UNEMPLOYABLE

Dion: To elaborate, Katy and I met at a Fader party at Union Pool in like 08. The guy she was dating at the time was a friend of mine and had invited me to come along. We were introduced and started talking and geeking out about music. It was great cause she and I shared mostly the same interest in music. And we were both obsessed with Tv on The Radio, and thats how our music collaboration came about. Then later on down the line, I was introduced to Erika through Katy and thats when everything came together.

Dion: I listen a lot of different genres, but mostly indie rock/pop/alternative music. From as far back as I can remember, I always gravitated to music that has some rock influence. When I was a kid I would listen to my mom’s records, Tina Tuner, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins and Michael Jackson. I would wear those records out, I couldn’t stop listening to them. Tina Tuner “Better be good to me”, Whitney Houston “One Moment in Time” was my fav song at the time, it possibly still could be. Not very Rock n Roll, but that was my early influence. Then we got a satellite dish (which was not so common at the time in Jamaica), then I discovered Mtv and Mtv2, which was all grunge all day long at the time, and that’s when my obsession with rock began. I was walking around school singing Nirvana, Green Day (circa 95), Sound Garden, Pearl Jam, Collective Soul, Hole songs and having these Jamaican kids looking at me all weird, wondering what di rass mi a sing. It was only cool to listen to Beenie man, Bounti Killa and Lady Saw, and if you liked anything other than reggae or rap, you were considered a social misfit and outcast. So that I was, and I really didn’t give a shit cause that’s is what I liked. And still like, and I’m into bands that are pushing the genre envelope, Friendly Fires, The Kills, Vampire Weekend, Tv on The Radio, Gnarls Barkley, Radiohead, Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, Santigold, Rilo Kiley, N.E.R.D. to name a few.

Dion: That it is, emotional and catchy. That sums it up pretty well. And it’s “electropopindierock” dammit!

How long did it take you to write and record the songs? Where did you record it?

Katy: Some of the first songs were written years ago, some in Jersey and at my Brooklyn Navy yards studio but for this EP its really been in the last 6 months that these songs have come together from recording sessions in my studio in Red Hook, Brookyn. The album is also years in the making and there are a lot of transformations the songs have gone through, too.

Dion: Yea, Katy had some songs under her belt prior, and her and I wrote some when we got together. And when Erika came along we wrote Bonfire in a day! Thats how we knew it was meant to be, lol. The song writing sessions were super fun, we would bounce ideas off each other and everything was pretty open. So we really didn’t disagree on much so that made it easy and fast. The recording took place over the period of a year, in between different locations as mentioned by Katy.

What is your creative process? How do you write the songs together?

Katy: Some songs are written together and some separately. We recently wrote the beginnings of a few songs by just jamming out with the band. The chord progressions are written by laying down keys in Logic Audio and guitar and lyrics can either come off the fly or we sit down together and make them flow. The vocals can start with a basic melody and the lyrics are usually pretty cerebral, coming from some deep place in our hearts, sounds cheesy but i like to just take my emotions and create music from them because they can really be intense and its crucial to have that outlet. Every song is written differently but its mostly done while recording some rough ideas into Logic layer on top of layer, like a cake. Then we listen back and add and subtract the parts.

Dion: Yea what she said, lol. Recently it has been jamming and just finding a right vibe and going with it. Don’t want to get too technical with it. It’s all about a feeling. at least for me it is.

What is your musical background and history?

Katy: I started playing piano at an early age but since I didn’t grow up in an artistic family I did not realize I was musically talented until about age 24 after I had been DJing for about 6 years. After the rave scene died out due to all the drugs I joined an all female hip hop/reggae/latin music band. We recorded and gigged a lot in Austin then one day I just packed up and moved to Brooklyn.  At this time I studied music theory and read everything I could, I had many piano teachers but the guy at Slope Music in park slope hammered home the memorization of chords. The lessons on intervals and vocal lessons were a big help, too. I also had a mentor, Mike Genato, that I learned from as well, in terms of using Logic and setting up my own recording studio but also how to add emotion to your chords and melodies as well as arrange songs. We released an album together two years ago that features singers, downtempo beats and a remix that gets a lot of downloads. The songs have been licensed to TV over seas, also used in a Austrian snowboarding DVD, too. After meeting Dion, song writing was taken to a whole new level for me since she’s a great lyricist and her ear gravitates to the chords i like too, its really just about capturing a feeling when you write a song. Erika has a total knack for creating nice vocal melodies and her eccentric style and background make for a great collaboration with Dion and I since we are all basically aliens from another planet.

