By Madeline Court
Photo by Kaitlin Deering
Conceived during the epic thundersnow of February 2010, Designer is a quasi-instrumental band based in Philadelphia that rejects genre categorization in all the best ways.
“I have musical ADHD,” says drummer Dan Bellotti, who toured with a number of heavy metal bands before founding Designer with his girlfriend, pianist Brianne Upchurch.
The transition from metal to classically-inspired ambience was not a sudden one. “It took me a long time to muster up the courage to play other kinds of music,” Bellotti said.
If you haven’t had a chance to hear Designer yet – which is probably the case since the band decided to hold off on releasing tracks online until their first album is released on June 17th – it sounds like something a hip young music teacher would play to convince a group of surly middle schoolers that cellos and trumpets can be cool. In other words, their music reinterprets traditional classical music with odd time signatures and haunting voiceovers to create songs that are anything but stale.
The five members of Designer all have extensive and diverse musical backgrounds: cellist Dan Kassel was first chair in the Bucks County Youth Orchestra, trumpeter Kaitlyn Abrams has long been active in local orchestras, guitarist Tim Bieniosek originally started on the trombone, Upchurch sang in choirs throughout high school and college, and Bellotti’s dad used to blast classical music to drown out the whining of his children during Saturday morning chore-time. This gamut of backgrounds is reflected in the band’s music, which is difficult to pin down.
They take their music-but not themselves-seriously. Songwriting sessions and rehearsals take place in Upchurch and Bellotti’s basement. Before getting to work, the band sits down for a huge potluck dinner and plenty of booze.
“We hooked up over Craigslist, but we bonded over our love of strong beer,” said guitarist and engineer Tim Bieniosek.
In line with their potluck dinners, the band members are insistent that Designer is a democratic operation. And indeed, it seems to be the truth. There is no definite leader and songs are written as collaborations. Typically, the band will experiment with a song by adding parts and improvising. This means that Designer’s songs organically grow and develop from the ground up, with not a ton of planning. For example, after they found a trumpeter, they re-worked each track on their upcoming album to include her parts.
But while their songs incorporate improvisation, don’t write Designer off as another instrumentalist jam band. Their music is so deliberate and on-point, it’s clear that each note has been purposefully planned.
“We recognize that we have five very powerful instruments and a jam session is just asking for trouble,” says Upchurch.
In fact, the band would prefer not to be pigeonholed. Concerned that a record label would exert unwanted influences on their first album, Designer opted to do everything themselves. And considering the final product, it’s clear that Designer has a flare for the DIY method.
