Photo: Michael Hart

While visiting Brooklyn I had the opportunity to check out Tayisha Busay, an awesome “synth-pop party dance-girl group that consists of songs written on the computer with wonky lyrics, sung to the max! We dance hard, we sing hard, we party hard, AND WE DO LIMBO CONTESTS! (usually the winner gets a pizza, or some boooooze). Tessa Greenberg, Hope Bowers and Ariel Sims are 3 girls that pump it up.” I was fortunate enough to get to chat with Tessa a bit after her show, besides fronting Tayisha Busay, she also is one of the masterminds for an up and coming children television show entitled Fun Club.

Check out Fun Club

fun!?!

Tayisha Busay Interview:

How long have you been doing music and what have you done with it? What instruments can you play? What programs do you use? What has been your training and who with?

I started playing a YAMAHA keyboard my parents got me when I was 7. It had great demos on it and I would write words to them. My first song was called “we make a good pair” which I wrote with my neighbor when I was 9. Singing, and writing melodies and rhymes always came easy, and electronic keyboards were always the most accessible instrument to play around with, so when I got a new Mac in late 2005 and it had Garage Band, I started recording music right away and have been using that program ever since. Garage band is annoying because of its limitations, but it’s also really fun because it’s so easy to write with, which encourages me to be playful with my music, (though I am currently learning Ableton Live.) I doodled out some fun songs for about a year but it wasn’t until 2007 that I performed anything live. My friend WashMachine booked us our first show at Rockstar Bar and I got Hope and Ariel to dance for it. The songs and routines we formed were, sassy, electronic, weird, and totally fun to experience. Thus, the birth of TAYISHA BUSAY. Like a fly-girl with one too many drinks in her, the choreography we designed for the songs came naturally, and we had an instant shtick.

Hope has played the drums since she was 11, and she writes our LIMBO songs, and Ariel has a kooky old moog that she doodles with. We met at Marymount Manhattan College. Ariel and I studied Theater and Hope studies studio Art, but we’ve all always been into alternative kinds of performance art.

As a kid I wanted to be on Broadway and I took voice lessons and acting and dance classes at the state theater of New Jersey, but then in college I realized that I had way too many far out ideas that I wanted to try, and Broadway would definitely not be the right path to make them happen.

Where do you live and where have you lived? What do you value about the community or scene in your area? Do you wish that somethings would change? What scenes happening in the world are you interested in and why?

Now I live in Bed-Stuy, and Ariel and Hope live in Harlem. I grew up 45 minutes from NYC in Jersey and moved to the city 6 years ago. I’ve lived in 5 different places in NYC, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, but Bushwick and Bed-Stuy have been my favorite because there is a lot of crazy wall to wall diversity and lots of music and art everywhere, even in the Bodegas. New York City is an inspiration overload, I have to carry a paper and pen with me at all times or record stuff into my cell phone so I can remember the crazy shit I see on a daily basis (this one guy on the subway today had no lips, think about that!).

Sometimes I wish people in New York were less jaded about music and art, but then I remember that New York is a cutthroat scene, and I still believe it’s an important epicenter of creativity. People here are given the green light to go all out, which can be good or bad. There is a lot of fascinating energy and excitement in music here, but also a lot of excess and indulgence, and apathy. When people go all out it’s great! I’d rather see a band that’s a hot, hot, mess then something that is just halfway there. But it’s good to firmly dislike something in order know what it is that you really take seriously.

I lived in the McKibbin lofts in Bushwick for a while. That was literal wall-to-wall musical insanity. I loved that so many people were there, making the music they wanted, creating because they could…but I hated that a lot of the Loft parties which included live bands usually ended up being barf-fests. Of course, music and partying go hand in hand, but party music doesn’t have to perpetuate rude madness and indulgence. People take advantage of a free shows and open spaces, and the music and the scene that was trying to exist just goes to hell. There were a few good music fueled dance parties though! However, I do notice that people don’t dance as much in NYC as they do in other places around the world. I have a firm belief that if everyone were to let go of their inhibitions and just enjoy the music, they would discover the true joys of dancing. It is extremely liberating! TAYISHA BUSAY embraces this belief.

We love dancing too…Are you apart of any sort of music collective and are collaborating with some people. If yes, what is the project and what is your hope to do with it? Who have been the most enriching artists you’ve worked with and why? Who did you connect with most on a personal level? Do you have any major influences?

