By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
October 31, 1990
Deee-Lite is a self-described “holographic house groove band” with three members, who have taken the musical influences they grew up with to create a sound that’s both nostalgic and new.
They’re also a mini-version of the United Nations, with one young man from the Soviet Union, another from Japan and a young woman from the United States. All three are brave or outrageous enough to wear dorky-looking clothes, designed to look like the worst of everything from the 1960s and ’70s.
Deee-Lite will make their Chicago debut when they perform at 11 p.m. tomorrow at Shelter, 564 W. Fulton. Tickets ($12) are available at Ticketmaster outlets (559-1212). The trio can be expected to perform songs from their debut album “World Clique” – including their MTV hit “Groove Is in the Heart,” which is No. 12 and rising fast on Billboard’s current sales chart for U.S. pop singles.
Captain Whizzo, who did light shows for Jimi Hendrix and Cream, will handle the lighting for Deee-Lite.
“We are delighted to be touring,” said keyboardist Super DJ Dmitry, with only a slight trace of a Soviet accent. “I think a lot of people don’t think we’re capable of playing live, that we’re a manufactured band. They’ll be surprised when they see us play.”
Dmitry said he had to learn English quickly, because his classmates in the United States intimidated him. His neighbors in Connecticut weren’t fond of Russians.
Asked whether his family had emigrated or defected from the Soviet Union, Dmitry said they “sort of defected. We came to visit (the United States) and never went back. The main reason was that my parents wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have to enlist in the Army there, like all boys have to do at 18. I was 16 when we came to the U.S.”
Like the other Deee-Lite members, Dmitry won’t reveal his real name or age. But his record-company bio indicates that he came to the U.S. in 1979, so he probably is in his late 20s.
“Our ages and names aren’t that important to our music,” said mixmaster Jungle DJ Towa Towa in a thick Japanese accent. “Our music is. It is true that people have strange ideas about groups that aren’t a traditional four-piece guitar group. But it’s not up to us to change those ideas, really. It’s just up to us to do what we do, and if we get an audience, that is good.”
Deee-Lite’s two DJs recently called from New York to promote their tour. American singer and former go-go dancer Lady Miss Kier speaks infrequently with reporters.
“Lady Miss Kier likes to let her singing do the talking,” said Dmitry, who was born in Kiev. “Interviews are fun for us, in a way. But in many other ways, they also can be kind of strange, because everyone wants to know personal things about us rather than our music, which we feel is the most important thing about us. That’s why there is a Deee-Lite.”
The group formed five years ago after Dmitry, then a dance-club deejay, met Lady Miss Kier in New York’s Washington Square Park. They were musical novices, but both had the desire and the right attitude to become future pop stars. They began making demo tapes as Deee-Lite.
Jungle DJ Towa Towa also was working as a New York dance-club deejay. A night crawler like Dmitry and Miss Kier, Towa Towa found himself running in the same circles as the two oddly dressed musicians. He liked their music. They liked him. He joined the group in 1987.
With their retro looks and pop-dance beat, Deee-Lite produces a feel-good sound that seems to suggest: “Have a good time.” They emphasize style over substance.
Deee-Lite may not rely on guitars and drums, but the musicians use modern technology to give their songs memorable twists.
And although she looks like a Barbie doll whose wardrobe exploded, Lady Miss Kier has a forceful, memorable voice that fuels the group’s thumping dance sound.
But when a reporter suggested that the band draws a lot of its musical and fashion sensibilities from the past, Dmitry disagreed.
“We are not copying anything from any time,” he said. “We don’t consider ourselves as having a ’70s look or a ’60s sound or anything. We think what we’re doing is futuristic. It’s from 2080.”
The group’s members are avid music fans who listen to everything from funk to punk to heavy metal.
But Towa Towa and Miss Kier had one big advantage over Dmitry when they were growing up. They had access to pop music, both good and bad. Dmitry heard much of the bad and little of the good in Kiev.
“Japan and the U.S. are very advanced musically,” Dmitry said. “But for myself, I had a really hard time getting new music in Russia. Records are hard to get there. On the black market, they sell for about $70 each. So I ended up trading tapes with a lot of people of things like the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Led Zeppelin. But it’s not so easy to get newer music when your live in Russia. It’s not easy to get much of anything.”
