DUSH
Montréal, Quebec, Canada | SELF
Music
Press
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, April 11, 2010 – Every once in awhile, a band comes along and adds just the right elements to a genre in order to redefine it. Montreal based band Dush, has been dubbed as “bronze” an alloy of classic Heavy Metal infused with Pop, Synth, and Psychedelic elements to create a warmer and hazier sound. Aggressive instrumentals, sweeping keyboard hooks, and airy vocals gives Dush the ferocity of industrial Metal combined with the catchy tendencies of indie Pop music. Their album "Ancient Cities" captures their unique sound and offers a breath of fresh air to fans of Heavy Metal.
The culturally diverse components of the band give them a very worldly feel. Singer Mira Solomon arrived from Israel in 1992 and started writing music as an outlet for the stress involved with being transplanted into a new culture. Solomon caught the ear of Denis Hagalaz, the keyboardist of Dush who had received his classical training in his homeland of Russia. Hagalaz had met metal guitarist Vlad Tomshine while playing on Russian street corners with a Russian ex-pat band. The three melded together right away both with their musical chemistry and fascination with ancient history. It is these elements that give Dush their unique and worldly content, their affinity as a band being one of love for music and the fascination with ancient worlds.
Treading new ground with their style and offering listeners deep and atmospheric melodies is just the beginning of what Dush hopes to accomplish as a band. Drawing influence from each of their individual origins, every song is meticulously crafted and offers a reflection of civilization as a whole. Their live performances have been described as incredibly energetic; the perfect connection between performer and viewer, and the best way to see where Dush is coming from.
“We're not really trying to re-invent the wheel. We believe that everything that can be played and sung has been already composed. Yes, we were obligated to name our style of music "Bronze" because we were never able to pin-point exactly what genre we're located in (when people were asking us "What kind of music do you play" - we couldn't really answer) - the mix of a female melodic voice with a metal guitar and classic rock/industrial keyboards is somewhat unique,” they said.
After releasing Ancient Cities in 2008, the band has found their essence and will begin distributing to major labels, grant organizations, magazines, and radio stations. They will continue to tour in Montreal and hope to close the summer break with a grandiose electric show.
Diverse in their influence and flawless in their approach, Dush satisfies a new breed of modern aggressive music. Epic and intimate at the same time, the sound of Dush has been raising eyebrows around the Montreal area since 2008. Expect to see Ancient Cities cited as one of the groundbreaking Heavy Metal albums of recent time and for “Bronze” to become a more common term within the vein. For more information, check out their website at http://www.templeofdush.com.
Additional Contact:
Terrance Schemansky
3000 Records
586-480-3000
www.Mi2N.com - Eric De Fontenay /Terrance Schemansky www.Mi2N.com
The second show for the No Mercy Metal Festival is on July 24th at Santos Party House. SkullsNBones.Com is proud to be a sponsor of this event, which features the best national, regional, and local metal talent. Bands performing this show include DUSH, Until Ashes, We Fall As Heroes, From Bliss To Devastation, Lechworth, Eyes of The Sun, Facing the Sun, Embrace Agony, and Severed. Santos Party House is located at 96 Lafayette St. in New York. Show is all ages, and starts at 3:45pm. Get there early and stay the whole night for this amazing night of metal!
by Metal Mark
www.skullsnbones.com - Skulls N Bones (www.skullsnbones.com)
by LATEEF MARTIN
"Dush’s coliseum-class stage show keeps
the plebes salivating for more"
Montreal continues to be a Mecca to many industries, gaming for one; after all, what better place to build games than in a city full of artists, students and, yes, lushes? Montreal also attracts all types of musicians for its laidback lifestyle, nightlife, probably the poutine but definitely its openness to new music, and an eclectic pool of talent. Hailing from Russia and Israel, singer Mira Solo, guitarist Vlad Tomshine and keyboard player Denis Hagalaz forged their coal-black talents to diamond precision. Carving their mark in Montreal, Dush’s cultural backgrounds inform their music, an aspect that’s particularly important for Solo’s lyrics.
“For example, our song ‘Ancient Citie’s,” she says, referring to the title track of their debut EP, “represents the Mediterranean culture vocally and lyrically, the social and political conflict in Israel.”
“You see, all of us came from countries that were and are still going through some hard times,” explains Tomshine. “Denis and I came from Russia, Mira is from Israel. That gave us thick skin. We don’t easily give up on new ideas. We’re not afraid to evolve together and that gives a solid foundation to our music.
Montreal is home to many successful bands formed by transplants from other cities. As a result, we’ve become used to a high level of artistry and a wide range of musical combinations, the perfect environment for Dush’s “bronze” music, an alloy of metal’s aggression and gothic lushness.
“Montreal is by far one of the most demanding cities when it comes to art,” reflects Tomshine. “This makes it that much harder to create something special and to make it last. It drives us to be better composers, better performers and better show-businessmen.”
