Michigan duo Desu Taem have not only crafted an engaging and diverse rock sound but defined their very own musical genre of “Savage Retro Rock,” and they’re producing new music at breakneck speed.
Desu Taem is a father-and-son duo of Shan and Nick Greene. Shan grew up playing in various bands and the pair have played music together since Nick was around nine years old – he’s now 24, has also played in various bands and brings studio experience as a musician and audio engineer. They enjoyed the same sorts of music, including bands like Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction, Black Sabbath and Nirvana, and began releasing music as Desu Taem last April.
They’ve gone on to release an impressive four albums in just over a year, starting with last October’s Is That My Blood and, most recently, releasing new album YEOOUCH yesterday. In fact, the album is so new that we can’t find it online yet…
In the meantime, the duo sent us an ‘older’ track The Deceiver, which was released last year – via our new linkup with Groover, where you can also submit your music. The Deceiver very much portrays their classic rock/metal influences, opening up with a little riff supported by heavy slabs of guitar chords. Stabbing guitars come in and drop out to leave a lingering bassline supporting Ozzy Osbourne-esque vocals, including the lines “Listen to the great deceiver, And he’ll make you a great believer, Sign your name, Give up your soul, Then the beast will exact his toll.” Heavier guitars take over before dropping into a laid-back outro. Check it out in the very cool animated video here:
That track’s been followed up by lots of music, including the very diverse 19-track album More Crap, which was released last month. The album offers a little bit of something for everyone, even a laid-back bluesy track Lone Star. We particularly enjoy Blood Knuckles and a Split Lip, the funky Your Sister is Hot, the dramatic Mutiny and final track Superman on Ten Hits of Speed. But the standout may be Swinging on the Gallows, which opens up with a cool riff over drawn-out guitars and continues under engaging vocals. The riff kicks in again and feeds into a second verse that builds up to a chorus, which gives way to the opening riff once more. Check it out in the video here:
As alluded to, the duo has released four albums in rapid time. As Shan tells us: “We have accumulated enough songs to release another album or two, and we will probably put out another album in January or February of 2025. To date, we have released four albums, four singles and two videos and we have had a surprising level of interest and a growing following. Great accolades and praise being part of that. We thank and appreciate all of you!
On what inspires them to write music, Shan adds: “Something about listening to a huge amount of music over my years and a tendency towards creativity and out-of-the-box thinking is what drives me towards writing music. I just can’t stop.
“I write the lunatic ravings that come flying from my brain and then we put music to them. Most are hard rock songs, but we indulge ourselves with a variety of genres. We use all available ingredients to create music, many standard methods of writing and playing, some clips, some AI, and mostly some combination of all of them.”
This may be the first band we’ve interviewed to have zero social presence. But you can listen to Desu Taem on Spotify, Soundcloud and YouTube.
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