THE BEGINNING

Soulfège was founded by two amazingly groovalicious brothers in song: Jonathan M Gramling and Derrick N. Ashong (aka DNA).

After meeting as two of the flyest college students ever to sleep through classes at Harvard University, they early realized that life on Wall Street might not be as hot as corporate recruiters were claiming. At first sign of a real job DNA fled to Hollywood to act in Steven Spielberg's Amistad. He returned with his lungs full of second-hand stardust and wrote a musical for his senior thesis. He was never to be remotely normal again...

After negotiating their release from their beloved alma mater's Supreme Financial Aid division, the two decided it was time to take their good education and make some serious cash. They thus started a band and promptly realized the precise value of that "good education"...

A BAND IS BORN

After traveling to Leipzig Germany with the Harvard Kuumba Singers to bust some wicked harmonies with vocalist extraordinaire Bobby McFerrin, Jonathan and DNA fell in love with the sound of a much better-looking singer, Miss Kelley Nicole Johnson. Ms. Johnson would subsequently leave the band heartbroken in the Fall of 2008 after she decided she could no longer live on 1.5 meals of gruel and cabbage per day, and ran off with a shady character named Solo Career (no relation to Han Solo of Millenium Falcon fame).

After traveling to Ashong's hometown of Accra, Ghana the group stumbled across the best percussionist they had ever stumbled across, in the form of one Attaa Addo (aka Putum Pata). They put the Pata on a platter with Brooklyn-based Hip Hop phenomenon, producer and drummer extraordinaire, Stix Bones and started servin' up large plates of Real Beats & Rhymes. Add to the mix Alex Staley, a loping, Funk-addicted Berklee producer raised on the mean streets of Portland, Oregon and you have the "bassis" of what would become known as the illest group of gunless gangstas the world of Hip Hop had never known.

THE BREAKUP

After completing their latest record "Take Back the Mic" the illustrious soon-to-be-famous, peacenik, Afropolitan rockers were blindsided by the loss of the lovely Kelley Nicole to that devilish rogue, Solo Career. In commemoration of the event Jonathan and DNA were crying into a nearby infant's spilt milk at an IHOP in Burbank, CA when in came a breath of fresh air.

After slamming the door shut to keep all that freshness from screwing up the inspired scent of grits & bacon, they noticed a beautiful girl with a cool accent sitting across from a giant African at the next table. DNA immediately thought "I wish she could sing," but wisely said nothing on account of the aforementioned giant African. Turns out that the beautiful girl could not only sing, she also had a name, a degree from Berklee School of Music, an acoustic guitar and had just come off tour w/ Musiq Soulchild. It was thus that Austrian/ Zimbabwean superstarlissima Daniela (aka "Yela") was discovered and assimilated into the Soulfège Borg.

A NEW DAY

Before realizing that it is not a good idea to begin every paragraph with the word "after," the band recruited another amazing talent. Born and buttered in Seattle, WA, keyboard wizard Micah Hulscher would bring an Elvis-esque hair-do and a freshly baked slice of Americana to the global pajama party. Behind the now near impenetrable wall of sound, in a dark basement filled with computer screens and hard-drives sits DNA's long time collaborator and Jamaican production wunderkind, Sajato "Jahtoworks" Jarrett, making more subversive cross-cultural beats than you can shake a mic at.

Thus a 21st Century Band was Born. And with that, Soulfège was poised to put a giant smile on the face of global society. Stay tuned, as the soon-to-be legendary crew bring the FUNKADOCIOUSNESS to a country near YOU!

THE...BEGINNING

So here's the original video of our very own, beautifully bald, infamously political DNA getting "brutally lyrical" with a journalist outside the Obama/Clinton debate. It's been getting mad love on the web and we are proud to be supporting the Obama campaign (well, most of us...some band members are clearly cooler than others...ahem). Anyway, this is democracy in action y'all. Gotta' love it! Peep the second video w/ DNA's response as well. OBAMA '08!!! (Note: D added that last part)

And here is DNA's response to all the gazillion questions we've been getting on that interview, as well as a personal explanation of why he supports Obama. SI SE PUEDE!:

I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V3.6!