Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Infatuating Lena
An unusual pairing of father and daughter musicians has evolved into Infatuating Lena, the electronica duo of Dennis Drew and Tera Drew. Together, they weave entrancing rhythms, intoxicating vocals and electronic music into a medium that is at once both expressionistic and direct in its storytelling quality. Each original song reflects the unique talents of the duo.
Tera is a prolific writer whose roots are in poetry and storytelling. The young synthesist/vocalist has written over 100 songs ranging from modern ballads to classic blues pieces. Her vocal style, sometimes described as "Tori Amos meets Hooverphonic," is sultry and hypnotic, and lends itself perfectly to the duo's wide ranging, evolved songwriting.
Dennis is a member of the Genesee Flood Plain Composer's Forum, a group which includes such notables as Steve Greene and Tim Sullivan. His music can be heard weekly on the National Public Radio show, "What the Tech!" Dennis has written and produced literally 1000's of musical compositions. His latest, "The Destiny of Man," is a modernistic electro-musical, full orchestral symphonic work. He is also an inventor, with more than eighty products to his credit; and he produced the first CD released by Rochester's word-music group, Floom.
Infatuating Lena has been featured on the WXXI radio program, "Music for the 21st Century," hosted by Chris Hickey; and they have performed in Wilmot Hall at Nazareth College.
You can catch a rare live performance by the duo on Sunday, June 6 in the RAPA Theatre, 727 East Main St., during their CD Release Party for Siren of Titan. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m.; and the free concert will begin at 8 p.m. The group, Sploosh, will open. For further information, call 787-0258. - Freetime Magazine
Discography
CD "Siren of Titan"
Currently recording our sophomore album "The Book Of Lena" that will be accompanied by a book of stories sharing the same title that go along with each song
Streaming available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/infatuating
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
___________________________About Tera
Tera began seriously playing the piano seven years ago and is completely self-taught.
" My strength is in improvisation. I had to work really hard to develop the discipline that is needed to not only play with other musicians, but to write good songs. Though just sitting down and playing the piano freely is sometimes the only thing that will get me through a bad day."
"Practicing every day for an hours at a time, naturally my ability has grown. The more affluent I become, the stronger my writing ability becomes. Music is a hard and difficult master and not for the faint of heart. It will eat you up and spit you out if you arent unstoppably in love with the craft."
She has written over 100 songs. Everything from Tori Amos-esque ballads, to Billie Holliday blues pieces.
Tera is a junior member of the GFDSG Composers forum.
__________________________About Dennis
Recently returning to his roots with guitar, this addition has brought the much needed organic feel to the group. After putting the instrument down almost twenty years ago, he wasnt sure he would ever return to it. The guitar, however, found its way back to Dennis and demanded to be played again.
Dennis has written and produced hundreds of musical works in almost four decades. His latest, "The Destiny of Man" is a modernistic electro-musical, full orchestral, symphonic work that is 48 minutes long. He created a piece for 87 synthesizers and is often working with the never before heard or experienced.
He is also a member of the GFDSG composer’s forum (the Genesee Floodplain District Soundcrafter’s Guild is a non-conformist composition group) including such notables as Steve Green, and Tim Sullivan. He has performed such revolutionary pieces as "The Destruction of Rock" and "Infinity" (which was performed on a beam of invisible light).
He produced the quirky Rochester, NY based word music group "Floom" and their first CD.
His music can be heard weekly on the National Public Radio show "What the Tech!"
Dennis is also an inventor. He has created 84 products that have been produced by industry. He was one of the original group that started Alibris, the online, rare and used book company.
He won a contest for creating the best musical algorithms. These continue to be distributed and used throughout the musical community.
Has developed a "Black Book" of musical composition tools and algorithms. (Algorithms are ways to do things musically).
"I believe in writing a musical work and inventing something new every day", says Dennis. "While in the process of creation there should be no decision about whether something is good or bad or in between. While creating, you should never make that judgment. Only afterwards can you go back and audition your own work for quality. It's much more important to get a flow going."
He says, "There's a man vs. machine question running throughout the music world. As an artist I embrace it all. Musical instruments played artistically, computers playing back sounds, synthesized.......the important thing is the music."
"This is the greatest time to be a composer. You have access to literally any sound there is. On the other hand, music in our society is at the bottom. Lawyers, business, banks and political leaders are at the top. So, mostly, musicians are afraid, today. For the average musician there’s so little money to be made, they’re afraid to do anything different at all. And they are more subjugated than anyone. Musicians are unfairly treated and used."
Links
