Deconbrio

Trent Reznor may be busy remaking Led Zeppelin songs these days,
but that doesn’t mean the industrial brand of metal he pioneered with Nine Inch Nails is considered passé.

Not locally, at least. Thanks to Danny Rendo and his band, Deconbrio,
industrial is alive and well and headed to this weekend’s Walloween
festival at The Thirsty Turtle Pub in Maryville. On a path that took
him from Florida to the West Coast to East Tennessee, Rendo has
taken inspiration from Reznor’s music and turned it into his own
project.

“The trigger for me really wanting to get into the music I wanted to do was when my sister showed me (1994’s) ‘The Downward Spiral,’”

Rendo told The Daily Times during a recent phone interview. “It was a
combination of the music I grew up with, all in a very unique sound.
The first time I heard that album, I thought, ‘I would love to do
something like that. I would love to take all of the sound effects, all of
the noise, and make something beautiful out of it.”

Growing up, Rendo started playing keyboard when he was 3; in high
school, he started singing and playing every other instrument
standard to a rock band: guitar, bass and drums. Those skills afforded him the opportunity to be a one-man band, and in focusing on his own project, he began writing songs.

“Nine Inch Nails was sort of my gateway drug into the whole world of
music that wasn’t AC/DC, New Wave or funk sort of stuff,” he said. “At
first, I tried to emulate the style of Nine Inch Nails because at the time I wasn’t 100 percent sure what kind of sound I wanted to do, so I fell back to what was familiar to me at the time.”

Taking stock of the live bands in Fort Lauderdale, he began to put
together a formula for his own sound, and by his senior year of high
school, the first incarnation of Deconbrio was debuted. At first, it
seemed to work better as a studio project, and for the next 12 years,
Rendo pieced together music on his own before releasing the first
Deconbrio album.

That was in 2007; the album gave Deconbrio greater credibility, and
suddenly Rendo found himself with bandmates with whom he could
play live. He eventually moved to California, but when things didn’t
work out there, he decided to move to East Tennessee with the help
of a friend: Ashley Fantastic, a resident of Sevierville. She became his
musical partner, as well as the catalyst for a greater Deconbrio
presence in a live setting.

“To watch Danny on stage, you would never guess he is freakishly shy
and never wants to promote himself or push himself in any way,” she
said. “Promotion is an alien concept to him.”

She loved what he was doing, and in East Tennessee, Rendo
discovered a serious lack of industrial music in the local scene.
Fantastic sent his music to a friend who loved it, and before long,
Deconbrio was a five-piece local band featuring Rendo on vocals,
synthesizer and guitar, Fantastic on keyboards and synthesizer,
Richie Brannon on guitar, Bow Morton on drums and Hannah Scott
on bass. Chris “Syn” Wright of the band Psychosystem was one of
Deconbrio's first champions in the local scene, and over the past year, Rendo’s project has become a welcome addition to the local scene.

“We’ve built the band one person at the time, and we’ve kept it
minimal to meet our needs,” Rendo said. “We didn’t want to go too
crazy, but hearing how much more energetic it is live and how this
band will be able to bring more energy to future studio music gives
me a better idea of the direction we want to go.

“This is the best lineup I’ve had in terms of musicians, and one of the
things I’ve pushed is not to be so concerned about hitting the right
notes. Not standing still or looking bored is the key to a great live
show. People want to be entertained; they don’t want to see a bunch
of people standing around playing the same stuff they can listen to off of iTunes or a torrent site.” - Steve Wildsmith - Maryville Daily Times

Knoxville industrial rock act Deconbrio has made the most out of
2014 so far. Progressing at a break-neck pace, the group has added
new members, put out the first in a series of releases, booked major
shows with its newly beefed-up live sets and even wed two of its
members. With a full album and an EP on deck and a November tour
scheduled, the group shows no signs of slowing any time soon.

In February, Deconbrio brought in Scent of Remains’ Herb Himes to
give bass support to the live show. The band up to that point had
largely functioned with only three live performers, (Danny Rendo,
Ashley Fantastic and Richie Brannon) and filled in holes in its rhythm
section with programmed tracks. Himes’ presence made such an
impact in his first show, he was immediately brought on to the project full time. Reluctantly acknowledging the necessity of live drums, Deconbrio recruited Jason Esty soon after. Now five members strong, what began as a studio project for Rendo is now a fully realized collaboration. Rotating instruments on stage, the dynamic sets are noticeably more engaging.

“For a long time, we did pretty well with just the three members,”
Rendo recalls. “But, we all did feel like the live show was lacking a bit.
Fast-forward to the beginning of 2014 — we asked Herb if he would
help us out with live bass. After the Valentine’s Day show — the first
show we did with Herb — we all decided that we wanted to bring him
in full time. The live shows and the energy increased exponentially.
However, we all thought, ‘All right, our live show is good, but, a live
drummer will make it great.’ ... After talking to friends and trying out a few drummers, we found Jason was the perfect fit to the new lineup, bringing his drumming skills as well as his audio tech savvy-ness.”

Rendo acknowledges the intensified live sound influenced the
direction of Deconbrio’s April release “The Art of Violation: Part
One.” The five-song EP is the first of a two-part combo, with Part Two
yet to be released. Inspired by the collaborative writing of
Deconbrio’s new talent, the band is currently working on a full album
to come out before the sequel EP.

