There is a new website for Slingshot Dakota here!
With the energy and sound of a full four-piece band, Carly Comando and Tom Patterson –– the husband and wife team that make up Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s Slingshot Dakota –– craft unapologetic, heavy pop tracks that showcase their years of experience and punk influences. Although Carly is on the keyboard and Tom is behind the beats, to define the band as a keys-and-drums duo isn’t quite right. Carly writes songs as if there were a guitar and a bass present and translates how to mimic the sounds on the keys. It shows in the sheer vibrancy of each song. “I do most of the writing in my head,” says Carly. “Usually the chorus comes into my brain first and I shape the song around it, but sometimes the song is written very much like a diary entry and I shape it after. I hear everything: the music and the drums.”
The duo spent three years working on their upcoming album Heavy Banding, which is out via Community Records on May 24, 2019, crafting each song in real-time, when emotions were fresh and at their highest. The title of the album itself is a play on the band. “We deal with ‘heavy’ emotional matters in life but we ‘band’ together to get through it,” explains Carly. “We came up with the name when I was describing a snow squall to Tom- a short, quick, strong burst of a storm that can really make an impact in a small amount of time. This album is huge for us; it’s a culmination of all of our hard work since we regrouped in 2006. Our doubt is gone, our cares about what other people think about us don’t weigh as much, and we’re just living in the present with each other and our art.”
The ten songs that construct Heavy Banding cover several themes with a main focus on Slingshot Dakota’s professional frustrations in music, friendship and the heartache that can come with it, and family. The band saw the album as a moment to express their impenitent truth, like in the track “Louder,” an impactful anthem of synths, voices, and beats that use deep emotions to express the feeling of getting lost in the boys’ club that is the music industry. An equally scathing and hopeful response to reverberations still felt from the 2016 presidential election, “Louder” is a rallying cry for inclusion and perseverance in the face of unprecedented injustice.
Heavy Banding has been a long time coming. As a child, Carly found herself growing increasingly bored at her piano lessons. She often would memorize songs instead of learning to read music, but eventually taught herself to play the bass and guitar. When she first joined Slingshot Dakota in 2003, her bandmates at the time instructed her to play the keyboard “like a bass,” which allowed her to play with the tonal elements.
Carly and Tom grew up loving early Weezer, Hole, NOFX, and MXPX, naturally finding their way to respective local DIY and hardcore scenes. Their influences moved to the indie world, where they fell in love with the music of Sunny Day Real Estate, Pedro the Lion, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jenny Lewis, and Rilo Kiley. Carly’s classical training, Tom’s experience as a drummer in notable hardcore bands like The Ick and Rain on the Parade, and their love of indie rock is reflected in their sludgy tone paired with the catchy melodies of Carly’s commanding vocals.
Slingshot Dakota formed in 2003 with Pat Schramm on drums, Jeff Cunningham on guitar/vocals, and Carly on keys/backup vocals. In 2005, Tom jumped in as a temporary drummer and eventually a permanent member. In 2006, Jeff left, leaving the band as the duo we know today. “I remember Jeff quitting and us just sitting there in silence, and I got up and said, ‘Okay, well, we have a lot of work to do,’” Carly recalls. “So I walked across the room, drug my keyboard out, and started setting up for practice. I cracked open two beers and we just clinked them, had a sip, and got to work. It was definitely tricky at first and I remember it like it was yesterday: having to figure out how to make my keyboard more dynamic, buying more amps and pedals to play with tone and volume, learning how to sing; Jeff was our primary singer, so I had to learn how to carry all of the weight instead of merely sharing it.” The dynamic change, shifting from a trio to a duo, brought Carly and Tom closer together as band mates, friends, and eventually, partners. They literally eloped while on tour with Title Fight.
Surrounding the release of their full-length last album, 2016’s critically acclaimed Break, Slingshot Dakota was named one of Rolling Stone’s Artists You Need to Know. Since their inception, the duo has been able to check many boxes off their list of goals: they own a house, have a van, and have figured out who they want to be, musically speaking, although they recognize that songwriting is an ever-evolving art. “Our longevity is our greatest achievement as a band,” explains Carly. “We get better and better every year, stronger both mentally and physically, we have a ton of fun, and we’ve never let music industry trends/changes affect us. We’ve never stopped being true to our goals and ourselves. We learned how to book our own shows, tours, and take our business into our own hands.”
By making honest music and confronting the faults of the music industry, Carly has paved the way for other female artists to follow suit. “We have nothing holding us back as a two piece,” says Carly, and this sense of freedom is felt in the driving force of emotion behind Carly’s powerful tone. Slingshot Dakota plans to tour as often as possible over the next few years in support of Heavy Banding. “It’s still a huge dream to play Riot Fest, to be on SNL or some kind of late night show, and to tour with a band like Pearl Jam. We’re still like little kids and even though it still feels like some of these goals are unreachable, we’re starting to learn that they’re not.”
