Meet Dedelectric, the opening band for the 2022 CWU Student Appreciation Day event Wild Fest. The band is comprised of Joe Marzullo on guitar, Daymon Fritz on vocals, Graeme W. Smith on bass, and Ben Frates on percussion.

Q: How did Dedelectric come to be/How was the band created?

A: Back 2013 Daymon and Joe met up at a friend’s wedding. We hadn’t seen each other in some time. We both knew we wanted to play music, but never thought of the idea of playing together. That wedding, the idea was started. Once we decided to start a band, we needed band members. Joe had been a fellow student with Bass/Harp player Graeme at UW School of Music. Daymon then created an ad on Craigslist and our long-lost brother Ben answered the call. DedElectric is the culmination of 4 guys who absolutely love being in a band and making music. It’s the perfect storm of rock n’ roll.

Q: What is the meaning of the band name/How did you come up with it?

A: Daymon and his brother derived the name from the idea of being in a band that was all acoustic with no electric instruments. But at a party after a recording session, Daymon said the name Joe and it was meant to be. It was like the world stopped to acknowledge what was said. We knew right then. We dropped the a in Dead and pushed the words together to make 1 word, DedElectric.

Q: What has been the most memorable performance to date?

A: We’ve had some amazing shows: We played Wild Fest, we opened for Pop Evil at Neumos, Crocodile, Mosaic Stage under the Space Needle. Our favorite place to play was Louie G’s in Fife. They put our drum head on their wall. It was our home. So every show there was special and the people who made that place what it was, was special.

Q: What does the future look like for the band?

A: The future for DedElectic is very hopeful. We write and record a tremendous amount of music. We are always coming up with new ideas for large bodies of work and then will suddenly write our next hit single. We as a band have never been so proficient and we tend to ride this wave until it’s done.

Q: What has been your most memorable moment at CWU?

A: Daymon graduated from CWU with his degree in Mechanical Engineering. When you get to watch someone work so hard for something and finally achieve it is very special. (Also playing Wild Fest).

Q: When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: We all wanted to be rock stars. We didn’t know the name of DedElectric yet, but we always knew that’s what we wanted.