“I really wanted to try something new with ‘The Art of Violation,’ or at
least something Deconbrio hasn’t done before,” says Rendo. “A lot of
unnecessary drama was directed at us, and Part One was pretty much our public ‘(expletive) you’ response. By the time I was halfway
through writing Part One, I started to wonder, ‘What if I just ignore
the problematic Internet trolls? Why am I letting them get to me?’ I’m
30 years old, but I felt that teenage angst boil up inside of me.

“Finally, when that subsided, I started to take on a different
perspective of the situation. I still wanted the ‘(expletive) you’ Part
One but knew that Part Two needed to be a complete contrast to
that. I’m still planning on releasing a Part Two, along with a physical
version of both, but I’ve put that on the backburner for now, since I’ve been more in the mood to work on other music that doesn’t fit at all what I want Part Two to be.”

Before Deconbrio unveils either release, it will get plenty of practice
on its burgeoning live sets with the upcoming DominaTour with Team Cybergeist, spanning the Southeast this November. Taking more pride in it shows, the band’s expectations are raised to reflect its new live potential. Deconbrio has incorporated projections and other visuals, brought audience members on stage, and even waged
silly-string wars with its show-goers, but Rendo stresses it is never at
the expense of the quality of its music. Though hell-bent on topping
itself, Deconbrio will have trouble outdoing a recent gig at Scruffy
City Hall, in which Rendo married longtime girlfriend and bandmate
Ashley Fantastic before performing a full set.

“The Rock Show Wedding was such a fun event,” says Rendo. “We
kept it casual for the most part. Ashley did have a beautiful wedding
dress, while I pretty much wore my usual stage attire. Rather than the traditional ‘bride walking down the aisle,’ we both walked through the crowd to ‘Monsoons’ by Puscifer, where we met up at the front of the stage and walked onto the stage together. We opened the whole
thing up to the general public and had some interesting people walk in and stay for the whole event.” - Knoxville News Sentinel

When you think of the Tennessee music scene, one may conjure the
imagine of big name country artists performing their top ten radio hit
of the summer, but for Deconbrio, the band is violating the traditional music scene with their brand of heavily infused industrial rock and carving out a name for themselves in the Knoxville music scene.

Comprised of Richie Brannon (guitar, keys), Jason Esty (drums),
Ashley Fantastic (keys, bass), Herb Himes (bass, guitar), and Danny
Rendo (vocals, guitar, keys, bass, and programming); these five
musicians are turning the industry upside down with their latest
release, The Art of Violation Part One. Despite the release consisting
only of five songs, Deconbrio manages to generate a sound that is
captivating, haunting, and at times emotional aggressive in nature.

The Art of Violation Part One has the listener by the collar as soon as
the first track slowly creeps into the listener’s ears. Victimized does
just this with a triumph opening that begins with a progressive
sounding synth/programming arrangement followed by a subtle
guitar riff that prepares the listener for what is to come. Without any
hesitation, Deconbrio violates the listener with an onslaught of
saturated guitars and a cut throat lyrical performance by Danny that
introduces the world to Deconbrio’s musical madness:

Are you paying attention / You’ve got a lot to learn / Before you open your mouth and I / Become another bridge you burn

Following in the footsteps of the madness found in the first track,
Collapsing finds the band at its most heavy and aggressive form on
the entire EP. It is on this track that Danny’s knowledge of
programming truly shines as characterizing him as a musician who is
unique and stands alone among the rest. Not to be forgotten, the
band’s guitarist Richie Brannon delivers a performance that could
possibly make the entire members of Rammstein tremble and shake.
Furthermore, Danny steps his game up one more notch with
delivering a vocal performance that rivals Trent Reznor and then
some with the lyrics:

Are you feeling dead / Dead inside your head / Fake it / Break it / Eliminate it / Sinking into the depths

Another shining moment on the EP is the song Distractions. In typical
Deconbrio fashion, the band wastes no time with delivering a
performance that is menacing that borders between pure brilliance
and absolute madness. Ashley Fantastic delivers a well executed
performance with Danny helming another onslaught of aggressive
vocals and mind boggling programming.

Closing out the EP the listener finds the band completely violating
their inner musical senses with the songs Guilty and Control.
Interestingly enough, the band executes an excellent rendition of
Gravity Kills’ song, Guilty. From catchy and aggressive lyrics, to sleazy
guitar riffs, distorted solos and saturated programming, Guilty
combines all the elements of industrial rock that will catch the
listener off guard but leave them begging for more.

The band finally closes the EP with a dark and but subtle track
entitled, Control. It is in this song that Danny and Co. leaves the
listener with the concept that it is not always the loudest and most
aggressive track that speaks to an audience. The combination of well,
thought out lyrics, subtle guitars, intricate drumming patterns, and
saturated synths/programming makes Control an industrial
heavyweight that the music scene has been waiting for quite
sometime.

At the core of Deconbrio, shines five musicians who have a bright
future ahead of them with their multi-talented abilities as well-rounded instrumentalist. It is on The Art of Violation Part One that the band is violating the musical landscape and shattering the norms of how music is experienced. If there is ever Part Two on the the horizon for Deconbrio, it is safe to say that the band will have no problem acquiring new followers and spreading their brand of music
throughout the industry. - Kyle Chambers - Emurg Magazine