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Seattle’s own dance band, United State of Electronica (U.S.E.), is rockin’ the
music industry in a big way and creating a growing community. U.S.E. began
very modestly two years ago when Jonathan Khanjian, AKA Jon-e Rock, drummer
and (sometimes rapper) wanted to jam on his birthday with a track he wrote on
his laptop. With the mantra, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we…” guiding their
formation, U.S.E. began as no more than a distraction for the members of the
band Wonderful.
Shane Tutmarc of Dolour fame was the original bassist and booked their first
show at I-Spy on a Monday night. The response from other band members was
“What?! We’re not even a band!” Even though they only had three songs, they
played anyway, performing two songs twice.
They called themselves United State of Electronica as a joke and later tried
to change the name. They announced themselves as Emerald City at an early show
at the Graceland, but it was the name United State of Electronica that stuck.
Their fan base began to blossom like mad; within a year, they were being wined
and dined by large and small record companies alike. They produced a three
song EP that was well received and a representative from Warner Brothers even
called them “the future of pop music.” But, despite the attention and
publicity, they were never offered a record deal. It was a “damning indictment
of the record when everyone turned us down,” remarked Noah Weaver, AKA Noah
Star. The band, which finds it extremely difficult to describe their own
music, characterizes themselves as a “Rock-dance band with an element of
party.” The record label responses were just as awkward as U.S.E.’s
self-described characterization, that the music “doesn’t quite work [with what
we’re doing],” and “doesn’t quite fit [our lineup],” explained Noah.
U.S.E. took it in stride, and before long, a community built around U.S.E.
began to emerge. B-Side Records published a 12” three-song vinyl EP. Dave
Radford began Nice Promotions, taking U.S.E. as his first client. Brandon
Tutmarc, Shane’s little brother, began doing almost all of the group’s graphic
design. In addition to their community of friends, U.S.E. gave birth to the
record label Mannheim. Originally a joke at a show when one of the members
said in a German accent “We’re from Mannheim, Germany,” Mannheim became
immortalized when Amanda, one of the vocalists, scribbled a caricature of an
androgynous, raceless, human that later became the Mannheim logo.
Under the Mannheim label, U.S.E. recently published their first full-length,
self-titled album, paying for the printing and duplication entirely from show
and merchandise revenues. With the goal of “get[ing] our music to as much of
the world as possible, using the mean which we have available to us,” they
began distributing the album to local record stores. Dave at Nice Promotions
also began to send the album out nationally to college radio stations and the
like. So far, album sales have been amazing; they sold over 800 of the three
song EPs at shows and local record stores. Noah commented that “indie record
stores, [especially] Sonic Boom, have been amazing to us.” They also sold over
400 copies of their freshly-minted full-length album during their recent West
Coast tour that included 11 shows. Since they’re producing everything
themselves, they’ve been able to get an efficient margin on every CD they
sell, which goes right back into promotion and production.
It’s not just record stores that have been welcoming. During their first tour,
U.S.E. found that they had fans in places they didn’t think people had even
been introduced to U.S.E. People packed out shows, already knowing the words
to songs in places where the record hadn’t even been made available yet.
Several college radio stations placed them in regular rotation and U.S.E. is a
favorite request at many stations.
Despite the apparent success, the U.S.E. crew still maintains a very
terrestrial existence. Everyone in the band holds down day jobs to pay the
bills. Often times they’ll play a sold out show, get to bed at 3am and then
wake up at 6am to go to work. Keeping their jobs while on tour has also been
somewhat precarious. While Amanda and Jon were both able to get a month off
for their national tour, Derek Chan, the bassist, had to quit his job to just
get a week off for the West Coast tour. Yet, music is definitely the focus of
their personal and professional lives. Peter remarked, “All of us have
sacrificed careers to do music.” Amanda replied “Sacrificing my career would
be not doing music.” Although their career as musicians has been lean, (“We’re
all pretty damn frugal” cited Jason), the importance of money was downplayed
by Peter: “We would be happy to live poor and do what we love.”
Doing what they love is music, and U.S.E. have a very fraternal do-it-yourself
style. At their CD release party at the Crocodile Café, Jason remarked that he
and Noah were in a room blowing up the balloons for an hour beforehand.
They’ve also been able to do just about everything else by themselves that
would be taken care of by other people if they had a big label backing them.
Noah explained, “The only thing that we don’t have covered that a major label
would cover is the actual physical presence of CDs in stores.” I’d expect that
to change as more radio stations begin to put the band into rotation.
U.S.E. is excited for the future and they see positive signs from the music
industry. “[We’re] encouraged that major labels are threatened at this point,”
Jason said, in response to the hegemony that the major labels hold. U.S.E. is
also happy that a lot of bands have been putting out their own music,
including recording, producing, and distributing it themselves. As Amanda
said, “So many people wouldn’t have been signed in today’s music industry:
Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, etc. The risks that used to be taken are not
anymore.” This could account for some of the reason that larger labels have
been phobic of U.S.E. thus far.
The future is looking bright for U.S.E. They’re returning from a month-long
national tour with the Tulsa, Oklahoma turned Seattle band Aqueduct. Their new
album has been in regular rotation in Seattle on both KEXP and KNDD (The End).
With a goal to be the first band to freely give their music away, but still to
be able to make enough money to do music full-time, U.S.E. is out to change
the music industry and the world. As Peter put it, “Everyone in the world will
hear it and we’ll make a little money in the process.” Sounds like a pretty
ambitious plan, but watch out for U.S.E.—if we see the music industry turn on
its head, they’ll be out front of the rebellion waving their “dance-rock”
flag.
United State of Electronica performs July 25 at the Capitol Hill Block Party in
Seattle. For more info, check out usemusic.com.
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