Check out our interview with a local smash duo band Destineak. We sat down with Destineak to see what they’re up to, how their name was created, how they stay on top of the game and a lot more! Make sure to check out their new hit“Just The Music” thats been banging on the radio and their release party for their new CD “Sirens”, more info here. Also make sure to check them on FACEBOOK and TWITTER. Buy Destineak’s CD on Itunes. Make sure to check out their website – www.destineak.com.

AFOOT | How was Destineak created?

Christina: I’m supposed to show-up at this gig and open for this mysterious ‘DJ-drummer-visual-artist-guy.’ I’ve got my four piece band – ‘Free Spank’ – and we were doing live house music, and I saw this guy checking this drum kit and he’s in this sweaty, dirty t-shirt. And I thought: ‘Fuck, he is so fucking fine, I gotta have a kiss right now!’ So, I go up and I say, “Hi, I’m Christina Sing.” Instantly, we hit it off. I thought he was the roadie but when I saw him on stage, I thought: ‘I’ve never seen anyone play like Bobby on the drums and on any instrument.’ The fervor that he emits when he plays is un-fucking-believable. Then, literally, we kissed within a half an hour of meeting and we were inseparable. Took him back to my apartment, played him a song on my guitar and I guess we’ve been inseparable for five years.

Bobby: She did, she played me ‘On Days Like This’ which is a track we’re gonna do in the future – probably next record. She just played this track and belted out this song, and I was just instantly – wham! – I just knew that her words and her music had to be heard. I just decided to devote my entire skill set and whatever it was (and I learned how to produce – over the course of time – her words and lyrics ‘cause I didn’t really have that). I had a great beat, great bass line, great sense of arrangement; a great way to get her to the stage and connections and stuff. Then Christina and I started writing – a lot of the tracks came out of those days. So, it was pretty cool anyway.

Christina: I gotta say a lot of the tracks came out of partying our faces off and trying to turn each other on, and being up at 7 in the morning and writing down really funny, dirty lyrics. You’ll hear them on record.

Bobby: So, Destineak: Destination.

Christina: Yeah, because without each other we would be completely different artists. But together, we are such a great force. I feel on our own, we would’ve done fantastic things, but together, we are destined to be great.

AFOOT |  How did you guys develop your unique sound?

Christina: Well, you know, it’s actually funny because we didn’t even think about having a sound at all. We were actually both just really fascinated with electronic music. I’m a song writer at heart. I studied jazz music in college for four years and I’m kind of a geek. I play guitar and piano. It was just, let’s make music that we really wanna hear.

Bobby: I really freaked out in the beginning because I’ve been in the studio and I’ve recorded umpteen dozen records, major labels, been around the world, toured with Kid Rock, Slipknot and a lot of really heavy bands – Panterra and stuff like that. I’ve recorded in really professional studios, with the best producers out there in the world. So, I knew how things went down. Twenty years of experience doing that and you’ve got to learn something. So, I knew that sitting behind the board was a brand new thing for me. But I knew that Christina had a lot of friends who were really supportive of her, and if I misrepresented her direction, (or what she was about or what she was able to do) I was probably gonna get shit on. That was probably not going to make the relationship go so good and we really wanted this thing to work. Five years ago, one of my buddies, Timmy, at New Art Studios, lent me a studio. He said, “Here’s the board guys, record your stuff and I’m gonna be back in like two weeks,” and he went to Russia. So, I think we did a four song demo. ‘Release Me’ was one of the songs (that’s coming out on the record). So, then I won her over and I won her friends over. And then we went to see BT. I took her to see BT.

Christina: ‘Cause I was really on the fence about really, really loving electronic music and then I saw BT. I listened to his whole record ‘Emotional Technology’ and it changed my life. It was like, “Oh my fucking God!”

Bobby: We just thought: ‘You know what? If there’s a guy making music like this out there, well, then we can do whatever the fuck we want.’ So, that’s how we came-up with the ‘Bye-Bye Baby’ track – that’s adult contemporary.

Christina: Technically, our sound is (I’m going to be honest here) born out of a lot of tunes and sweat on Bobby’s part. In the last five years, he’s just sat on Logic and on the computer and just fucking been this master mind – you guys will hear it on the record, it’s just all these ‘bweep,’ ‘swig,’ ‘da da.’

Bobby: So, you have to know your market and we’re playing with a few different markets here, which is nice ‘cause we get to experiment and cross-over and that keeps the day fresh.

AFOOT | So, what are some current projects that you guys are working on, and what do people need to know about?

