Domer's Odyssey

Freddie Mercury probably never imagined, in his tragically shortened life, that the music of Queen could be made into hip-hop beats, but when emcee/producer, and Trumbull High and Wesleyan graduate, Domer (pictured bottom center) started playing around with the name “Bohemian Rhapsody” and came up with Bohemian Rap CD, an idea was born, and Domer wasn’t about to let it slip away.

“It all started with the name,” the now Brooklyn resident who co-founded the free music site freeicecream.net with fellow emcee Kats, explains, “I had thought of the name and thought it was a funny idea and started joking around with Kats about it and formulated this idea of making all the beats out of that one song. Then we thought of copying the Queen art and it was just too good a package not to do.” The duo then gathered a few of their friends who they’d been wanting to do a project with - iLLspoKinN, Jake Lefco and Ryan-O’Neil. They were all instantly on board. “The hardest part,” Domer explains, “was taking one song that’s all in the same key and trying to make six interesting, unique, beats of out it.” It took him a little bit of time, but he accomplished that goal, the EP was born, and they released it for free on freeicecream.net.

A lot of artists would balk at putting out such a project for free, but around two years ago Domer and Kats decided that all their music was going to be free, which is why they launched freeicecream.net. One of the first events they threw under the FreeIceCream name was a fan appreciation show that featured free music and free food. “It was basically a lot of friends, fans who’ve bought our CDs and paid to come to our shows, and you just get tired of charging people money. I don’t want it to be about me making products so they’ll pay me for it. I love making music and I just want them to have it and enjoy it. That makes me happy.”

The music of Bohemian Rap CD, and some of the other releases Domer’s been on recently, have been a bit of a departure from his previous work. “There was a turning point for my goals with my music when I started working with Kats where I had really poured my heart and soul into some very personal records for a while,” he reflects, “I was sort of exhausted from it, so when Kats came along with some hot beats and just wanted to write some party songs and battle tracks I was like that sounds great!” Domer didn’t leave the emotions at the door, though, as he also wrote and released Underbelly during this time, which is an album he describes as “a more introspective, musical kind of record.”

Bohemian Rap CD and Underbelly are just the latest additions to Domer’s long musical history. It’s a history that started as a kid in Trumbull whose mother encouraged him to play the piano and whose father taught him how to play the guitar. By the time Domer was in his mid-teens he was going to The Beanery in Fairfield for local ska and punk shows, eventually working his way up to playing there as the guitarist and part time singer of the band No Exit, a band he describes as “Nirvana knock off grunge kind of music.”

When Domer moved to New York after college he met brokeMC and the duo formed brokendomer, a hip-hop tandem that specializes in mixing social issues with funky production. The two then became a part of the MINDSpray crew and performed all over the country. During this time Domer was also working on developing his voice as a solo artist, and released a number of projects on his own.

It was his rock background, however, that Domer feels helped him most when producing Bohemian Rap CD, noting “I grew up playing rock music, so I like working with stuff that has interesting chord changes and figuring out how it goes and writing my own bass lines. I really enjoyed that part of it.”

The next move in Domer’s life is going to be back into the hallways of a university as he’s starting classes at Fordham Law School in the fall. Music will take a backseat for a little while, but Domer feels he’s accomplished enough to be happy making this move at this point in his life. “I feel like I’ve really gotten the chance to 100% pursue my dream and do a lot of things that I never would have dreamed would have been possible,” he explains, “I never thought I would have been able to go on tour and open up for KRS-One, and rock these giant shows in New York, and be a part of this whole scene that we’ve been developing. It’s all been amazing.”

Don’t let Domer’s speaking in the past tense fool you, he’s currently working on a number of projects and although music won’t be the biggest thing in his life once law school starts, he notes, “we’re gonna have records set to go at least through next January.”

The next Bohemian Rap CD show, which will feature all five artists doing solo sets followed by a performance of the entire album, will be on April 29th at the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC. The album, as well as much of Domer’s other work, is available for free at freeicecream.net.

Story originally ran in the FairfieldWeekly.