Artist description TD is an instrumental pop group. There really is no genre for us here at MP3.COM, so we just keep placing songs in different areas and hope we find a close enough match.

Music Style Instrumental music with strong synth pop roots.

Musical Influences Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Information Society, New Order, ABBA, Madonna, John Denver; Johnny Cash, Classical Greats, Enya

Similar Artists Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Information Society, New Order, ABBA, Madonna, John Denver; Johnny Cash, Classical Greats, Enya

Artist History TechnoDrama formed in 1988. At the time the "group" consisted of Benjamin A. Mayo, a self taught musician who was influenced by the works of European pop groups like Abba, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, and Depeche Mode, with some minor influences by New Order and the American techno band Information Society. TechnoDrama was not officially TD at this time, since nothing really serious was going on. Ben was teaching himself how to play keyboards and searching for a partner to work with, a vocalist to be more precise. In late 1991 Ben came into contact with a couple young hopefuls, but the commitment fell through. Then in 1992, Ben decided to try and go it alone as an instrumental movement. He put together a compilation of songs that reflected upon the times around him. "Now What!?" was the result of this work, and now Ben wanted a name for himself out side of his own personal name. The name TechnoDrama was created to try and capture the essence of the music. It was obviously Techno in origin, but the Drama stems out from a less obvious origin. Drama was chosen not because the music is dramatical in nature, but often shifted and changed throughout one song so much as to seem dramatic when listening to it. "Now What!?" was distributed independently via TechnoDrama and received some very good feedback. Some tracks, including "Junior" and "Senior" where played on select college radio stations. The positive reaction to this compilation prompted immediate work on a follow up compilation entitled "Remember", released in late 1994. This collection showed growth and tried to expand into new areas, as all good growth should do. The album was again distributed directly via TD and by request. Tracks "When will you" and "Out the Window" again received air time on select college radio stations and were given a fair amount of positive feedback. So much music had been created for "Remember" that Ben took the leftover work and created some new work and released a third compilation entitle "Pseudorandom" in early 1995. This compilation surpassed expectations of creativity and proved to be highly successful. Due to geographical circumstances, no radio airtime was received, but distribution of the album was still very good. "Pseudorandom" was full of music that was pure TechnoDrama. By now, TD had created a sound that was distinguishable as their own. Most of the music styling originated from "home" keyboards. This created an environment that though seemingly simple in sound was rich with uniqueness. It is something that you really have to hear to understand. It has been described as tinker toys meet Star Wars, though I am not sure what that means. Now for the dark portion of the history file, something everyone must face once or twice along this journey. After "Pseudorandom", Ben felt ready for a new challenge, and he went back to search for a vocalist. In mid 1995 he hooked up with Melissa Drinwater. The immediately began working on songs, with Melissa spearheading the lyrics while Ben worked out the musical accompaniment. The songs were coming together quickly and they sounded totally TD, unique, yet catchy and moving. Then, in the spring of 1996, when the time came to start recording the work, Melissa had to back out. TechnoDrama had twelve songs ready to go, and not one of them ever got recorded. There is, of course, a lot more to this story, but that is between Melissa and Ben. This event left Ben rather dried up and exhausted. He was able to pull off one track with his brother, Isaac, for a small benefit show in May of 1996. They performed "Castles Made of Sand", an original work written about the plethora of talk shows on American TV. After that, Ben made some attempts at writing new music, but was finding it very hard and tiresome. In 1998, Ben decided to create a new compilation of songs that spanned work that he had done from 1995 - 1998. The album was entitled "My Little World". The songs came from bits and pieces of unfinished work from the other albums or from some of the new work that was attempted in sporadic moments after the 1996 decline. "My Little World" was not the best work TD has ever done, but it did show that Ben was still interested and willing not to give up just yet. August 1, 1999 News Flash Optimistic Prophets arrived on MP3.COM early last week and seems to be going over quite well. Check it out if you wish. There are eight new songs, plus one new song that is actually a very old song...by Mozart!!!

Group Members Benjamin A. Mayo

Instruments Mostly older home keyboards and some software synths.

Albums Now What!? (1993); Remember (1994); Psuedorandom (1995); My Little World (1998); Optimisitc Prophets (1999)

Location Proctor, VT - USA

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