Graham and Fresh started out performing traditional funk music, gradually adding synthesizers, retro jazz drums conventionally used by swing bands, and fast dance beats. Thus, the Techno Hillbillies were born.
We caught up with Graham before the band’s performance at this weekend’s Joshua Tree Music Festival to ask a few questions.
How would you describe your sound?
Well we’re definitely a live band. We play high speed techno beats with funky acid jazz styling. It makes you want to dance like you’ve got rattlesnakes in your hand. If you hear us live, you’ll be dancing and it’s a whole different style than you’ve ever heard before.
Who are some of your musical inspirations?
A lot of our influence came from a combination of people-Liberace’s flamboyance, Jimmy Hendrix’s distortion. We use a lot of wah wahs and distortion in our keyboard sounds. I also love James Brown’s funk grooves.
What are your expectations for the Joshua Tree Music Festival?
The festival will have about 3,000 people and were’ hoping to draw as many as we can. The late night dance party on Saturday at Lux Lunge could be really big.
When you’re not performing what are some of your interests?
Well my background is in engineering and computer science, so definitely the computer business, but my love was always the classical piano.