Hagalaz agrees. “The multicultural aspect of the city also creates the sort of possibilities where people from completely different places can get together and create something eccentric, something divergent.”
Image is another key factor to Dush, a conduit to their namesake and Bronze Age Egyptian imagery on their website. “The most powerful people in the Bronze Age societies were royalty, priests and warriors,” explains Solo. “Therefore, Dush represents the idea of power of that era as live performers. Denis’s stage wear suggests an image of a priest, Vlad’s as a warrior and mine as royalty. Our clothes are not custom-made, although that’s the idea for the near future—to hire a fashion designer to further express the idea of power.”
“And the industrial S&M look comes from the fact that the Bronze Age was overwhelmed with slavery,” adds Tomshine, “and that’s what S&M is all about—masters and slaves.”
Reaching into the past seems to be another driving force in Dush’s future, combining an ancient mindset for showmanship with current ferocity.
“We’re not pretending to re-invent the bicycle,” explains Hagalaz, “but what we do have to offer is an incredible show and that was always needed since the times of the Coliseum—bread and circuses, that’s what we have to offer.
“Not that we throw bread off the stage, but our energy is food for thought.”
- Montreal Mirror
Discography
Ancient Cities - EP, 2008
Photos
Bio
A new musical realm is rising on the complex map of modern aggressive music. Staking out new ground amid the countless categories of metal, the sound of bronze intimate yet epic, fierce yet beautiful has arrived. Its heralds are the three musical adventurers - the Queen, her Wizard and her Warrior at the heart of Montreal’s Dush.
The term “bronze” is ideally suited to Dush. Brighter and warmer in appearance than most ordinary metals, bronze is an alloy, a fusion of copper with one or more other, non-metal elements. Likewise, Dush temper their basis in the focus and ferocity of heavy metal and industrial music with components from outside the parameters of the genres - consider the pop inflections in the chorus of “Circles” or the enveloping, mesmerizing mysticism of “Numb.” Moreover, among the physical properties of bronze is its resistance to rust, reflected in the timelessness of their sound. Paradoxically, Dush are absolutely up the minute in their approach to aggressive music, yet at the same time, they draw on melodies and atmospherics that evoke ancient truths, summoning to mind the Bronze Age and the mysteries of the cradle of civilization.
Dush bring their new musical perspectives as strangers in the land they now call home. Singer Mira Solo arrived from Israel in 1992, and started writing music as an antidote to a cultural transplant’s melancholy. Positive reactions from those around her led to soft-rock sets at various little stages around Montreal, where in 2003 she caught the ear of Denis Hagalaz. The two clicked quickly - “You don’t find chemistry like that all the time,” says Solo. The keyboardist of Dush and a Canadian since 1996, Hagalaz’s childhood classical training in his Russian homeland, and a teenage fascination with blues, were followed by busking on street corners and a stretch with a Russian ex-pat bar band. It was with the latter that Hagalaz encountered guitarist Vlad Tomshine, a veteran of the Russian thrash metal scene of the mid-90s.
A fateful Christmas Day, 2005, saw an open-ended meeting of the three, an informal jam that made the formation of Dush inevitable. “We melted together immediately” says Tomshine. The band’s moniker chosen for its significance in both Hebrew and Russian, and for its connection to an actual temple in Egypt, reflecting the band's fascination with the murky depths of history. “I have a thing for ancient anything” says Solo. “For some reason, I’m drawn to that.” The three already wrote “Circles” together that very day, a song that became one of the five on their debut, independent EP, Ancient Cities, released in 2008. Dush pushes each of its members to reach farther and challenge their own limits. Tomshine took up the seven-string guitar to expand his sonic scope - “It’s a part of the Dush sound,” he says. Self-taught singer Solo continually discovered new vocal capabilities she didn’t know she had. “The music is very demanding,” says Hagalaz. “Physically,” adds Solo.
Soon enough, Dush were facing their baptism of fire, entering local battle-of-the-band tournaments with a fiercely competitive spirit their music may be bronze but the three were never content with anything less than the gold medal, snagging the number-one spot when the dust settles. Key to this was crafting a stage show as elaborate and evocative as their music, with attention paid to all aspects - wardrobe and makeup, lighting, pacing, interpersonal dynamics and presentation. “It’s very theatrical,” says Solo of the live show. “We’re trying to be sexual, because we want to attract people to come see our show, and if they can, fantasize about us. Because that’s the most addictive thing about a show, to see something sexy, something that seduces you.” Hagalaz adds to that, “When we come on stage, people’s jaws drop.”
The thoroughness that Dush bring to their show isn’t lacking elsewhere. Every detail of the band’s career, up front and public or behind the scenes, is handled with careful creative thought and professional diligence. “We have the same way of thinking, a clear vision of where we’re going,” says Tomshine. “We aren’t playing for ourselves in our garage, just for fun, drinking beer and whatever. We’ve come from other countries, from the other side of the world, to play music and become something - something big.”
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