Dion: I came to NY for design school. The design school was affiliated with a popular music school, I met and befriended some of the Jazz musicians and I began to study their every move. Then I decided I want to pursue my dream of becoming a musician after seeing them play at numerous jazz gigs. I graduated and was working as a Graphic designer for a bit, then took some of the money I was earning and invested in my instrument, a casio keyboard. Practiced for couple of weeks and could play a few tunes, but I was simply not satisfied. I thought, what do I really want to play, pondered back to my childhood where I would play Nirvana songs on air guitar and then that’s when my decision was made, I’m gonna learn how to play guitar! Took a few lessons at this guitar school in Midtown. I kinda had a knack for it, cause a few weeks into it I was playing songs. I didn’t really think I would take it very far, it was just something I was doing because I always wanted to do it. I always thought it would be cool and fun to be in a band, but I didn’t think I had any musical talent because no one in my life has encouraged me to do music, until I met this wonderful musician at my friends jumpsuit party, Joshua Guthals of Kind Monitor. And he gave me some wonderful advice, he said “If you want it, go get it!”. Now that might not be his exact words, but it was something along those lines, I think he also said, “You are as talented as you think you are”, which might also not be his exact word, but you catch my drift. After that he took me under his wing and the rest is history I suppose. And oh yea, before meeting Joshua, my music guru, I met a guy who played bass and was looking for a vocalist for his ska band, at the time I was interested in being in a band, but didn’t think I was good enough, but he encouraged me to try out anyway. I sang “Wicked Games” by Chris Isaac, and they thought my voice was nice and fitting for their band, so they took pity on me and made me join. I was thrilled, but at the time I sucked pretty bad at guitar, and the band didn’t last, I guess they didn’t want to grow with me. We wrote a few songs, that was my first song writing experience, and one of my songs was recorded and is some where in myspace obscurity.

Erika: My musical background wasn’t so musical but as aforementioned, I am the rapper of the group. I started making hip hop beats on an asr 10 keyboard, I’d sit all day and program loops and save them on a scsi interface and external HD, I’d pretty much freestyle all day and i’d record myself using a tape recorder, i started writing songs with my best friend Zde is a producer, he did rnb tracks and back when i was 17, we’d make 90’s rnb vibe music with rhymes, biggie, foxy brown, blackstreet, swv, wu tang etc I was actually into all genres of music and I was really into sampling at the time. I was a promoter and organized festivals, concerts, parties etc. I did live sound and worked as a stage hand, back in Sydney the cheapest studio was 70 p/hr, this pissed me off so eventually I took an interest in audio myself and started interning at recording studios, picking up trash and cleaning consoles with q-tips. I took on engineering as a career and it became my source of income when i moved to America. I did bookings for a local rap group that moved to Sydney from NY, I would be in sessions and expressed interest in writing with their group, I let them hear my songs and the main rapper told me that I would never make it, I’m not talented and that i should stick to the music of business, I organized a tour to for them to go to NY in Sept 2001, I asked them if I could perform 1 verse of a song that I wrote to one of  their songs, they told me if i ever brought it up again they would fire me, then sept 11 happened, I stopped working for them but really wanted to come to NY, it stayed on my mind, in the meantime started a group of my own, 3 female mc’s and we performed at venues all around sydney, 1 of which was shoreshocked, and outdoor festival where 10,000 people showed up. I had an itch to move to America, I didnt know anyone on the continent apart from my good friend Kamren in LA, I saved up by working 3 jobs. Moved to the westcoast, then moved to NY, didnt know anyone here, 4 years later after the strugglefest of the century, looking back i was working as an engineer at some big studios in NY, engineered for diddy, jay-z in 06, managed legacy -now msr studios in 08 and when legacy shut down, I had a revalation, I only dabbled in my own talent, sure i’d write songs, I accumulated a studio set up at home from engineering days and had enough to take production, writing and performing seriously, I sidetracked for too long, I was unemployed and churned out a production library of tracks, started producing for local BK artist Raye 6. I hadn’t picked up a mic in a while when I met Katy and Dion, it was like oh shit, I can do this. I started writing and singing with them it was so much fun, Dion got me a bass and for some reason I know how to play even though I never really played before. It’s just endless creativity and I really feel blessed that I met them. Ironic, the whole time since I left the 3 girl group, i’ve been wanting to be a part of a 3 girl group!

Katy: I think its really learning to translate our songs live with a full band. We practice every week and its a great feeling to really learn the songs and start to be able to take them to the next level on a stage. We have a ton of gigs coming up, too. Also, we are shooting a music video for “Monkey” and the response and interest from everyone involved has been so encouraging and without a doubt this will be an amazing music video.

Katy: We get really positive feedback from the song Monkey which Mike and I wrote the music for several years ago, inspired heavily by Kenna’s new album. This song sort of defined this new sound and it is essentially where I wanted to go with song-writing, having live sounding musical changes over electronic beats and elements. Its also a special song for  the band to perform live.  The concept and lyrics were written in Amsterdam while I was immobilized in a coffee shop, coincidentally I ended up hitting it off with a friend of a friend sitting next to me who ended up sending the song to his friend Doctrations from Rotterdam and his remix inspired the idea to do a Monkey Remix EP. Mike and I work together under Handinhand aka HNH so we did a remix together and he did one under his latest moniker, RVRSplay. The EP also includes songs that were all collaborations with Mike so they are more electronic tracks in terms of the arrangement for the most part whereas Monkey captures more of the sound of our live band and the songs to come.

Most songs are dance tracks, why are you putting them out?

Katy: The EP is based around our single, “Monkey” plus 3 incredible remixes and 2 bonus tracks. The album, “Bonfire” is coming out before we go to SXSW next year, so this release is essentially a taste of whats to come.  We have so many songs but we are going to wait until October and some are suggesting we do a January release instead. We’ll see what happens.