Coming from three different countries and unique backgrounds, Music Beats Cancer artists Jonathan Knight, Adam Bell, and Martin Capella came together to form the band Dfonte because of their one common love: Music.
Jonathan, Adam, and Martin met while they were completing their graduate studies at NYU.
“Jon is a natural singer-songwriter, and he was looking for other musicians to make a band. He wanted people to play with and put his songs together, and that’s what brought us together,” band member Martin Capella said.
The origin of the band’s name comes from a combination of their countries of origin: Martin is from the Federal District of Mexico City (DF), Adam is from Ontario (ON), and Jonathan is from Tennessee (TE). Within Dfonte, Jonathan is the singer and songwriter, Adam is the drummer, and Martin is the bassist.
“It’s a collective effort between the three of us to create a unique sound. In addition to playing the bass, I also do a big part of the production, including the electronics and how the vocals sound,” Capella said.
Dfonte has been together for four years now, and they have a debut album out titled Lch.
“Our first album took about three years to create, and during that time we were also figuring out the identity of the band and our sound,” Capella said.
Because Dfonte has several members, each musician has individual musical influences. However, Dfonte specifically draws from several bands with psychedelic, rock, and pop influences.
“Adam has strong rock influences from the 80’s and 90’s, Jonathan grew up in Tennessee so he has a strong lyricism for songs, and I come from a contemporary classic experimental background. Some of the bands we like that influence us are Radiohead, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and Arcade Fire. I always think of music as being vast and the more influences you have, the better,” Capella said.
Dfonte has been involved with Music Beats Cancer for about a year and a half now. Capella first met Mona, Music Beats Cancer founder, at the venue where he works in the Lower East Side of New York City.
“Music Beats Cancer started a monthly event where a band would perform, and there would be a raffle drawn by a celebrity. One of the owners of the venue where I work said that Mona had a great project and wanted to see if we could help. I mentioned that I had a band, and because Mona was looking for performers, Dfonte was one of the first bands that performed at my work venue,” Capella said.
Dfonte’s members believe strongly in the Music Beats Cancer organization. For Capella, Sound Affect’s cause hits close to home.
“Personally, my mother had to have half of her colon taken off, but she responded amazingly and she hasn’t had any more signs of cancer. More people around me have been affected by cancer as well, and I’m sure all of our band members have been affected in some way,” Capella said.
In addition to working with Music Beats Cancer and creating music for their band, Dfonte also enjoys creating music for film and animations.
“We’re making music and sounds for an animation by Monica Cook, who is a fantastic artist. She does these crazy abstract sculptures that move to create interesting animations. This is our third collaboration with Monica, and we’re going to do the sound and music again,” Capella said.
Currently, Dfonte has put performing on hold while they work on new music.
“We’re planning to release our EP this summer. While we’re creating our EP, we switch out rehearsal time for production time, then when we’re done with the EP we’ll start rehearsing. All of us have full time jobs to survive in NYC so we do as much as we can, but we plan on performing this summer after finishing our album,” Capella said.
To learn more about Dfonte, visit their Music Beats Cancer profile here:
https://musicbeatscancer.org/artist/dfonte-3/To purchase their music, please visit their SoundCloud page:
https://soundcloud.com/dfonte-1
