Dynasty Electric please visit their Official Site or MySpace.
You can also tweet to the band by tweeting @ dynastyelectric.