The Ovoids
Hailing from a Sub-actuality Bubble (a micro-universe beneath reality), Brent Santin's good friends and backing band, the OVOIDS, are a group of hyper-tonal monks whose style of music is difficult to pin down: Voodoo Celtic, Electro-Dweeb-Bop, beat poetry, cheezy Lounge music attitude with elevator-music type backup vocals. The tunes span the gamut of musical styles: Reggae, 1980s New-Wave sounds, spoken word, Celtic, shopping mall MUZAK. Just imagine a milkshake made from dweebly electronic computer blips and ancient Celtic instruments (like the tin-whistle, Irish flute, bodhran, mandolin). Just imagine Druids meet Cylons, Mennonites meet Devo, and you will get a hint of what The Ovoids are like. You'll probably hate it. We don't understand why we do it, but we can't stop...an addiction to cheeziness, perhaps - just as you *have* to lick that flourescent orange powder from your fingers after you polish off a bag of Cheetos, we have to keep playing this stuff. It's bad and you know it is, but it's SOOOO good.
The Ovoids present an often whimsical, sometimes naive mixture of synthpop, chiptune and acoustic music composed on 19th century folk instruments, 1980s synths, primitive sequencers, vintage computers & early electronic toys. If you like organic bleepy music that's not afraid to embrace its geeky side, then this might be for you.
Ral-Clan (lead vocals): Hi, I don't know what we are doing here.
Luftonic (drums): We're supposed to talk about the band.
Ral-Clan: ...er...okay. I don't know why anyone would want to listen to this music....I dig it, but who else would?
Ronkor (synths): ...Well not many, but maybe someone.
Ral-Clan: Yeah, it's just pretty dweeby. I mean, I like that, but who else is there that might be stunned enough to listen to this drivel?
Frentzkor: (bass) ...now your making me depressed, Ral-Clan.
Hudson (winds): Heck! This Music Rocks the dweeb realm!
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
Definitely a lot to come here.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
Ral-Clan (lead vocals): Of course, there is a lot of equipment to lug around, plus all the energy crystals to power it...but seriously, er...the last time we played live was at the wedding of Baron Dreeek's daughter in the Temple of 50Hz. That show rocked with all sorts of cheezy buzz tones....and we got FREE melon to boot! Yeah but seriously....WHO is actually going to like this music besides us??!! NO ONE I tell you! But is that going to stop us? NO!
Your musical influences
Luftonic (drums): Oh, you know, there are lots of influences. Definitely the Harmonic Cardinals. Reality plane bands would be Devo, The Mike Flowers Pops, The Beautiful South, The Cure, Scratch Lee Perry, all sorts of Reggae bands, Traditional Celtic groups like Altan, Solas, Flook, Shooglenifty, Martyn Bennet. Blippy computer music and Stephen Hawking's voice synthesizer are also very cool. Oh....and we love lounge music....Andy Williams, Claudine Longet, Henry Mancini....oh, the RAY CONNIFF singers are awesome. Basically we love cheese and we love blippy electronic dweeb stuff and we love big religious Reggae bass riffs and spiritual Celtic instrumental twirls. Now we just have to figure out how to merge it all.
What equipment do you use?
Irish wooden flute, bodhran, mandolin, Roland Juno 106 Analogue Synth, Yamaha DX-100, Amiga computers, CASIO toy keyboards & electronic games, melodoca, reed organs, and any instruments we find in the garbage!
