DESA

By Eric Davis

Oakland’s Divergent Rock

The Oakland, CA. band DESA is the type of band that only Oakland could produce. Street smart, Tough as nails, one of a kind. And I’m not just talking about them as people, that’s what their music sounds like too. And that’s just for starters. Part punk, part rock and roll, and part genius art. Ryan Noble on vocals, Barry Krippene on bass, Aaron Nagel on lead guitar, Adam Davis on rythym guitar, and Steven Heet on drums, are no strangers to the struggles and hardships that every great band must go though in order to become great. Before they were DESA, four members, (Adam, Barry, Aaron, and Ryan) were in the legendary ska hardcore band, Link 80. Instead of forming ‘Link 80.2′, DESA is something much different. The fun, up-beat blast of Ska horns and fast pace drumming has been replaced by the gut punch and chop of rocking rhythms and melodies. Musical patterns where the Timings are slightly odd. Verses and choruses that don’t seem to care about fallowing the standard rules. This is a band you should be listening to. I got the chance to talk with Adam about the new band, Link 80, and what is next;

FRINGE: DESA has a different sound than Link 80. Did the Link 80 fans accept what you guys are doing now?

DESA: It’s hard to gauge. When we decided to stop doing Link 80 and start performing as DESA, some of the music carried over, along with all of the line up. “Voltaire’s Fable” was originally a song we played in Link 80, and “Stand Proud” was recorded as a Link 80 songs. Now its six years later, we have Steven Heet behind the drums, we spend a lot of time working on songs rather than touring, we’ve learned to take better care of our gear, and the songs have moved into a totally different space. If someone bought “The Struggle Continues…” today and then downloaded the new EP “Routes to Rapture” they wouldn’t find any similarity.

FRINGE: Why that drastic change in sound? Was it something you needed to do or was it something that just happen when you started writing songs for DESA?

DESA: There were a lot of expectations placed on Link 80. We weren’t really a traditional “ska punk” band. We usually described ourselves as hardcore with horns which also started to not fit what we were doing. Steve Borth left the band to join Rx Bandits. Rather than find another horn player and keep trudging on, Aaron was already expressing an interest in playing guitar. There were already a few Link 80 songs he was picking up the guitar on, so it was a smooth transition. It was a new experience to stay home in our practice space, working on songs, instead of spending 8 months a year in a van between punk shows. The early DESA songs and the late Link 80 songs are very similar. We’ve since moved away from certain elements, but I’d still say we’re a punk band, although that definition has become increasingly broad.

FRINGE: DESA has a great unique sound. What are some of your influences?

DESA: We all listen to a lot of different music. I think it would be easier to say what we aren’t influenced by, and that would be a lot of the predictable, forced-sounding “alternative” music out there. That’s not to say we don’t like a well-produced pop song. I think the most important element would be that we all come from different schools of thought about music. Aaron is very technical and still thinks like a trumpet player, which is why he plays a lot of noodle-y leads. On the flip side, I’ve always liked noise and punk rock. We all bring our 1/5th to the table and fit it together.

FRINGE: After so much time in bands and on the road, What if anything, has changed in the music industry, the venues, or for yourselves?

DESA: Gas prices make touring less affordable now, plus there are so many bands now that are out there that shows seem less important than they used to. It feels like throwing grains of sand into the ocean. The Internet has totally leveled the playing field, and I’m not totally sure that’s a good thing. Sure, a major label backed band is now competing for attention with a no-label band, but those same bands are also competing with 14 year old kids who are posting about a hundred bulletins on myspace a day! Venues still seem the same though. We rolled through a lot of the same places we used to play in Link 80 when the Rx Bandits took us out on tour, and there were still Link 80 stickers and tags in the backstage!

FRINGE: With already having accomplished so much, what is next for DESA? Where can we expect the sound of DESA to go?

DESA: We’ve started working on new songs, and we’re mainly interested in writing music that is challenging to play while still being listenable. DESA put out two new EPs online (www.desadesadesa.com/sirens.html and www.desadesadesa.com/routes.html). We’re going to put out another EP in the next couple of months that Matt Embree recorded for us a few months back. It’s called Revenge Body. So, that will be 10 brand new songs that we will build up from. We probably won’t be playing much from our older recordings from here on out. We’d like to go out on tour again.

DESA doesn’t always cover all of our musical needs. Nagel has a side-project with his dad (who plays keys in Boz Scaggs band) called Horseneck, Ryan has a band that he plays drums in called The Cleveland Browns with his girlfriend Heidi from the Hot Toddies, and a two-piece metal band with his brother Reece called Weston Elementary, Heet has a side-project with his brother Brett called Spectacular Combover. None of it sounds like DESA.