Two weeks ago, we featured the video for Tayisha Busay's "Heartmeat/Lovemuscle" as our Song Of The Day. Since I was totally mesmerized by the video, it was only natural we'd spend Seven Questions In Heaven with the band.Describe your music for our readers who may not be familiar with you.
Imagine if Cyndi Lauper and The B-52's had some sort of queer love child with The Spice Girls and Nirvana, and then the love child decided to produce strange electro-dance pop songs for all of her little friends and their choreographed dance parties. It's electro-pop/dance-bop.
Who are your musical influences and idols?
Idolizing other artists is a big commitment, but we are lucky to come from a generation where influences came easy and everything on TV in the '80s and '90s was inspiring in some way. Everything from the late, dear Whitney Houston to shows on Nickelodeon to Bikini Kill to La Bouche to Devo. Big '80s camp and dirty '90s grit.
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| CREDIT: Amy Seder Photography |
What was the first album, cassette, or CD you bought with your own money?
Tessa: The cassette tape soundtrack to Free Willy because I loved that Michael Jackson song, "Will You Be There." Or maybe it was Meat Loaf, Bat Out Of Hell II.
Ariel: Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill. DUH.
Brandon: The first tape I ever bought was The Beach Boys, Endless Summer. Soon followed by Paula Abdul, Forever Your Girl.
How did you come up with your band name?
The band name came to us in a dream. The dream involved a rainbow troll puking out a giant transvestite who then "told us like it is" and demanded that we start going by the name "Tayisha Busay" if we were to earn any respect. So I don't know about you, but when a fabulous and scary twenty-foot tranny giant tells you to do something, you do it.
The video to "Heartmeat/Lovemuscle" is awesome! How many costume changes did you make during the filming? Where did you get all of the clothes? How long was the shoot?
"Heartmeat/Lovemuscle" is one of our favorite songs on the album because it shows a slightly different side to us, so we chose three outfits that fit the different sides of our personalities. The clothes are from our closet and from a bag that we literally call "the skank bag" because it holds about thirty skanky costume pieces from the last five years of our shows. The video shoot in total took about fifteen hours because we shot a lot of things in stop-motion or things the required some melting candy or making valentines, etc. We produce all our videos ourselves though, so it was a labor of love.
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| CREDIT: Amy Seder Photography |
I saw on your Twitter feed that your Glasslands show was your last for awhile. Are you working on something new?
Maybe! Keep up with us at www.TayishaBusay.com.
Did Ke$ha bite your style?
Everyone bites everyone's style these days, and while we were definitely representing hard with the glitter and sass a good three years before Ke$ha came out, we certainly were not the first people to wear slutty punk outfits and tons of sparkles on our faces. It's simple science. Glitter is beautiful, shiny, and eye-catching, therefore, we will wear, throw, consume, and be made of glitter. It was a no-brainer for us!
More Tayisha Busay: Official | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
