dynah

THE NAME 'DYNAH' was taken from Lewis Carroll's novel, Alice in Wonderland. The name belongs to Alice's cat, Dinah (we altered the spelling, of course). The primary focus of the group is to share their common music interests with the world. In the spring/summer of 2005, the four came together after a brief hiatus and commenced in finishing writing songs for the Wake EP, scheduled to be released in Spring 2006. In little more than 2 years, Dynah has recorded a full-length album and toured heavily within Texas quickly gaining considerable attention not only from fans, but also from the music community. At present, they're in the final mixing stages of the Wake EP, and are writing new material for their next full-length album, while continuing to tour.

Singer and Keyboardist, Rion Bsaies, was born overseas in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to a mixed set of parents, one from Colorado and one from Tunisia. He did not move to the U.S. until 1995. Spending most of his life traveling, he was never really exposed to what is considered "pop culture". Trained in classical piano, Rion became familiar with composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Chopin, and was later influenced by ragtime and blues. It was not until a summer trip to France, at the age of 12, that he discovered Nirvana. After that, he couldn't get enough of rock music. Rion cites Radiohead, Depeche Mode, and New Order as some of his biggest influences.

Bassist, Phil Brasenell, originally hails from Stratford on Avon, UK. Having traveled to and lived in, many different locations and countries in the last 10 years, he finally left the band scene in the San Francisco Bay Area for Austin in the summer of 2000 for a fresh start. His main musical influences are James, The Wonderstuff and The Stone Roses, amongst many others.

Guitarist, Mark Jorgenson, the newest kid on the Dynah block, met Phil, Mark and Rion after playing some shows together with Dynah around town in his former band Bélu. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he lived in several cities in the U.S. before calling Austin home. Leaving the sparse, defunct music scene in San Diego for the hip, roots art culture of Austin in 1999, he played the Austin scene and "had always admired Dynah's musicality and killer shows." Mark has been playing guitar since he was 6, with a diverse musical background, including classical guitar. Among many of his rock influences, some include: Doves, South, Kent, Elbow, Johnny Marr and Jonny Greenwood, Mick Ronson, as well as other alt rock pioneers like The Sugarcubes, and Echo & the Bunnymen.

Drummer, Mark Son, was born and pretty much grew up in Austin, so he's no stranger to the city's thriving music scene. He picked up some drumsticks when he was about twelve, started playing, and hasn't stopped since. His main influences include Stewart Copeland, Carter Beuford, Buddy Rich, Danny Carey, and Phil Selway. Some of Mark's favorite bands include Radiohead, Placebo, At the Drive In, and The Mars Volta. Mark played in several local bands before meeting Phil and Mike Freitag, the band's original guitarist. Through a turn of events they started their own project and, in the process, picked up Rion who became the fourth member of Dynah.