This will be a weekend to remember for Dynamik.
Pete Wilson and Cory Cramer perform an acoustic show in Everett tonight; Saturday they compete in the Showtime at the Apollo competition in Seattle.
“It’s like a huge opportunity for us. For the first time we’ll be in front of a crowd that can stop us if they don’t like us. It’s a test for us. It’s the hardest crowd we’re ever going to face,” said Cramer, 20.
“But out of 240 who auditioned, we made it. Just being asked to be there is so, like, honoring … We’re excited and a little bit nervous but mostly we’re ready to do it, even if they boo us off.”
Cramer and Wilson, 19, have come quite a ways since singing in the choir at King’s High School (Wilson grew up in Mill Creek, Corey in Edmonds).
“We’re both tenors so we stood next to each other for a few years,” Cramer said.
Both play electric, bass and acoustic guitars, piano and synthesizer. Wilson also plays the drums, Cramer the harmonica.
“We both wanted to start a band by ourselves and do most of the recording, so we figured we should cover all the instruments,” Wilson said.
“Throughout high school we never had any intention of doing anything else but do music,” Cramer said.
“Pete and I were best friends. We sang together and had the same drive and goal. We never really had to talk about what we wanted to do,” Cramer said.
The two are passing on college and 9-to-5 jobs and concentrating on music.
“Music is our job. We don’t want anything else getting in the way,” Wilson said.
Their songs have come from their experiences and their imaginations. “Lucy Girl” came courtesy of a prom date.
“My date got very drunk and I went home the next morning and wrote a song about how sad it was and how desperate she seemed,” Wilson said.
“Ideas” started with the music and had a life of its own after watching a video of U2’s God Part II, Cramer said.
“We thought we would say what we believe in. It’s like a very big idea to believe in love. We believe there’s hope rather than nothing, we believe in God more than nothing. It’s our way of saying that there’s hope in life and we don’t have to be afraid,” Cramer said.
Melody and harmony are two important facets of their songwriting.
“We’re known for writing songs with harmonies. We always try to listen for what we can sing on top of the melodies. Harmonies are a necessity for us,” Cramer said.
They’re in harmony with their songwriting, too.
“It’s great to write songs with another person … We feed off each other and take the best idea and go with it,” Cramer said.
“We listen to a lot of soulful melody-driven music like U2. Their music is very rock ‘n roll but the melodies are very soul-based,” Wilson said.
“We know that we can’t focus just on the lyrics or just on the melodies so we have to have an even amount of both with the right amount of emotion,” Wilson said.
They’ll put all of those facets to test this weekend.
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