Yes! TAYISHA BUSAY is a music and dance group, so when we aren’t playing our own shows; we dance for Bad Brilliance, which is a mind-blowing project by Andrew Strasser. (myspace.com/badbrilliance). We met fairly recently and his music and live presentation has made my hair go from curly, to straight, to crimped, and back to curly. I mean talk about 2009, he is here and you need to experience it with him. Bass, clap, Synth! His music hits hard, where you want to feel it. He is coming out with an EP soon, and it would be killer if TAYISHA BUSAY could tour with Bad Brilliance.

On a completely opposite side of the road, I also write songs with my B.F.F. and roommate, Drew and the Medicinal Pen. He does incredibly honest lo-fi bedroom pop. We like working with each other because there is a mutual understanding of what we believe to be the funniest, grossest, coolest, and most interesting things in the world. (myspace.com/drewandthemedicinalpen)

I also co-created a kids show that includes lots of music (youtube.com/funclubpilot)

We are really into collaborations, and we are currently looking for someone to produce with.

As for TAYISHA BUSAY’s influences, we like anything completely committed…all things classy, trashy, rough and tough, flirtatious and dangerous, danceable. Our sound is hard to pinpoint because it’s always changing, but we are moving in this direction of synth-pop-fun-hop-party music. If we were to choose a few popular inspirations I would say, M.I.A., Talking Heads, Bjork, David Bowie, Missy Elliot, Beck, TLC, and whatever your older, cooler sister was listening to when you were 13.

What inspired you to play the limbo at your shows? How low can you drop? Do you have any other super powers? What other zany antics do you have up your sleeves?

The Limbo is a great group activity, and the girls of TAYISHA BUSAY can all drop it like it’s hot! Deep down, or maybe on the surface, most people love a gimmick. You play a game, you get a prize! (in our case, a pizza, or booze). You dance, you fall, you embarrass yourself, and laugh really hard at other people who fall down and embarrass themselves. We really like to get our audience excited about the live experience, so antics like THE LIMBO are ways of doing that. I think it’s so important that a LIVE show have pronounced elements of entertainment. Otherwise you can sit at home and listen to a record, but when people come out to see TAYISHA BUSAY, we want them to remember it as a live experience that they couldn’t get at home that they will want to come back for. We always do something special at our shows. We have an ice cream song and sometimes give out ice cream, because people love free stuff and people love ice cream. Get it?

Got it. Do you have any personal, political, spiritual, emotional or other views you specifically like to get across with your music? How do you plan to translate that to your audience, and how do you feel about their responses so far?

Our songs are about all different things…jokes, secrets, observations, party routines, trends, gibberish, etc… We try to keep it real, even when it’s goofy. We insert a lot of humor, because the world is a humorous place. A few people have asked if our group is meant to be satire. The answer is no. We do make fun of stuff but in a way that is really just paying homage to different styles and pop culture. We tend to think that most popular music and culture is pretty funny (because it is all hyper simulated, and over the top, but that’s what makes some of it so pleasing to the eye and ear…eye candy, ear candy…yum)

Like Beyonce…she has some sick songs and hot dance moves, but they are so extremely sensational, and I’m sure that her and her team of people aim for that, but look, no matter how sexy you look, booty slamming and sexy shit like that is just funny. No matter who you are! I can’t explain why, there is something so goofy about sex in music and sex in general. Like, Beyonce farts too ya know.

People have a great time at our shows because they can acknowledge these things with us. We take our fun seriously, and if it looks sexy to one person and funny to another, then we have succeeded. Our goal is to entertain.

Minorprogression loves entertaintment! Where have you been on tour that you would like to visit again? Where would you like to visit? Where have you played that you like? Where would you like to play? Do you like touring or would you like to? What is the biggest obstacle you have when putting a tour together? Booking information?

TAYISHA BUSAY has not gone on tour yet, but we would love to. We are writing new music that hits harder, punches louder, but kisses softer. Maybe in the summer we will tour. We want a big, sparkly bus with Lays potato chips, a sunroof, and that giant floor-keyboard form the movie BIG. And we want to spread the joy of Tayisha all over the world. It is our passion to have fun with music and dance, and we want you to come out and feel what we feel. We will play any show as long as we can make it, so e-mail us at TayishaBusayMusic@gmail.com or visit myspsace.com/tayishabusay to see where we are playing next.

Some Tayisha Busay videos:

Go to their parties Brooklyn:
Jan 14 2009 8:00P Club Europa-downstiars Brooklyn, New York
Jan 15 2009 9:00P Vanishing Point Brooklyn
Jan 31 2009 10:00P Europa-Downstairs Brooklyn, New York
Feb 3 2009 9:00P LIT lounge NYC, New York

Awesome Downloads:
Tayisha Busay – Do It For Real

Tayisha Busay – What Happened

Tayisha Busay – What The Fuck