Artist to Watch: Tayisha Busay

When you board a Canarsie bound L train on 14^th street in lower Manhattan and zip past the 14^th Street Tunnel you suddenly find yourself in an artistic community full of talented young hopefuls trying to break into show biz. Neighborhoods in Brooklyn like Williamsburg and most recently Bushwick have been the birthing place of new bands and one of those bands is Tayisha Busay. The three-piece electro-glitter—dance-punk act consists of vocalists Tessa G, Ariel Sims and sole male member Brandon LaLaVek the man behind keyboards and synths.

Their debut EP, “Shock-Woo” is available on iTunes a huge accomplishment for an unsigned band who literally does everything themselves, “We [even] make our own music videos,” said Tessa G, “I work for a film studio so I have access to all the resources so every produced video you see of us online we set up the lights for, I did the camera work, [and] do the video editing. We want this and no one else is going to this for us yet so we do it ourselves.”

Their EP is the culmination of numerous years of hard work and experimenting with the band’s sound and direction, Ariel and Tessa met in college and quickly bonded. Tessa explained, “At the time I was writing music by myself then we started working on music together.” Once they joined forces the pieces started to fall into place, “around that time we met Brandon.” Back then Brandon was performing as La La Vek the one man show doing everything from “playing live tape samples and minimal drum loops all the while singing his lungs out over an FX mixer” (as described on his solo myspace page).

Tessa continued, “we did some shows together and really liked each other’s styles and went, ‘hey, why don’t we jam?’ and we wrote this amazing song together called ‘Tonight’ (which is on the EP) and then we were like ‘dude, you should just be in our band this sounds awesome.” And the rest is history.

It’s hard to describe their music in terms of who they may remind you of because there really isn’t a band out there like them. It’s one of those ‘you have to see it for yourself’ types of things. When asked to describe their musical sound Ariel Sims came up with, “Dance, fun, hand job.” It’s those kinds of colorful remarks and fearless attitude that’s making them a hit in the indie NY club scene. “Usually the initial reaction is shock,” explains Tessa in regards to how new crowds receive them, “but then they eventually start to warm up to us because they can see that we’re having a lot of fun.”

The trio has been hard at work writing to labels and management and reaching out to other outlets hoping to spread the word on their act and in the process gain some financial backing. “We were just writing to a record label and I called [our songs] ‘jumbo glitter tracks’,” explains Tessa, “Just cause the words are very evocative. [Our music] is super fun, electro-dance, DIY (do it yourself) pop, high energy, really rowdy, party music.”

“[With] no inhibitions,” added Brandon LaLaVek.

“And glitter,” Tessa points out.

Glitter plays a major role in their act; it can be seen on their wardrobe as well as in the form of hand-painted designs on their faces. In fact their practice space where the interview was conducted shimmered with left over specs.

For Brandon being a part of Tayisha Busay is a dream come true, “he always wanted to be in a girl band,” teased Ariel.

He chuckled and explained, “I use to love Veruca Salt and Courtney Love when I was a kid. So Now I’m in a girl band. Dreams come true kids,” he said.

They recently returned from their first mini tour allowing them to perform for the first time outside of New York. “It was so good,” said Tessa, “it was such a success because where we went we played all different kinds of shows. Sometimes it was in a bar…”

“Sometimes in people’s houses or in basements,” Ariel confessed.

“But sometimes [the shows] were in proper venues” assured Tessa.

“But every show was over the top and fun and nothing like we’ve ever seen before. It’s definitely a trip to see the scene in another city. We met so many great people too, that was the best part,” Ariel said.

“We were actually very surprised that we were so well received in other cities,” stated Tessa, “We’re pretty much a very New York band, we’re very balls to the wall and in your face and kind of shocking at times and when you go to smaller towns maybe in the South—“

“We were a little self conscious,” admits Ariel.

“We dress pretty provocatively; however, the music and the live shows were able to speak for itself.”

“We won them over,” said Ariel.

“It took a little while but we won them over,” concluded Brandon.

They hope to branch out and hit up the West Coast especially LA. “I think we’d do well in San Francisco and LA,” said Tessa.

“We would like to go to Texas, we had intended on making it to Austin on this tour but it didn’t work out. We’ll play anywhere, we’re ready to show [our music] to the world,” said Ariel.

“We want to go everywhere. Europe, Paris, Montreal,” said Brandon. “We actually want to be financed so that we can go on a world tour.”

“Every single last detail of our projects is done with our own hands, eyes, ears and mouths,” explained Tessa. “We do have a lot of supportive friends that we work with mainly Richard Spitzer (the multi instrumentalist) from Nite Club. He helped master the tracks on our EP that was something we definitely got big help from. We work with some really amazing friends that we throw shows with like Cherie Lily and Bad Brilliance. We have a great support group but when it comes to the actual music, the release and all of that it’s all us.”

They admitted that being hands on in their work is fun but when it comes down to it they would love to have someone handle the day to day promotion and distribution so that they can focus more on their music.  “Just so that we can take it to the next level,” explains Brandon, “we did all this on our own and it got us this far but for us to really jump forward and get a leg up we need the help.”

“We’re willing to do all the work but we could use the help,” said Ariel.

Wanna get your dance on? Well visit Tayisha Busay at tayishabusay.com or visit their myspace at www.myspace.com/tayishabusay