Electric Laser People

By: Jess Baggia

Photo By: Lara Woolfson

Heartbreak and machines just about sums it up,” Dan Paluska, aka Six Million Dollar Dan of Electric Laser People, explains. Founding members Paluska, Grant Kristofek and Charlie “Clark” Kemp, originally called The Product™, met at MIT, conflating their robotics designing backgrounds with hip-hop and rock influences like Beastie Boys and experimental new wave. The result is their recent debut record, Straight Talk on Raising Kids. The band was only halfway through the album when they morphed into a new line-up, adding drummer Cullen Corley and vocalist/instrumentalist extraordinaire Jessica Riley. As they like to explain it, the band “unites music nerds with tech nerds.”

Layering whimsical rap-inspired lyrics over sparse, pulsing dance beats, Electric Laser People insist that no matter their individual ambitions, this collaboration is first and foremost about creation and fun. In fact, the band as they know themselves now began with a rather serendipitous event: Two years before formation, Paluska, Kristofek and Kemp got together for an impromptu jam session, resulting in “Machine” — track 11 on Straight Talk on Raising Kids. “I was always pestering Dan to form a band after that practice,” Kristofek explains.

So just how does a band two years before conception end up with album-worthy tracks? It’s all about the process. Electric Laser People record everything they play, from rehearsals to jam sessions; it’s all there in an archive of sorts in Paluska’s basement. “We have them all if you want to hear,” Kristofek says. Although the framework of their songs is very structured, ELP thrive on the creative process of coming up with new material, explaining how their musical exploration often leads to their best work. “When you are playing, you aren’t listening the way you would to a recording,” Paluska says.

“You don’t want to miss anything,” Kristofek explains. “Like the nuances of Dan’s voice.”

“The micro-tonalities,” Paluska continues, aping a heady avant-garde tone. “Twelve tones and the ones in between. I’ve got 24.”

Creative process aside, don’t expect an ELP performance to sound just like their album. Not only are their recordings and live performances distinct experiences in themselves, the addition of Riley and Corley promotes a constant and always exciting evolution. Riley started by graciously offering her vocals on a few of the album tracks, later performing alongside the men, wanting to move away from her accomplished instrumental background in favor of vocals. “They threw a keyboard at me, and then a tambourine and a cowbell,” she recalls with a smile. Admittedly, the electronic-inspired sounds of ELP may have been an initial stretch for the classically trained Riley — “I started listening to ‘80s music in the late ‘90s,” she explains with a laugh. Nevertheless, both Corley and Riley add their own unique influences to the line-up. From variations in rhythm to the more melodically based tracks, ELP are always evolving and never content to rest on their laurels.

“I want to have a moustache and mullet,” Paluska earnestly explains.

“I want to get people dancing!” Kristofek adds. “We’re going to get interactive with props.”

“We have an homage to Guitar Hero — it’s basically a plastic guitar that lights up,” Riley says.

“And Slamman,” Kristofek announces, referring to a synthetic boxing training partner rescued from the trash. “Expect to see him at shows.”

Come the end of the month, Paluska will return from a robot building adventure in Paris, and then the band plans to further promote the album. With the radio help from Powderfinger Promotions, ELP have an East Coast mini-tour planned.

http://www.myspace.com/electriclaserpeople