The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/29/08 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: Courtesy Shoko Horikawa Shoko Horikawa and Jesse Hall of band Experimental Dental School look to African and Brazilian beats for inspiration. [Click to enlarge]

Like marriage, forming a band takes commitment. Luckily for Shoko Horikawa and Jesse Hall of Portland-based Experimental Dental School, the two concepts are one and the same.

The pair met after he posted a flyer on a bulletin board at California State University looking for a "noise person."

The two got married four years after the band formed so Horikawa could get her green card and stay in the United States.

According to Hall, the trials of touring aren't as hard as what other bands might experience when one is married, but they still have their difficulties.

"We get along really good actually, but of course, any time you're crammed in a car with a bunch of equipment and just one other person there, things will get irritating," Hall said. "We definitely have a lot of fun together and that helps relieve some of the stress."


Experimental Dental School stays true to its name by playing around with its sound.

Guitarist Hall draws inspiration from videos of African and Brazilian rhythms on YouTube.

"I'll spend hours tweaking sounds, hooking up different speakers into amps or trying different pedal combinations" he said.

Drummer Horikawa described the band's music as "art rock."

"I like to do something different than what people are doing," she said.

While working on the duo's latest album, "Jane Doe Loves Me," Hall said he tended to make everything too complex.

"I would put in 16 tracks of guitar and all sorts of noises," he said.

Even though the album came out in April, Hall feels that it is not a good representation of what the band sounds like now.

"I always look at my previous records as old clothes that I used to wear. I really don't want to go back and wear those clothes anymore. I always am looking to the future for what we're doing."

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