Dead Fame

Dead Fame (Richmond, VA) gives synth pop a makeover for twenty-first century life, forging a musical space in which listeners can revel in an increasingly complex world – a world in which one’s own discursive dance becomes par excellence. An upcoming EP release (early 2014) and live dates will help audiences find beauty within the conflict. Dead Fame’s music provides the soundtrack to your favorite Bret Easton Ellis novel as easily as it weaves a musical tapestry for a world in ruins (RVA Magazine). Their songs are vignettes of a post-modern terrain, where borders are rendered almost meaningless, only to be transgressed. Christopher DeNitto (keys), Sadie Powers (bass), Eric Klemen (drums), and Michael Means (vocals) shape their distinct sounds into songs that juxtapose light and dark, with blazing guitar and synthy flourishes that float in and out and across driving drum and bass-line rhythms, while world-weary vocals capture a contemporary milieu of uncertainty. Dead Fame’s influences are quite diverse, reflecting appreciation for music produced during the early days of new wave but with an ear turned toward other genre-bending acts. In their world, Sade holds just as much clout as New Order or Philip Glass. The bold synthesis is a lush, pulsating and intensely illumined sound that can be just as welcoming as it is attractively menacing. Dead Fame’s wish to establish a musical contact zone is no more apparent than at their boisterous live shows. The band’s sound and show have been described as “fully realized, energizing, enveloping…pure electricity” (You Hear That?!). The band constructs a scene where it is just as possible to think as it is to surrender to the rhythm. Since their first show in 2011, they have played up and down the East Coast, sharing the stage with the likes of Xiu Xiu, Parquet Courts, Iceage, Dead Leaf Echo, The Gentlemen Hall, Yip Deceiver, and Leopold and His Fiction; they have performed at several music festivals, including MidPoint Music Festival, Fall Line Fest, STPP, Tom Tom Fest. With their first EP, “Frontiers” (2012), Dead Fame garnered praise for a strong debut that crossed post punk with dance. With their upcoming second EP (early 2014), the band hopes to bend the boundaries even further in order to create something that much more enigmatic, powerful and urgent. While today’s society and its cultures are becoming progressively de-centered, Dead Fame offers a soundtrack for the ride, a touchstone for listeners to make sense of their present as they look toward the future.