FUSE TV - SXSW Q&A: Escort Bring Disco to Texas

It hurts my brain to imagine the logistics of bringing 15 members of your 17-person band down to Austin for South by Southwest. But after seeing New York disco-funk crew Escort, it's worth it. Co-founders Dan Balis and Eugene Cho started the group in 2006 and in 2008, their video for "All Through the Night," which spliced up the uptempo disco track with clips from The Muppet Show, went viral.

After bringing in lead singer Adeline Michele in 2008, the group continued working on new material and finally released their self-titled debut last month. Fuse spoke with Cho and Michele about SXSW, the six-year-long album-making process and why disco doesn't suck.

So what's the biggest headache around getting 15 people to South by Southwest?

Eugene Cho: People understand how crazy it is in the band, so they give me a lot of leeway. But just the amount of e-mails and finding plane tickets for everyone took an entire day. I want to meet everyone's schedules, so it's not like, "All you 15 people get on this plane." We need a contract with Marquis Jets. But getting everyone to come out and do it is fairly easy because everyone has such a fun time playing with the band.

I remember first hearing about you in 2007, but you just released your debut album last month. What took so long?

Adeline Michele: They found me! [Laughing] My background is soul music and definitely funk. Somehow, I have a past life in the '70s so it's right up my alley.

EC: It's always been a slow and laborious process, because we never put just anything out. We really wanted to stand behind everything. We probably made two or three albums of material and threw it away.

Stuff we'll never hear?

EC: Unless it's some crappy remix we're contractually obligated to do. We all have our own lives. It's been a long road, but I feel like it's been worth it because we did everything the right way and never took any shortcuts. Some of the songs were written six or seven years ago.

Adeline, you joined the band in 2008. Were there vocals that were already done by someone else that you had to re-record.

AM: Yeah, there were a few songs with vocals. When I came on, we just re-recorded the album and I feel like that was my official close-up. It's good that we did a few shows before I started recording so I owned the material already. It made it easier in the studio.

So what's harder: Singing a song that’s already recorded, or writing your own material?

AM: It's definitely more interesting for me to put my stamp on something brand new and have to add my own color. For me, owning material is performing it live. The way it worked out, I had this huge chance because I performed it live before I recorded it so I owned it so well.