Scotify Studios
Disq founders Isaac de Broux-Slone and Raina Bock.
About a year and a half ago, Isaac de Broux-Slone and Raina Bock got an offer that seemed too good to be true. A producer they met at a music industry conference in Los Angeles got in touch and invited them to record the second Disq album at his studio in Detroit — for free.
It seemed legit at first. They recorded a handful of songs, but the vibe was weird. Then came an unexpected discussion about a management deal — something that hadn’t been mentioned previously. They ended up walking away and leaving the recordings
behind. De Broux-Slone calls it a “classic band development story,” but Bock puts it more bluntly: “We got duped.”
Undeterred by the setback, Disq set to work re-recording their new songs. They also enlisted art students Frances Lea Tyska and Stella Maris Bock (Raina’s sister) to shoot a video for one of the singles, a lo-fi power-pop banger about existential uncertainty called “Communication.” It’s a work of art — a pastel-hued dream featuring cute couples, scenes from around Madison and gorgeous aerial shots.
The plan was to release the video on YouTube, but a publicist the band had been working with expressed interest in the project. He shopped it around to a few people, including Saddle Creek Records, based in Omaha, Nebraska. The indie label liked the sound and picked up the single for its Document Series — a project aimed at highlighting unreleased music from outside the label’s roster. So far, the experience couldn’t be more different than their rude awakening in Detroit. “They’ve been great mentors to us,” Bock says of Saddle Creek. “Super kind and helpful as we’re learning about getting into the music business.”
De Broux-Slone agrees: “The most surprising thing is how fast things can happen,” he says. “And it’s not like we’ve had a lot of great stuff happen, but it’s just kind of crazy when there are more people who have a stake in what you’re doing. Things get done a lot more.”
Stereogum premiered the “Communication” video on Nov. 15, and the site’s staffers later named the song one of their favorites of 2018. On Jan. 25, Saddle Creek will debut a 7’’ vinyl record featuring “Communication” and another previously unreleased single, “Parallel.” Disq is playing a release show Jan. 23 at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles. After that, they’re hoping to book some shows in New York and apply to play at South By Southwest.
With de Broux-Slone living in Madison and Bock attending college in California, work on their second album has been slow. But they’re almost halfway done with recording and have been playing new music at shows. The full band roster now includes three guitar players, and the songwriting is taking a new direction. “We’re taking things in a little bit more of a unique, art style,” de Broux-Slone says. “It’s more sonically diverse, more true to [who we are]”
