Static People's Page

Press Quotes

"Static People are destined to be your next favourite band. They combine distorted greatness, old school punk vibes and a touch of noisy indie – you need them in your life."
--Somojo Magazine UK

"Static People make you feel your heart beating in its cage. Tank grrl Dmitra Smith’s scrumptious voice, add the backing of Pascal Faivre…you get raving rock 'n' roll to grit your teeth to."
--New York Waste

"Each track has Dmitra Smith's voice front and center, full of the same angst and derision that propelled Patti Smith to stardom."
--The Ripple Effect

“A great mixture of shine and grit.”
--Vandala Concepts

Band Members:
Dmitra Smith began singing at age 8 in her native Seattle, enduring torture from a closeted and bitchy girl’s choir director who punched his stomach while screaming the word "SUPPORT" at small children. She credits him for her 3 octave range. She relocated to San Francisco in 1992 to join marimba driven rock project Fuzz Factor with guitarist Joe Gore(Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Tracy Chapman, The Eels, Hole). She was a member of industrial noise and television-exploding project Sharkbait, as well as lo-fi indie trio Florida. Her vocal sways include Billie Holiday, Siouxsie Sioux, Nina Hagen, Diamanda Galas, Nina Simoone, Robert Smith, and HR.

Guitarist Pascal Faivre is from Pontarlier, France, the capital of absinthe. He discovered punk rock at age 10, put a huge box of laundry soap into the town fountain with his hooligan friends which created 4' high suds for blocks, started his first bands Les Cochons Dingues and Corbeaux Drivers, and wriggled out of mandatory army duty with sublime trickery. He is also a film actor who got his first taste for acting in 1973, when French director Jean Chapot cast him in a small part in The Burned Barns with Alain Delon and Simone Signoret. He performed his scenes in his favorite fuzzy pink pajamas.

Drummer Ken Shelf enjoys the flavor nuggets of miasmatic dissonance between the beats, or rather around them.  He makes his home in the moments before and after perfect timing.  He is a veteran of the Bay Area indie/experimental music scene, playing for Santa Cruz grind-core band Head Case-O-Matic in the mid-90's and San Francisco party gods The Dont's for the first decade of this millennium.  He sees percussion as the meeting point of math and poetry while employing a heavy dose of poetic license, and a calculator.  When  not creating music, he makes phantasmagorical art with plants and glass at his San Francisco store, Succulence.  He is the father of two, the husband of one, and if he were a fruit, he'd probably be a perfectly ripe banana. 

Other cohorts:

Jim Valavanis, Bass

Daedalus Howell, Bass

Mundo Murguia, Drums