Best Mate

Best intentions (Clockwise from top left) - Farrad, Angelo Tursi, Heather Litteer, Sean B and Eric White
 
What came first, the band or the studio track? In today’s producer-run music biz, that line gets blurrier by the hour. And so it was for Sean Bumgarner, best known as DJ Sean B, one of the creative forces behind the nightlife phenomenon known as Spank. “[Best Mate] was formed as a way to perform tracks from a studio project I started in 2008,” he explains. “Now the band and live performance is finding its way back into the studio, influencing my music writing and developing parts for tracks we have been playing.”
 
To bring his boogie-disco sound from the late ’70s and early ’80s to life, Bumgarner tapped a Who’s Who of talents from New York’s small queer-rock scene, including vocals by Farrad and Big Art Group’s Heather Litteer, with Street Heroes’ Eric White and Angelo Tursi rounding things out. “It’s been amazing to write music and see it come to life through these amazing players,” Bumgarner notes about stepping out from behind the turntables. “Performing these songs really gives a different insight than DJ-ing them.” They’ll continue to grow their new-disco sound at upcoming shows at Bowery Electric and Public Assembly and, of course, in the studio. (Their new single, “So We Rise,” should be released in August.)
 
“Most of what has made this band become more than a one-time performance of a club track has been the audience response,” says Bumgarner about their growing fan base. “We consistently get screams outta the crowd!” —Benjamin Solomon
 
Visit MySpace.com/BestMateNYC for more info.