BIO:
Gym Class: A dreadful exercise in humiliation for some. For others, a flexing ground for
popular muscle. The boys in Gym Class, the band, didn’t take your money in the locker room
but they didn’t fail the physical fitness test, either. If anything they might have schooled you
in badminton. All grown up, this New York City-based trio exists somewhere between
aggression and frailty, forging unknown sounds that transcend the confines of age and
category, and teeter on the brink of virgin musical terrain.
Colored by an amalgam of influences as diverse as Can, T. Rex, Miami bass, Lil Jon, Prince,
Silver Apples, Pere Ubu, Talking Heads, The Gap Band, and Dub Syndicate, Gym Class don’t
really sound like these artists. It’s all internal, and like repressed testosterone, it shines
through when the time comes.
Exploring ever-changing musical identities, Jay Guillermo, Dylan Maiden and Jesse Serwer look
to the heavy spirit of electronic, hip-hop, dub, and spaghetti western soundtracks for inspiration
to accomplish their mission: create some of the bass-iest, bizarre, and most chest-reverberating
music possible without the use of an actual bass. Guillermo’s Juno-60 and Serwer’s kick drum
provide the boom in question, forming the backbone of the Gym Class sound, while Maiden’s
intermittent single-note wails and “fey” moans fill the rhythmic vertebrate of simple synth tones
and elemental hi-hat claps. The end result is a substantial union of highs and lows, a thick and
stripped-down hunk of sweet meat that will make your frame shake.
PRESS:
“Gym Class is a feisty T-Rex-inspired art-rock trio…dark, dancey sounds.”
—Time Out New York
“They played edgy synth rock that made us tap our feet. We imagine that if heaven and hell existed, and it existed as multi-leveled notes and chords played in the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's simultaneously...and they crashed together...Gym Class would be comprised of its apocalyptic fragments.”
—Gothamist
“What separates these three from the other navelgazers and mopers is the group’s stage presence. Lead singer and guitarist Dylan Maiden, with his Beatles frop cut and haunting eyes, pops around the stage like a man grasping for his last breath of punk solitude. With no bass player, they keep the dark groove rolling with noisy, sci-fi synth lines by Jay Guillermo and heavy garbage-can-pounding percussion from native Lawng Eylander Jesse Serwer. With its electronic warbling, Gym Class' music seems ripe for reinterpretation. With the help of producer DASO, the band's gothic screams could actually become dance-floor hooks.”
—New York Press
“A twisted take of skuzzy funk with electro beats that give off delicious and delightful sounds.”
—CRASHIN'IN (NYC)
“A GYM CLASS YOU’RE GONNA LIKE…the threesome that's actually got hipsters tapping their feet. Which is the equivalent to making nuns breakdance.”
—Skate Mental
“Hip band du jour Gym Class gets out of school (and the forest for that matter) to perform at midnight on Saturday at the Pussycat Lounge.”
—METRO
“Similar coordinates as the unforgettable debuts of Devo and Pere Ubu…More atmospheric and organized than our late 70’s heroes, Gym Class’s sound bends towards the austerity of the Kraut Rock and Morricone’s epic statements.”
—the deli
CONTACT:
For booking, press, & music:
Gerhart Popwell
GERHART POPWELL, MGMT.
Gerhart.Popwell@Gmail.com
