Audio By Carbonatix
San Francisco duo CyberSutra is fairly new to the dance music scene, but producers Scott Binder and Nathan Heal have wasted no time in making their presence known. Blending the hard edge of electro with the melodic expanses of trance, they incorporate unique vocals by some of the top vocalists in the field and present it all in high-energy live performances. “We really wanted to mix the organic with technology,” Binder says.
He and Heal are longtime friends, both lifelong musicians who studied music formally and played in rock bands. A few years ago, they decided to start a different sort of project, an electronica outfit with the sensibilities of non-electronic musicians. Early production took place between Scott in San Francisco and Nate in Seattle, with beats and tracks passed via the Internet from one producer to the other. Thus was born CyberSutra.
Scott being a drummer and Nate a keyboardist, the two sought to keep live instrumentation as a component of their music. And similarly, the inclusion of interesting vocals was always a goal. “From the get-go, from our very first conversation,” Binder says, “we were like, ‘We want to collaborate with vocalists from all around the world.'”
Such is the case in “Lick It,” the duo’s first single, which was released in March 2008 and grabbed the attention of the famed DJ Dan. The track’s momentum also ultimately landed them a deal with InStereo Records. The vocal work here was different from the impressive styling found on some of CyberSutra’s other tracks, such as “SummerSutra,” featuring Tiff Lacey; “White, Trashy, and Blonde,” featuring Melleefresh; and their new single, “I See Fire,” featuring Jacinta. Nonetheless, the playful coquetry between the robotic voices insisting “lick it,” but “only if you touch it,” is classic.
Still, the stage is where these two shine. Incorporating live keys and percussion along with turntables and guest vocalists, CyberSutra aims to keep taking its performances to the next level. “CyberSutra is not now where it’s going to be in a year,” Binder says. “We’re going to keep expanding it, and have lots of vocals and lots of instruments, and just making it more of a live multimedia act.”
