Friends of Dean Martinez
Encyclopedia
Friends of Dean Martinez is an instrumental rock
/post-rock
band featuring members of Giant Sand
, Calexico, and Naked Prey
. FoDM music may be described as a combination of americana tunes with bits of electronica
, ambient
, lounge
, psychedelia
and dub
intertwined with surf rock inspired lead guitar
s.
as an experimental side project by various members of Giant Sand
, Calexico and Naked Prey
. Originally called "The Friends of Dean Martin," they were forced to change their name after Dean Martin
refused to give his blessing. It worked out for the best, as "Martinez" provided a south-western spin to their retro lounge
sound, with their debut album, "The Shadow of Your Smile," released with Sub Pop
in 1995.
The band has gone through a variety of line-ups, moved to Los Angeles
, and are now settled in Austin, Texas
. Currently the trio includes Bill Elm on steel guitar
, electric guitar
& organ
, Mike Semple on guitar
s, and Andrew Gerfers on drums
. Originally a guitar player, Elm first started experimenting on the steel guitar
with the formation of FoDM. Pushing beyond the instrument's country
twang
traditions, he pioneered a distinctive new sound for the pedal steel guitar
. By using an e-bow
it acts more like a voice rather than merely a background instrument.
at the Alamo Drafthouse
in Austin. Feature film scoring work has included the Richard Linklater
film Fast Food Nation
and the John Waters
narrated feature documentary Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
.
Upon seeing Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea for the first time, Elm recollects, "I felt I could really write music for this. It was a nice fit for what we do, the images, and the story. It felt natural to watch it and want to write music. It was inspiring, and that's the most you can ask for when you score something or write music."
In 2009, Bill Elm created the soundtrack for the videogame Red Dead Redemption.
In December 2010 Elm won Best Original Score at both the Machinima Inside Gaming Awards and Spike TV's Video Game Awards.
Instrumental rock
Instrumental rock is a type of rock music which emphasizes musical instruments, and which features very little or no singing.Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style, most notably Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Link...
/post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
band featuring members of Giant Sand
Giant Sand
Giant Sand is an American rock band, based in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The name is shortened from the original Giant Sandworms, a reference to the creatures in the Dune books. Overseen by singer-songwriter Howe Gelb, its membership has shifted over the years—at times with each album...
, Calexico, and Naked Prey
Naked Prey
Naked Prey was a rock band from Tucson, Arizona formed in 1982 by former Green on Red drummer Van Christian and David Seeger, who had been in the original lineup of the Giant Sandworms as well as The Pedestrians, a band credited with having performed the first punk rock show in Tucson...
. FoDM music may be described as a combination of americana tunes with bits of electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
, ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, lounge
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
, psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
and dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
intertwined with surf rock inspired lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
s.
History
The band was originally formed in Tucson, ArizonaTucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
as an experimental side project by various members of Giant Sand
Giant Sand
Giant Sand is an American rock band, based in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The name is shortened from the original Giant Sandworms, a reference to the creatures in the Dune books. Overseen by singer-songwriter Howe Gelb, its membership has shifted over the years—at times with each album...
, Calexico and Naked Prey
Naked Prey
Naked Prey was a rock band from Tucson, Arizona formed in 1982 by former Green on Red drummer Van Christian and David Seeger, who had been in the original lineup of the Giant Sandworms as well as The Pedestrians, a band credited with having performed the first punk rock show in Tucson...
. Originally called "The Friends of Dean Martin," they were forced to change their name after Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
refused to give his blessing. It worked out for the best, as "Martinez" provided a south-western spin to their retro lounge
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
sound, with their debut album, "The Shadow of Your Smile," released with Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
in 1995.
The band has gone through a variety of line-ups, moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and are now settled in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. Currently the trio includes Bill Elm on steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
, electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
& organ
Electronic organ
An electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
, Mike Semple on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, and Andrew Gerfers on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
. Originally a guitar player, Elm first started experimenting on the steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
with the formation of FoDM. Pushing beyond the instrument's country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
twang
Twang
An old onomatopoeia for the sound of a vibrating string - for instance of a bow or a musical instrument, or the sound of a vibrating spring of an air gun....
traditions, he pioneered a distinctive new sound for the pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
. By using an e-bow
E-Bow
The EBow or ebow is a hand-held, battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar, invented by Greg Heet in 1969...
it acts more like a voice rather than merely a background instrument.
Cinematic Musical Work
The "Friends" performed a live score to the silent film masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. CaligariThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as...
at the Alamo Drafthouse
Alamo Drafthouse
The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, United States. It has screens in nine locations across Texas and one in Winchester, Virginia...
in Austin. Feature film scoring work has included the Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater
-Early life:Linklater was born in Houston, Texas. He studied at Sam Houston State University and left midway through his stint in college to work on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While working on the rig he read a lot of literature, but on land he developed a love of film through...
film Fast Food Nation
Fast Food Nation
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry....
and the John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
narrated feature documentary Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea is a documentary by filmmakers Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, with narration by John Waters and music by Friends of Dean Martinez....
.
Upon seeing Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea for the first time, Elm recollects, "I felt I could really write music for this. It was a nice fit for what we do, the images, and the story. It felt natural to watch it and want to write music. It was inspiring, and that's the most you can ask for when you score something or write music."
In 2009, Bill Elm created the soundtrack for the videogame Red Dead Redemption.
In December 2010 Elm won Best Original Score at both the Machinima Inside Gaming Awards and Spike TV's Video Game Awards.
Albums
- The Shadow of Your Smile (1995)
- Retrograde (1997)
- Atardecer (1999)
- A Place in the Sun (2000)
- Wichita Lineman (2001)
- Live At Club 2 (2001)
- Under the Waves (2003)
- On the Shore (2003)
- Random Harvest (2004)
- Lost Horizon (2005)
- Fast Food Nation OST (2006)
- Red Dead Redemption OST (2010)
- Undead Nightmare OST (2010)
Compilations
- On the Shore (2003; two discs combining songs from Wichita Lineman and Live At Club 2 on disk 1 with Under the Waves on disk 2)