TeamMate

about

There's at least 2 artists using the name Teammate 1) There’s a rich history in rock of exes making beautiful music together. But what makes TeamMate’s story particularly compelling is how insurmountable drummer Dani Buncher and singer-keyboardist Scott Simons’ break up seemed. One day they were daydreaming about growing old together, and the next, Dani came out to her boyfriend. The two had been dating for a full decade. In the four years since that gutting split, an extraordinary connection and a mutual love of music have helped them dismantle, then rebuild, their relationship. “If we couldn’t be partners,” explains Scott, “we were still going to be teammates.” Getting there took work, as chronicled in their self-produced debut album (out in 2012 on Rostrum Records), an indie-pop memoir that charts the times and tides of their lives. If TeamMate has an anthem, it would be first single “Sequel,” a reflection on modern love that aches beneath shimmering synths. It is “the happiest break-up song ever,” says Dani, “and literally says where we are as a couple.” The duo was all-but-fated to meet. Dani, attending West Virginia University, played the snare drum in the marching band, while Scott, an alum of the college, fronted a touring power-pop band based out of the same town. They were both young, Jewish aspiring musicians, and as such, were introduced to each other at parties so much that, says Dani, “We’d always pretend we were meeting for the first time.” They soon starte