Anyone who crowded into Psi U on Saturday to see the Top 40 Cover Band perform has probably been within spitting distance of Adrien DeFontaine ’13. In his four years at Wesleyan, DeFontaine has made a name for himself on the music scene, from serenading his freshman RA at open mic during orientation to packing fraternities to capacity with his performances in the Top 40 Cover Band and Dink-583. The Argus sat down with DeFontaine to talk about his plans for a Say Anything cover band that never came to fruition, his favorite music moments at Wes, and his hopes for the campus’s music scene following his graduation.
The Argus: So, let’s start with the always-opening question: what makes you a WesCeleb?
Adrien DeFontaine: Wow. I don’t know what makes me a WesCeleb. I guess I am in a lot of bands on campus that play a lot of shows, so if people do know who I am it’s from that. They might see me around on weekends. Other than that, I don’t really do much else. I’m pretty low-profile. I do my radio station stuff, so a couple kids know me from there. It’s really that and playing a lot of shows.
A: You’ve been in a lot of high-profile cover bands at Wesleyan, from Top 40 to Dink-583. Why is it that you love to play covers?
ADF: It’s sort of a weird thing because I wasn’t always so cover band heavy. I’ve done a lot of different stuff in my four years here, and as we’ve gotten busier, it’s [gotten] a lot easier for us to go and play a show with a bunch of songs we already know or kind of know rather than creating a bunch of original material. We enjoy playing those songs because you can’t really go wrong there, versus trying your own material, where it’s like, “This might be good, or I might have just written a horrible song.” You play a Top 40 song, there’s an already built-in audience. It’s really easy to organize the show, put the show together, play the parts, et cetera. And then you’ve got The Japanese, which is my band that I love the most dearly, and we’re finally getting our stuff together to play our first show of the year. We haven’t played since sophomore year. It’s just one of those things where people got really busy last year.
A: So is it safe to say The Japanese is the favorite of your bands?
ADF: Yeah. I don’t think I’ll make any of my friends too angry with that; they all seem to know. That was my first band that came together at Wesleyan, and it was the first rock band that I’d ever been in in my life. It’s three of us now. We all are equally invested in it; we write all the songs together; and it’s so collaborative that it’s really like, that’s our reason, that’s the stuff that we love to play the most. Definitely my favorite band.
A: If you could have one cover band exist, which would it be?
ADF: Sophomore year my friend Kevin [Curtin ’13], who’s the drummer who plays in Dink-583, sent me a Facebook message out of the blue—he’s a transfer student—saying he’d seen the first Dink-583. I did a little Facebook stalking and saw he’s an amazing drummer, and I was like, “Oh, this is perfect.” Danny Sullivan [’13] and I and some others were working on putting together a Say Anything cover band and we brought Kevin in, and that’s how Kevin became one of my best friends. But what sucks is that that band never ended up happening. Say what you want about Say Anything, but I love those songs. Those songs have a special place in my heart. I really wanted to get to play those songs, but it just never came together.
A: Yeah, it’d be great to have a Say Anything cover band on campus.
ADF: Yeah. We really like those songs, and there are a lot of people who are very, very quiet about the fact that they love Say Anything, so it’d be nice to just let them be like, “No! It’s okay, guys! This was awesome music, there’s nothing wrong with it.” It’d be fun.
A: Both Dink-583 and Top 40 kind of indulge everyone’s guilty pleasures with music.
ADF: Well, that’s the thing. I don’t think you should be ashamed of whatever you like. It’s one of those things where a lot of people who are showing up to Top 40, that’s the music they love, and that’s awesome.
A: Your music has gotten progressively more electric.
ADF: It’s true. My first band was in college—I went to a high school were a lot of people who weren’t that musically active. It was just me with my acoustic guitar. The first DJ show I ever really saw live was in Ethan Cohen’s [’13] freshman dorm room when we first moved to school. I watched him DJ and was just like, “I’m gonna learn how to DJ. That looks like the most fun thing in the world.” He taught me everything about electronic music. It had a big influence on me.
A: Perhaps your most famous release is “Ain’t Tryna Say Good Night.” What’s it like being a pop sensation at Wesleyan?
ADF: I wouldn’t say that I’m a pop star by any means at Wesleyan. It was such a fun experience to be singing some of these ridiculous lyrics that Will [Feinstein ’13] wrote, and shooting that video was among the most fun experiences I’ve had at Wesleyan. It was just…being surrounded with a lot of my best friends that I’ve made at school, getting a haircut on screen, and jumping around being ridiculous in front of a camera in a LoRise that was empty during Senior Week.
It’s really cool for me that people really like the song. I’m sure there are people out there that don’t—and it’s fine, again, like what you like—but it’s been a lot of fun. It’s cool being at the occasional party where it’ll come on. The idea that people really love something that I got to do is awesome. I think more than anything I was just surprised that as many people seemed to like it as they did.
A: What was your first show like?
ADF: I was in jazz band and did a lot of that stuff in high school. I’d have my guitar and I’d play events at my high school where it’d just be me there with a guitar singing in front of a bunch of people and asking my girlfriend out to prom, being “that guy.” You would have hated me so much in high school because I was totally that guy. My first show at Wesleyan was at the open mic at freshman orientation. I got up with my guitar and sang “Sexual Healing” and dedicated it to my RA. That was the first show I played at Wesleyan. It was very different than any other show I’ve played here. I can’t think of another time I’ve been on stage with just a guitar since then at Wesleyan.
A: So now that your generation of musicians—Class of 2013—are leaving, do you have any parting words of advice?
ADF: It’s gonna sound kind of hypocritical and I hope it doesn’t come off as that, but I guess what I would say is this: cover bands are awesome, I love them, but I wish I had more time for original music. There are so many talented underclassmen that I’ve gotten to know, and some of them play these cover bands and I want to hear their original stuff.
My hope is that people will keep producing original music, keep throwing those shows where there’s gonna be 20 people in the living room of Music House, because those are the awesome moments. I can think of the first time I saw Grandfather play in Music House, my sophomore year. They opened for The Japanese, and they finished playing and we looked at each other and were like, “Oh, shit. We need to practice more.” Or the first time I actually got to see Lioness play, and being like, “These are my friends, and it’s so cool that they’ve making music like this.” Those are really cool moments.