INTERVIEW: Slingshot Dakota
At first glance, Slingshot Dakota seem like an anomaly in the punk scene. A two piece keyboard driven and female fronted rock band who tour with heavyweights like Title Fight and Balance and Composure. A Slingshot Dakota live set is a bona fide good time. Between their insanely huge choruses, the charismatic Carly Comando shares road stories and candid excerpts of the married couple’s sex life. While many two piece acts rely on looping and backing tracks to reproduce their recorded music, Slingshot Dakota sticks to their one two punch of an 88-key digital piano through effects pedals and a heavy sounding drum kit.
Break (released by Topshelf Records) is Slingshot Dakota’s most prolific and dynamic album featuring their most infectious hooks to date. “One thing that we really wanted to focus on this record is fullness of the sound,” says Carly Comando as we sat down after an adrenaline fueled Nintendo 64 Mario Kart race (Carly got 2nd place on Rainbow Road). “There’s so much work that goes into our music because I want it to be as awesome live as it is on the record. It’s so hard to choose the kind of ear candy you want to put on the record that won’t get missed in a live setting.”
It’s easy to pigeon hole Slingshot Dakota into a classic indie rock mold without first diving into their catalog. For the uninitiated, the band has released 3 albums in 10 years of being a band and has stuck to the same formula throughout. “I try not to read reviews or anything but any time I happen to find one that isn’t into the band they say that the record all sounds the same,” says Comando. “You wouldn’t say that about a band with drums bass and guitar. A lot of those bands are stuck with the same sounds too. You have pedal options but you’re still dealing with string instruments, vocals, and percussion.”
Break is very much a concept record wrought from positive breakthroughs and emotional breakdowns. “We were severely burnt out from our jobs,” Comando recounted. “One day we were walking on the Monocacy Trail where we would do this really long walk and loop all the way around to our apartment – and it just hit us. We should just do music full time. We could make the same money and be way happier being self-employed.”
Since announcing the album, Slingshot Dakota have completed venerated spots at 2016’s SXSW Festival, finished a full U.S. headlining tour, and will be touring the east coast this summer with DIY favorites Dikembe. Raised in their respective DIY punk scenes, Comando and Patterson are right at home on a hardcore or punk bill. “Even though punk or hardcore aren’t necessarily the style of music this band plays, we’ve come from that so we’re like the puppy that got raised by the horse and thinks it’s a horse or something like those internet stories.”
Together the duo has stretched the traditional idea of a punk band. “The definition of punk is defying the norm and being whatever you want and kind of not giving a fuck about it, says Comando. “So by default we are the punkest band ever because we’re not adhering to the traditional punk standard.
Catch Slingshot Dakota w/ Dikembe:
July 18th – Comet Ping Pong, Washington D.C.
July 19th – Aviv, Brooklyn, NY w/ Iron Chic
July 20th – Amityville Music Hall, Amityville, NY w/Iron Chic
July 21st – PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA w/Jank
July 22nd – Mr. Roboto Project, Pittsburgh, PA
July 23rd – Mahall’s Basement, Cleveland, OH
July 24th – Downstairs at SUBT, Chicago, IL
July 26th – Nostromo, Nashville, TN w/Free Throw
July 27th – The Shark Tank, Tallahassee, FL
July 28th – Loosey’s, Gainesville, FL
July 29th – Will’s Pub, Orlando, FL
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