Apparent Communication From One Mind To Another

I can't stop listening to "Chromes on it"** from Telepathe, cracking my head with an obsessive intensity. Is that real telepathy?
I can hear that from the distance, experimental and psychedelic, mysterious, doomy, and provocatively sweet, spiritual and criminal.
Telepathe is comprised of Melissa Livaudais, Busy Gangnes and Ryan Lucero.
Melissa comes from New Orleans, Busy & Ryan from L.A, all now based in Brooklyn, NY.
Their first album is expected hopefully sometimes this mid-year. I got this rare exciting feeling: a kind of an imperceptible need to possess eagerly . Unmaterial things. ethe-REAL.
I've met both girls separately, hazardously and furtively during a trip to New York, visiting my friend Sophie. I admit having already noticed their delicate aura. Their music seems to precise this halo.

**see playlist



How did you start playing music?
Melissa: Busy and I started the band about 3 years ago; however, we have been playing together for about 5 ½ years. We used to be in a band called Wikkid together and that ended, and we really wanted to keep playing together, as well as make something new and totally different from our old sound in Wikkid.

Busy: We played with Allie Alvarado who played a sampler and did guitar work with Melissa, and I played a drum kit. The three of us made our Farewell Forest EP which was released on The Social Registry Label. All of those songs came mainly from improvising, recording our rehearsals, and then editing down the improvisations. Allie went on to do other things at which point Ryan Lucero started playing with us about 2 1/2 years ago. He plays guitar and has a really cool, melodic, minimal style. We made our Sinister Militia 12" with him, which was released on the Social Registry.
We also collaborate sometimes with Shannon Funchess (Durty Nanas, Tv On The Radio, !!!, Tkwebb), who is a great vocalist. Our friend Gloria Maximo has performed with us as well, contributing costume ideas, vocals, and sweet dance moves. Jessie Gold just started doing vocals and dances with us live as well.

You're currently working on an album, could you tell more about it?
Busy : We recently finished our first full-length album. We worked with producer Dave Sitek (Tv On The Radio), and engineer Chris Coady for about a month. It's a pop album. Dance music. We loaded the songs up with catchy hooks and melodies, and gave the new stuff a lot more structure than our older music.

Your artistic expectations? Your commercial expectations?
Melissa: The only expectation we really have is creative freedom. We have an insatiable appetite for learning new things and challenging ourselves artistically…so we never want to be stuck to the same process or the same way of making music, and we never want to be locked into a certain genre. I guess commercially speaking the only thing we want to do is take over the world, that’s not hoping for too much? Right? Actually, Busy and myself are producers, and we would like to be taken seriously as such. People have been asking us to do remixes for them and stuff, and we are so psyched about that stuff. We are doing an Effi Briest “Mirror Rim” remix and a Kills song “UR a Fever.”

What's your opinion on the New York music scene? Are you related to one of them?
Melissa: It is easy to forget how much music stuff is going on in Brooklyn, and it is a very exciting time here. Yes we do have a community of musicians and we love and respect our peeps dearly. For a long time we really rebelled against being a part of the “noise/psych” scene thing, because we are not a noise band, and just by living in Brooklyn we inevitably kept getting grouped into a certain “scene;” which was actually not our scene at all. We are a straight up pop band with a serious desire to write the catchiest hooks.

Busy: We have a lot of awesome friends that make music here. I feel like there's not really a cohesive scene though. Sometimes we'll read that we're being
compared to other bands that we don't know and have never heard their music. It seems to me that a scene should be a community, and to be honest most of our music friends make stuff that's really different from our sound. Anyway, my point is that I'm not really sure what the supposed scene is or how we fit in, but I'm psyched when our friends come to our shows, and vice versa.

What kind of music is influencing you?
Melissa: Honestly, the biggest influence, right now, is the local hip hop radio station in NYC and DJ Kingdom.



What are the important themes developped through your music / Lyrics?
Melissa: The usual themes, Crimes and Killings, Death and Destruction, and being in love. There is a joint for everyone on our record that is due out sometime in the future.

What's your point of view regarding digital music. For instance, do you think the digital is somehow killing the physical industry?
Melissa: I love the Internet. Besides live performance, the Internet is one of the only free mediums of expression left in the world…so I am all for file sharing, downloading etc… I don’t know if it's killing the industry, but I think its forcing the industry to shape up and catch up with the rest of the world…basically, the artist has control over her or his music more than ever before. That is so fucking exciting!

Busy: I wouldn't say killing the physical industry, but yes it's dramatically changing it, and replacing it. It's not necessary anymore to go to a record store to get music. I don't think it's a bad thing.

Is the object of a cd or vinyl important for you?
Melissa: I love vinyl but honestly the format I listen to more than anything else is mp3. I don’t care for cds. I would have to say that I am a sucker for instant gratification and an ipod and an mp3 full fill that desire.
Busy: I think vinyl is still valid. It has a different sound quality than an mp3.

How do you start thinking of a cover/ booklet design of your cd?
Melissa: I’m totally ADD and I constantly think about art for our music, but its kind in the same way we make music, Chopped up and looped and all fucked up digital photoshop kind of stuff or something.
I don’t’care for the idea of” fine art” or “fine fidelity.” I’m a punk at heart and I want to destroy it. Those things remind me of “high brow” “low brow,” and “genius,” and I think the Internet is really blurring and killing the lines of those antiquated, ideas about art and music. And it’s inspiring more and more people to make stuff.

Busy: Our friend Elizabeth Bethea made a drawing for our farewell forest ep. For our 12" we took an image from a piece of fabric and then treated it in photoshop.

How do you see the future of independent music?
Melissa: The future of independent music, I have no idea because I can only understand the present. People are not going to stop making music in the future.

Reiko Underwater
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Bethea

More: Telepathe on the web