A Dead Pixel

A Dead Pixel

~ Keiffer ~ “Aaron and I were thrown into a dorm room at Berklee College of Music in ’94. He played a strange acoustic guitar with 5 strings, in a wacky Eastern-sounding tuning. His songs were dark and stirring, and immediately resonated with a depth of soul you could feel.”

~ Aaron ~ “Keiffer always had a love for numbers and noise. One of my earliest memories was of him sitting on his bed with his left-handed bass and a metronome. He would play through a scale and then repeat it...and repeat it...and repeat it. At first I thought I was going to have to smash his bass against the wall! But then as I listened, I realized he was constantly switching it up every time by playing behind, between, and ahead of the click. Then he would get bored and go make his clock radio sound like a dolphin swallowing a Theremin.”

~ K ~ “I met Derek when we were 5. We’ve been in more bands together than either of us can remember. He’s by far the sickest drummer I know. Exceptional groove, tribal fills, knowing when to breathe, hitting hard and fast, he’s seamless. The key is that he writes for the song. Every hit, every feel has its purpose.”

~ A ~ “In a way, Keiffer approaches the bass like a guitar. He'll go from a shimmering treble-like picking pattern to an earth shattering cluster of low notes that sounds like a chord on steroids, all while holding down the root. I think it's because of Keiffer's keen sense of timing and Derek's fearless approach to rhythm that allows them to lock in the way they do.”

~ K ~ “Aaron’s ear for melody is his greatest gift. He doesn’t know a C from an E flat, but time and again he picks up his guitar, finds a pattern he likes, and weaves a melody, (often light and dark at once), in a single pass. He’s completely self-taught. There has never been a filter between him and the song.”

~ A ~ “A Dead Pixel, before having a band or a name, was a mission to bring songs out of the bedroom into the light of day. We thought we were making an acoustic EP, but the songs were so dynamic, they really took on a life of their own. Strings, keys, piano, ebow, frame drum, bells, and finally electric guitar…”

~ Derek ~ “We were recording in LA for the last EP. Aaron had always played acoustic guitar, but he wanted some bite to it. They were trying to put his Martin through a Mesa stack and it just wasn’t working. I asked, ‘Do you want it to sound like an acoustic or an electric?’ ‘Electric’, he said. ‘Then play an electric guitar!’ We plugged him in and all had this ‘AHA!’ moment.”

~ K ~ “I think that’s when we knew we were a band. That gave us the range we needed – intimate acoustic landscape to cacophonous electric crescendo! It definitely raises the bar and sets the stage for our next record.”