Beats Antique is made up of David Satori, who was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1979, who brought CV of experience with many genres of world music, having graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, with a degree in music performance and composition. Zoe Jakes had 10 years of jazz and ballet dance experience under her belt upon joining and when she met Satori, she began working with Ableton Live, a music program that the group does all of their production with. This was Jakes’ first experience with electronic music. Tommy Cappel met Jakes when they were both a part of Extra Action Marching Band. He met Satori years prior when Satori brought him in to play drums for a Burning Man decompression party. Cappel is originally from Fairfax, Virginia. He is the son of two music teachers, and was influenced heavily by his father’s jazz records, and his brother’s progressive rock and heavy metal music. The trio came together in San Francisco, California when Jakes approached her manager, Miles Copeland, (brother of drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police) regarding a new album. Copeland completely got behind the project and Beats Antique’s debut full-length studio album entitled “Tribal Derivations” was released on Copeland’s CIA record label in 2007.
They were still coming into their own when they released their second album, entitled “Collide” in 2008, which became one of the top 20 most downloaded electronic albums on Amazon. When they got to their third album they started to get even more experimental bringing in dulcimer player Jamie Janover and beat boxer and hip hop vocalist LYNX. By this point in their career, their style was inviting in influences from Middle Eastern belly dance music, down tempo, and old school jazz music, fused with electronic dance music.
Over the course of 2013 and 2014, they released two albums, “A Thousand Faces: Act I” in 2013 and then “A Thousand Faces: Act II” in the following year.
Beat Antique grabs the audience's attention from the first note through the final encore. A trio comprised of a drummer/percussionist, multi-instrumentalist/DJ and a belly dancer/drummer, the instrumentation alone should grab your attention. They are as visually stunning as they are with their music.
Musically they draw inspiration from around the world taking on eastern and tribal modalities blended with electronica. If you are up for a real music adventure, try Beats Antique. Each time I've seen them, their show is unique. Zoe's costumes are elaborate enough on their own, then combined with stage sets complete with video mapping.