When Chris Donathon couldn’t convince one of his friends to let him join a band, he decided to write and record his own song.
So on a computer in his home, he wrote “Fer Sure,” and played it for his friend Hector Bagnod, who thought it had promise.
“To be honest, I didn’t know how to write a song. I didn’t know there was a lead, backup, bass, and drums,” said Donathon. “I just did what sounded good to me.”
After some patchwork by Bagnod and praise from friends, Donathon put the song on MySpace. As the number grew to more than 100,000 MySpace friends, listeners wrote Donathon asking him when he’d write another song. Thus, a band with Donathon and Bagnod was born, and an EP record was released. The duo and some guests became The Medic Droid, signed with ModernArt Records, and released a debut album “What’s Your Medium?” in June.
The band, accompanied by a drummer, is now on tour playing its brand of techno, electronic and pop, melding the various styles that appeal to the duo.
“Hector and I both like a lot of kinds of music,” said Donathon, rattling off modern bands as well as classics including the Sex Pistols and Queen. “Our main thing is that we both love techno and anything electronic and we … both like raw rock and punk rock and rock in general. We really want to take it all electronic.”
During the high-energy stage show, vocalist Donathon and Bagnod take turns programming beats and playing guitar and synthesizer. The result is a mix perfect for the clubs.
“The group fuses techno and emo to make commercially viable club music that could easily be passed off as Fall Out Boy with a vocoder and a copy of Reason [magazine],” wrote Jason Lemongrover for All Music Guide.
After this tour, the duo plans to take a “good long break” and get into what they really want to do with music. Although Donathon hints it will include more experimentation, he hesitates to predict the new sound’s influences.
“I appreciate all the fans we have and all the support we have; it’s been really crazy and really awesome,” he said. “But being a musician … some people may be in bands to be rich and to be famous but for me it’s about writing music. I hope people like it but I have to follow my art.”
