The Dawson Leary Project (DLP) left the floorboards, the walls, and people’s bodies pulsating to their electronic-psychedelic-rock sounds Monday night at Burlington’s downtown restaurant and lounge, Nectar’s.
The University of Vermont seniors, Alex Schwartz (guitar, bass, synthesizers), Tobias Green (guitar, bass, synthesizers), and Steve Putnam (drums), the trio that is DLP, had friends, fans, and people thinking “Who the eff are these guys?” intrigued by their unusual, but certainly memorable music.
DLP opened the night with a cover of a Radiohead tune that they made their own through improvised additions. High, melodic pitches were strummed by Schwartz and Green, and Putnam was drumming a steady beat while nearly every color shone from the ceiling lights. Schwartz then tapped on the synthesizer and the sounds made it feel as though everyone was in a Mars-Twilight atmosphere. Trance and siren noises exploded from the speakers and when those waned the crowed burst with applause.
Schwartz then thanked the audience for coming.
Continuing their “dance, trance, jazz, experimental, bluesy, [and] improv” music, people made moves on the floor, breakdancing, and even doing the worm.
“I was really happy with the turnout on Monday,” Schwartz said. “A lot of really random people showed up and were into it.”
Green added that “starting a dance party” made Monday night a great show along with having many of their supportive friends in the crowd.
“Nectar’s is a good spot,” said Putnam.
Schwartz said that a highlight of Monday night was when they played one of their songs called the “Ultimate Chameleon” into a Chemical Brothers song titled “Got Glint?” into another one of their songs named “Mary Mix” into the Chemical Brothers song again.
“I thought that was pretty solid,” added Schwartz.
“That was probably one of the best,” Green agreed.
DLP loves covering bands such as, The Flaming Lips, Radiohead, Lamb of God, Ween, Daft Punk, The New Deal, The Disco Biscuits, The Chemical Brothers, and Shpongle. Mixing dance and hard rock is Schwartz’s favorite.
DLP said that they are roughly one-third original, one-third cover songs, and one-third improv.
“[Improv] is how you get into some really interesting stuff,” said Schwartz. “It adds character.”
DLP certainly rocked with character. During one song, Schwartz showed a wonderful range of facial expressions while playing the synthesizer, Green bobbed while tapping away as well, and Putnam was drumming with a wide smile.
Putnam seemed to beam much of the time, as he said with a smirk, “A lot of the improv jams, you just get a huge smile on your face.”
Schwartz said that Monday’s show was exceptionally great because of their sound.
“I like playing through [Nectars’] house speakers…they have big subs…our keyboards [were] going right into their sound system so I finally got to do that and have it push serious bass. I was pretty happy with that,” Schwartz said.
Green and Putnam were in agreement.
They also recognized that playing at Nectar’s was a big step for DLP, as they typically play at UVM gigs and house parties—their first show was at UVM’s Slade Dorm when they first formed in 2007.
“In the year 2007, after their parents were tragically eaten by wolves, Tobias, Alex and Steve were united in Burlington, Vermont’s own Robotic Orphanage. After a short year of being raised by evil robots, surrounded by synthesizers and drum sets, the three had taken fiercely to electronic music and erasing people’s minds with their hypnotic, danced-obsessed grooves. Put here on this planet, to take control of your mind and make love to your women folk, is the DLP,” Schwartz, Green, and Putnam wrote on their MySpace.
They actually met during their freshman years at UVM when Green and Putman lived together. Not long after, the two met up with Schwartz and formed DLP. And how did they decide on the name The Dawson Leary Project?
“All of our friends were up in Maine and we were hanging out all day, we got a little intoxicated, and then we started coming up with this story about an evil robot that lives on that lake in Maine,” said Schwartz. “Basically [we] made this whole ridiculous story about it. We weren’t in [the] band when this happened…[but] then we became more of an actual band and we just decided to have [our name] be something stupid that no one would really get and sounds like a Dawson Creek reference, but isn’t. It’s just something for us that had a decent ring to it.”
“Sometimes people put such an emphasis on a band name and it’s just like…kind of silly,” said Putnam.
“I feel like DLP is more of our band name than The Dawson Leary Project,” Green said.
“I like the idea of having…the ‘someone project,’ but there is no ‘Dawson Leary’ in our band,” said Schwartz.
“It was rough around the edges [in the early days],” Green said.
“At first we were just making [our sounds] up and it really sounded good and bad,” replied Schwartz.
But during their sophomore years in early 2008, Schwartz and Green picked up synthesizers and Schwartz learned bass.
“Every time we play, it gets better,” Putnam added. “In the past year we’ve grown. We’ve filled out our sound.”
DLP practices almost every day, but scheduling is difficult around classes and work, Schwartz stated. He said that DLP performs shows every few weeks and “playing music that we love to play” is what DLP wants to continue.
Schwartz said that just last week they wrote a few new songs to add to their ten song repertoire. “Jam One,” “Ultimate Chameleon,” Jam Two,” “Burst Asunder,” “Dawson’s Delight,” and “Jahn-Bahn Jelly” are songs uploaded on their MySpace music player.
“We start out with ideas individually,” Putnam said about their writing style. He added that it’s pretty hard to write complete songs together with mashed-up thoughts.
Listeners will find that most of their songs lack lyrics because, according to them, “it’s hard to design lyrics and express emotion through lyrics” for the music that DLP plays.
By the end of March DLP hopes to have, at the very least, six new songs, Putnam said, which got Green thinking about getting into the recording studio.
Schwartz said that he really wants to record, but scheduling is challenging.
Whether DLP finds the time to write and record or simply sticks to playing at local venues like Nectar’s—they’re scheduled for the next three Monday nights—they are happy with the amount of options they have.
“It’d be a shame to let it end,” Schwartz said, adding that he hopes to move to San Francisco, CA after graduation from UVM in May.
Putnam excitedly stated, “We’ll probably do this forever.”
“How are you gonna kill a giant robot that lives in Burlington?” Schwartz joked.
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