Today we’d like to introduce you to Samson, Jackson Thornton, Harrison Stringer and Darnell Woods.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Samson, Jackson, Harrison and Darnell. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Pastel Dynasty started with a laptop, a Bluetooth speaker, and a decent microphone. (And some ambition of course) Me (sam) and Harrison have been playing in bands together since the early teenage years and have had some success, some failures, but a lot of experience in what it means to be an artist. Jack and Harrison first collaborated together around July of 2018 and started creating songs together. I (sam) discovered this was happening and quickly joined in the writing efforts during the same month. Some time goes by, and we have a couple of ideas drafted together but nothing final yet. We needed some more outlets as well as maybe another member for percussive stuff and beats. We met Darnell through a mutual friend and we hit off quite well and have remained actively together ever since. Darnell wrote a great deal of some more beats in collaboration with Jack and wrote inspired lyrics with Harrison as well. We started creating all of the songs for our first album Gutter chapter which came out early in 2019. The album was inspired by the trials and tribulations of what it means to start over with a new band, a new creative outlook, and what it means to truly take on the uphill battle of being an independent band. Since then we have gigged our butts off ever since! We have had the privilege to play with some amazing bands like Snailmate, Culture wars, Dendera Bloodbath, Sick Ride, Vio/ator and so many many more. After some time and gigging under our belt, we began writing our newest album Parental Advisory around the summer of 2019 and released it in December of that year. This album was primarily created to demonstrate that we have a lot to say and a lot to do. We wanted to be aggressive but profoundly understood by our audience that wants to dig into our own little culture of how weird and different we are and relate to those who share the same vein. To lead with this we also went on our first tour with Dendera Bloodbath in January 2020. We went to the west coast mostly and played in California, Oregon, and Washington. But we also played in Texas and even 1 show in Louisiana. We were on the road with the lovely Dendera Bloodbath who is a solo artist from LA. Currently we are actively pursuing more shows, festivals, and even booking another tour for October! Our biggest plan for 2020 is lining up a tour in Japan. While this all is no small feat, we have every intention to go as far as we can with this. It’s crazy to think how this all started in a bedroom with just a laptop, a copy of FL studio, a good microphone, and a Bluetooth speaker. But we all start somewhere right?
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It absolutely has not been. Any band can tell you the love of the grind. We knew that some sacrifices had to be made like quitting other bands, losing jobs here and there due to touring schedules, and many other difficulties and tribulations. But we do this because it’s our biggest passion, above all else. Changing lives with music is one of the most important parts of all of our lives, and we can’t express that enough. The biggest struggles I would say are probably booking tours and very costly repairs for the tour van lol. Things blindly change every day in the industry, whether it is on a DIY level or a massive mega record label level. This leads to lots of disappointing emails when a venue can’t book us, or a band doesn’t want to work with us. But we have honed more management skills to make tours more successful in the future. One amazing aspect, however, is the support of our fans and other bands we have worked with. That has made it worth every hardship at the end of the day.
Please tell us about your music.
Pastel Dynasty is a band from Richardson, TX. We specialize in creative, crazy, and loud sounds. The proudest part of what we do is able to create music every day and work so much inspiration from all around us. What sets us apart from others is we are not a traditional rock band nor are we even a rap group. We are a new flavor of culminations from so many aspects of dynamic sound and music. It’s new in a good way.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
The list is vast and very long. But to paraphrase, we have had the opportunity to work with many talented industry people before Pastel Dynasty. Before we joined, we worked with Dave Castell, who produced and recorded our record with our old band Vannah Red. He has worked with other bands like Blue October (Recorded and produced History for sale), The Toadies (No deliverance), Deep blue something, and many more. We also worked with so many other Talented musicians like Daniel Jairala, who plays all of the Saxophone parts in our songs on Parental Advisory. And of course, the biggest part of the machine, Jackson Thornton, who is the main beat writer, producer, and engineer for our whole songwriting process. He arguably plays one of the biggest roles in our success. He allows so much insight into our musical dynamic and creates amazing beats for everything that we do. Lastly, our fans, of course, have brought us up this hill more than we ever could on our own. The fact that we influenced people period brings borderline brings us to tears! Words cannot describe how much it means to us when people support us. This allows us to work harder to bring happiness to those who want it, and we cannot wait to see how the future unfolds with this fact in mind.
Pricing:
- T shirts are 25$ (Available via in person or by special request)
Contact Info:
- Email: pasteldynasty@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/pastel_dynasty_official
- Facebook: facebook.com/PastelDieNasty
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DynastyPastel
Image Credit:
Rainey Craddock, Jackson Thornton, Max Valentine.
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