UNSIGNED

Jan 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Chris Gill

Schpilkas - handcrafting the electronic orchestra. Although several well-known electronic musicians and DJs have appeared in fashion ads recently (including the ones for CK Jeans featuring Moby and DJ Rap), Schpilkas may be the only unsigned artist who can boast such a distinction. However, the L.A.-based musician was chosen to appear in an ad for his music, not just for his good looks. When he won Tommy Hilfiger's Unreleased Cuts demo contest, the company flew Schpilkas to New York to pose for ads that appeared in Rolling Stone and Urb.

Schpilkas's winning composition, "This 1," is an engaging, energetic drum `n' bass tune with orchestral overtones. He describes his music as progressive new age with heavy leanings toward trance, hip-hop, and drum `n' bass. "I'm a composer who orchestrates electronic music," he explains. "I'm a classically trained pianist, and I learned to play viola when I attended New York's La Guardia High School of Music and Performing Arts. But instead of using an orchestra like most composers, I use my keyboards. Basically, I want to create an electronic orchestra."

Schpilkas, known to his parents as Casey Dunmore, first discovered electronic dance music when some friends turned him on to Underworld and Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia, whom he still considers a huge influence. "I owned a few synths and samplers when I first heard those guys," he says. "I had no idea they created those kinds of sounds with instruments I already had."

Although Schpilkas has a relatively modest setup - a Roland W-30 sampling workstation, a Roland Juno-106 synth, a Roland MT-32 sound module, and a Yamaha RM-602 mixer - he creates rich, vibrant soundscapes that reveal his vast arrangement skills. "I make the most of what I have," he says. "I consider my music organic and handcrafted. It's more about what I put into my music as a person than what gear I play."

Schpilkas's studio creations may be impressive, but he really thrives in a live-performance environment. For the past two years he's gigged extensively in the L.A. area at venues like the Whisky, Spaceland, and Dragonfly, performing in collaboration with a revolving cast of musicians in a project called Thee Adventures Ov. He also recently started another side project called the DIMplex.

"I'm working on putting together the best live show possible," says Schpilkas. "Napster or an MP3 file will never replace the experience of seeing a musician perform live. Back in the '30s, if you really wanted to hear Duke Ellington, you had to go see him. Bands like Kiss are still successful because people want to go see them, even if they're not really into their music. I want to offer people a unique experience and even have the audience participate."

Schpilkas recently completed a demo for Qwest Records, and he's currently working on Flash versions of some new compositions, combining graphics and music. Schpilkas's track "This 1" is available on the Tommy Jeans Unreleased Cuts CD, and he plans to post several new tunes on his Web site.

For more information, contact Schpilkas; e-mail me@schpilkas.com; Web www.schpilkas.com.

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