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Dessa shares the story of how an electronics guru and a dentist made her mouth light up for Doomtree’s Blowout

by Jay Gabler

January 09, 2015

When Doomtree said that they were going to bring their A+ game to December's Last Blowout Ever, they weren't joking. "I wanted to do some special costuming for the Icehouse Blowout set," writes Dessa on Doomtree's blog, "something with lights. Something beautiful and spooky. I wanted our sternums to glow, and I wanted lights in our mouths."

Dessa shares the incredible story of how she worked with electronics guru Adam Wolf to create special lights for the sternums of her group the Boy Sopranos ("a little whiskey-drinking choir in white dresses and black boots") and—inspired by the Little Mermaid scene where Arial trades her glowing voice for a pair of legs—very small but very bright lights for the mouths of herself and Aby Wolf. The lights are activated by magnets: when Dessa and Aby moved magnets near their mouths, the lights would turn on.

Casey Nelson, a dentist recommended by Dessa's bartender—you can't make this stuff up—then created special molds to fit the singers' teeth. The result was...well, magical.

Read Dessa's post for all the (not actually) gorey details, and get psyched for Doomtree's new record: All Hands, coming out on Jan. 27. You can hang out with Dessa and Mark Wheat in London: get details on The Current's very special London Beat trip.

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.