Christina: Well, obviously the big one. The next step for Destineak is to go on tour. We’ve put our whole lives on hold just to go towards that. We wanna do a mini tour across Canada. But then after that, it’s straight to Europe and Asia for us – go where the dance market is big. I mean, sorry to say, Nickel Back is still the favorite band in Canada. And it’s not that I don’t love my Canadians. But there are people like Chromeo paving the way, and MasterCraft. You know, it’s time to go where people actually appreciate us.

Bobby: I think we need to address the fact that we still need to assemble this double CD/DVD package coming out – 8 tracks – plus a remix.

Is there a date for that?

Bobby: Well, we are trying to get all the assembly and everything done by the end of this month. That means recording four new videos. And what’s going to happen is the editing is still going to happen over the course of February. And manufacturing and stuff like that might not happen until like the 1st of March. But the Olympics start, so I mean, I’m booked-up with Christina. Christina and I got about 6 or 8 shows.

Christina: And we’re doing the opening ceremonies at the Surrey Olympic stage. It’s a big deal, guys! There’s going to be contortionists and it’s the first of thirteen days of celebrations on this stage. It’s such a big honor to be asked ‘cause we got to open it.

Bobby: We opened-up last year ‘Donnelly and Events’ – John Donnelley’s a really good friend of mine, and Shaun from SPM. They called on us a couple of times and we opened-up for Julie Black last year. And ‘Fusion Festival,’ it’s a really big stage.

Christina: Actually, back to your other question. I don’t want people to forget that right now, we got a lot of remixers (I’m not gonna drop any names just yet) but, we just went from Lazy Rich, who’s amazing.

AFOOT | You guys have been doing this for a while, how do you stay successful in such a ‘cut-throat’ business?

Christina: We work hard. We work really hard.

Bobby: Instead of spending our last thirty bucks on promos to get people to our next show or to get people to the website, we have a label that’s helping us out. And they’re putting us in the studio. So, the money – the hard costs – are kinda on their backs now and we just have to show-up and pull the art together. Christina and I have exhausted everything. Our cards are racked, our bank accounts are drained – just to get it to the ‘signing point.’ So, about 6 months ago (I think it was) the whole deal turned over. And now we’re just worried about being starving artists, but getting the opportunity to be artists. The most exciting thing is that we, Christina and I, are madly in love. Not one of my friends can say that. At the end, when you’re trying to get signed (I hate to say this) but it’s about a really great show first, a really great song. Then people are going to look at your Youtube hits and they’re gonna look at your MySpace hits.

AFOOT | How did you guys get signed?

Bobby: Mosh Pit Productions – they’re an independent label. So, they called me in to be a director and a producer – to just write them some treatments for their bands. So, I’m like, “Christina, I’m gonna put a package together and I’m gonna fucking take it down there and I’m gonna tell them that the only way I’m gonna look at their shit is if they look at mine.”

AFOOT | Do you guys have any interesting or bizarre ‘fan stories’?

Christina: Well, we just got a really cool present from one of our fans.

Bobby: Oh yeah, a nice little Christmas present. That was pretty cool.

Christina: Yeah, they brought you this little drum kit – major drum kit.

Bobby: Yeah, everything works. The hi-hat works. The bass drum works… I was doing a drum solo one night. I was in this room, really amazing sounds – the subs – it was a powerful sound system.  And I had the people in the palm of my hand and I kicked into this drum solo. There was an old guy, maybe about… shit, he must’ve been sixty – sixty-five years old and he just went ape-shit. He just loved this thing. He had this drink in his hand and the next thing you know, I’m looking over and I’m just watching him do his thing, and he just fucking grabs his glass and it was like he had a seizure. He just went ‘ah!’ and he just fucking fired his glass at me and it smashed on my cymbal in the middle of my solo. Glass went everywhere and I got cut-up, and he didn’t even know that he did it.

AFOOT | Do you guys stay current with other music?

Christina: Yeah, totally! Of course! Sneaky Sound System, you guys know who they are, right? They’re amazing! And The Presets. Thank God someone took a chance and played something darker in the Electro world.

AFOOT | Last words and inspirations for the fans?

Bobby: Shit, I dunno. If you’re gonna do music man, it’s a tough fucking day, man. But you know, that’s why you do what you do and the music that you love. Don’t sacrifice that ever.

Christina: Yes, stick to what you would love to hear or what you love to project. And, when it comes down to it, a good song is better than a big production. You know what I mean? Write good songs. It’s not about the gloss, it’s about the heart, man. (Interview by Dmitri Litvinov, Transcribed by Karen Cabrera, edited by Tania Litvinova).