Whartscape Pt. 1: Butter Team Sits on Santa Dads' Lap

And the Whartscape coverage officially begins...Butter Team waxed with Joshua Kelberman, lead uke chopper and the more scantily clad Dad, and Connor Kizer, bespectacled baritone beat boxer and one of several Wham City artists who earned their stripes at Purchase College, NY.

Wham City is getting more attention than ever outside of Baltimore as an emerging music and art collective - so is Whartscape considered sort of a national stage for you?

Joshua: "Really, this last month it hit us that Wham City is becoming known nationwide, thanks mostly to Dan [Deacon] mentioning it in all his press. We, as a group, know we need to organize and start pumping. Our headquarters is purely conceptual right now, but we're in the process of establishing real organization and structure and hopefully opening a venue within the next few months."

What's up with the costumes? Is it a shot out to 16th century French reformation theology and 17th century English political philosophy?

Joshua: "Dan found [the dress] in the street one time when he was coming over to my house. His girlfriend really wanted it but he decided I needed it and would get more use out of it. It is my favourite costume, so far, and expresses my true self well, and compliments Connor well, too. He was Hobbes for Halloween a couple years back and generally enjoys being a tiger and so that just stuck with him. We both think it's important to remember that during any performance, we are being seen by an audience through all of their senses, so we want to develop a complete experience for them to enjoy. Also, we, simply, love to wear costumes."





















What else are you doing outside of the Dads?

Joshua: "I am a student of the occult. I have been in the process of preparation, enlightenment, and initiation, consciously, for the last few years. I have connected with my soul and I am able to perceive and understand knowledge and truth. I have found all of this in reality. This is my driving current. I wish to further connect with my soul and spirit in order to help all my fellow human beings assist all beings in the Great Cosmic Evolution. Meanwhile I work at Whole Foods downtown, slowly study Russian, Spanish, French and German, work to organize Wham City, perform as A Funny Clown, create prose, poetry, philisophical essays, and pieces for solo/group musical performace and other theatrical-based performance."

Favorite Golden Girl?

"My sister [Wham City artist Dina Kelberman] and I watched it growing up along with almost any other sitcom of the 80's and early 90's. At the time I watched it, we did not express any emotional attachment towards the characters on the show. It was more an affection for the concept of the television, not the shows or characters themselves. But if I must choose, as I know I must, my favourite Golden Girl will be Rose Nylund (Betty White). I love her hair, her innocence, her devotion to kindness and childish grace."

Santa Dads - You Don't Know
Santa Dads - WYGHYLU

Santa Dads play Whartscape in Baltimore this Saturday afternoon.
Network with them socially through MySpace and buy their new album Anima Mundi via local Wildfire Wildfire Records (makes a great Christmas or Father's Day gift).