Crossover (band)
Encyclopedia
Crossover is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 electroclash
Electroclash
Electroclash is a style of music that fuses New Wave and electronic dance music. It emerged in New York and Detroit in the later 1990s, pioneered by acts including I-F and those associated with Gerald Donald, and is associated with acts including Peaches, Adult, and Fischerspooner...

 duo from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Their first full-length album, fantasmo, was released in 2001.

Biography

Vanessa Tosti (AKA Verona, AKA VEE) and Mark Ingram (AKA Desmond, AKA DEZ, AKA ZED) met in NYC and worked at Smylonylon, selling deadstock vintage clothing
Vintage clothing
Vintage clothing is a generic term for new or second hand garments originating from a previous era. The phrase is also used in connection with a retail outlet, e.g...

. They listened to the Smylonylon mix tapes over the store's sound system and watched customer reaction. In an interview by Lorraine Carpenter, Mark Ingram said, "That was a research period for us because we were listening to this music over a big sound system eight hours a day. We’re really interested in making people dance and all that music had beats and heavy basslines, and, if it had a nasty keyboard over the top, it made us happy." http://groups.msn.com/SchoolofTheArts95/inthenews.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=2934&LastModified=4675466526945834824

After writing a story called "Fantasmo," the duo experimented with four-track recordings and decided that music was what they wanted to do. In the same interview with Carpenter, Ingram said, "We felt we were dealing with future music so we developed a concept, an idea that interested us." The concept involves the adventures of characters "Desmond" and "Verona."

To accompany the music, Crossover makes books called Pirate Communiqués and distributes them at their shows.

Mark Ingram and Vanessa Tosti also known as Vee & Dez
formed CROSSOVER in New York City and released their first album
"Fantasmo" pioneering dark underground electro folk tales in 2001.

In 2005 they released their second album
"Cryptic and Dire Sallow Faced Hoods Blast off into Oblivion" again
ahead of the pack with their own unique style of "cozmik" music.
The two lived in Berlin for a spell and did European tours for both albums
including shows in major cities in the US and Canada.

The mystery surrounding the band has gained them a cult like
following and also won them features in rags
such as The Face, ID, NME, D-Side, Blow Up, Jockey Slut, Sleaze Nation,
and Nylon, amongst others.

Along the way they have put out limited and hand numbered
unreleased music and art on their own DIY non-label Cellar Door.
Under this banner one can obtain "Anti-Cvlt" propaganda and
regalia including hand screened shirts, patches and badges.
Also the Pirtae Communiques, which are hand printed & bound fanzines
that the band uses to disseminate their ideas and artwork.

CROSSOVER have shot, directed, and edited their own
videos including "Over Exposure", "Apples on a Stick", and
"I know Your Face" as well as creating the artwork layouts for their albums.

Sound

In an interview on the Crossover (Anti-cvlt) MySpace web page, they said, "I suppose we identify best with outsider art and music from any era. Stuff that is normally frowned upon. Also artists who combine otherworldly themes, nature, as well as melancholy, sarcasm and humor. It has to be scary and intriguing, sad and precious. Paul Laffoley
Paul Laffoley
Paul Laffoley is a U.S. artist and architect. As an architect working for Emery Roth & Sons, Laffoley worked for 18 months on design for the World Trade Center Tower II. As a painter, his work is usually classified as visionary art or outsider art...

, William Klein
William Klein
William Klein is a photographer and filmmaker noted to for his ironic approach to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of photojournalism and fashion photography...

, Jean "Moebius" Giraud
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...

, Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky, known as Alejandro Jodorowsky, is a Chilean filmmaker, playwright, actor, author, comic book writer and spiritual guru...

, Hieronymus Bosch, Peter Bruegel, Theodor Kittelsen
Theodor Kittelsen
Theodor Severin Kittelsen was a Norwegian artist. He is one of the most popular artists in Norway. Kittelsen became famous for his nature paintings, as well as for his illustrations of fairy tales and legends, especially of trolls.-Biography:Kittelsen was born in the coastal town of Kragerø in...

... Christian Brown, Pushead
Pushead
Pushead is an artist, record label owner, and writer within the hardcore punk and heavy metal field. He has created artwork for many bands, artists, and athletes including Metallica, the The Misfits, Dr. Dre, Travis Barker, and Craig Johnson. He has designed many record covers, T-shirts,...

." http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=25902762

External links

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