An Interview with the Infatuations and a Chance to Win Tickets to Their Next Show

Detroit has a eclectic music scene. We accept all different types of music and musical acts. We do not have one style of music that we can call our own, all styles of music are Detroit if they are good enough to get a crowd's attention. But, it isn't easy to get a crowd's attention here in Detroit. Being a great musician is not enough, you have to have a lot more than musical talent.

The Infatuations are a band that have the talent and that something else. They are well known for putting on one of the best live shows around. People come out to hear them and watch them. They dance, they move, and they make sure that every single person in the audience has a great time.  Seeing them perform live is more like attending a huge party than just going to another show. They had a huge album release this summer with Ty Stone and have even appeared on the local news.  They won 5 DMAs last year and were nominated for 14. They are finally getting the attention that they deserve. They are a great band, but you dont have to take our word for it, you need to see them for yourself!

The Infatuations are playing The Fillmore, yes The Fillmore, this Saturday, October 4th with Here Come The Mummies, two bands that are known for putting on a great live show. Tickets for this event range from $30-$50 in advance and can be purchased here. We also have two sets of tickets to give away thanks to the band. We had a chance to talk to guitarist Christian Draheim about the show. Check out what he had to say and get details on how to enter to win a pair of tickets to see their soon to be legendary live show for FREE.


HID- Describe the Infatuations in one word.
Christian Draheim- "Party! or Detroit."

HID- Every time I see a picture of the band you are all wearing mostly black, is this on purpose?
Christian Draheim- "Yes, we mostly wear black and white. Sometime black and red. We like to keep a uniform look without all wearing the same thing."

HID- Who designs all of your flyers and posters? They are always beautiful and eye catching!
Christian Draheim- "Wow, thank you so much. Mark Dancey/Illuminado is the artist who did the album art for Detroit Block Party and he also created our Concert/Tour posters/flyers. The gritty psychedelic show posters were done by Jason Seaman/Esoterica Designs."

HID- Last year you won 5 DMAs, tell us a little about that experience.
Christian Draheim- "It’s still overwhelming for us. To have the love and respect form our peers and industry folks in our community means a great deal to us. We definitely had a few pinch me moments too when we received congrats and/or positive comments to folks we look up to quite a bit…T-Money Green, Gabe Gonzalez, Tino Gross…these guys are legendary artists who have done some inspiring things.

Funny story…in all the fun and commotion at the DMAs that evening we misplaced/lost the award "Yesterday Morning" won for Outstanding Video / Independent Budget (Under $10,000)."

HID- Why did you name your latest album Detroit Block Party?
Christian Draheim- "We wanted a title that described The Infatuations in 3 words or less. We’ve been describe a lot as very Detroit sounding and as a Party band. A friend and trusted adviser coined the phrase."

HID- How do you prepare for a show, do you have any rituals?
Christian Draheim- "We say a prayer before our show."

HID- What is your favorite venue in Detroit?
Christian Draheim- "This is a really hard question to answer as we like different venues for different reasons, it would come down to 3 venues for us due to the varying degrees of history for The Infatuations and some of our members from when we were in different bands. I would have to say the Magic Bag Theater, Saint Andrew's Hall and The Fillmore.

The Magic Bag Theater, has been a big part of our history too. In 2011 we filled a few support slots and by 2012 we were headlining our own shows. We held a sold out an EP release party at the Magic Bag 2012 and a sold out video release party for “Yesterday Morning" in 2013.

Saint Andrew's Hall was the first stage I performed on in my first band, Trixi 8 Ball, we opened for Loudhouse who eventual evolved into the band Sponge. Saint Andrew's, was the first place The Infatuations performed our first electric/plugged in shows. It was the 1st venue both our bassist Wolf and our lead signer Caleb Gutierrez performed with us at, different shows for each and both shows in 2010 opening for Ty Stone & the Truth. Mark Dancey, the artist who did the album art for, Detroit Block Party, designed the logos for Saint Andrew's Hall and we had him include Saint Andrew's in our album artwork too. We held our album release party at Saint Andrew's Hall on May 10th of this year and it was a packed house, the event went better than we envisioned.

The Fillmore…it’s the Fillmore.

We have had nothing put positive experiences with both the Magic Bag and Saint Andrew's/Live Nation and always look forward to working with these guys."

HID- What makes The Detroit Music scene unique in your opinion?
Christian Draheim- "I've never been a part of another music scene. Seems like everyone we meet in other towns has a lot of respect for Detroit artists and wants to come here to check it out and/or be a part of it in some way."

HID- Why should our readers come out and see you live at The Fillmore on October 4th?
Christian Draheim- "It’s going to be FunkTastic night of fun times and danceable grooves that you can sing along with even if you don’t know the words. Our friend, Liz Girard from Shotgun Soul will be joining us on backing vocals for the evening. Now, if you haven’t, check these guys out (disclaimer: they get a bit raunchy at times), Here Come the Mummies puts on an incredible performance and their production in fantastic too. These guys are serious showman…we will be studying their show while groovin’ to it for sure. Who knew…You can learn a lot from a Mummy."

HID- Anything else that you would like our readers to know?
Christian Draheim- "Yes, we recently found out that Detroit Block Party has been approved by Pandora and we are just waiting for confirmation from them that it's live and streaming.

Please share The Infatuations with others…currently we are streaming on Spotify, DeliRadio, Rdio, Beats and iTunes Radio.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this you are appreciated and loved.

Connect with us here:

http://theinfatuations.fanbridge.com

Stream us here:

https://play.spotify.com/artist/54Jz7ue20oLcno3rG3LyC8

http://www.rdio.com/artist/The_Infatuations/

http://deliradio.com/the-infatuations

 http://theinfatuations.com/the-infatuations-on-pandora/"


Doors for Saturday's show are at 8:30 p.m. To win a set of tickets you must email your full name and address to hipindetroit@gmail.com. We will draw winners a few days before the show and we will mail those winners two physical tickets to the show. Good Luck, we know that you will have a great time at the show!

~S