TeamMate

TeamMate's song "Don't Count Me Out" was used for this highlight clip from Wimbledon. - ESPN

Today Scott Simons from the indie pop duo TeamMate tells us about their most recent single "Don't Count Me Out". Here is the story: This song started out on the upright piano in my apartment. I think it was the middle of the day and the little piano figure that starts the song just sorta happened. Next came the groove which was sort of a loose hip hop-y kinda thing with a mix of live drums and big samples. I built a rough track up and scatted verse ideas with placeholder lyrics - mostly na-na's and yeah yeah's etc. - and sent the idea to Dani who emailed back immediately saying she loved the idea but it didn't have a chorus. So, Dani had an idea to do a shout chorus thing and sang an idea back to me on voicemail. I thought of this title I'd had kickin' around but never found a song for "Don't Count Me Out". So I took her idea and made this title fit and sent it back to her.
The first two verses' lyrics came to me fast. I figured the idea would be: we've been through a lot together and individually and we're still here. We're still standing. For example, "I've taken all that I can take and gotten back up for the standing 8" used the boxing metaphor of someone getting back up from a knockdown and receiving the required standing 8 second count from the referee before they can continue again. (I don't really even like boxing, but I loved Mike Tyson's Punch Out.)

The third verse took many tries. I tried different ideas out at different live shows until coming up with the idea to flip the meaning of the title a bit. In the third verse, I'm telling someone else, I know you've been through similar sh*t and maybe everyone "ran for the windows and the fire escapes" but don't count me out... I'm here for you.

Dani and I went back and forth over the bridge which is usually the case in most songs. Dani is brutal on bridges. Her basic rule is "If a bridge isn't as a good as the one in 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' then it shouldn't be in there". That's a high bar but we settled on this version after cutting it down from a longer bridge idea. Lyrically, it plays off the title by counting down 5,4,3,2,1...

We were excited about this song and have been opening a lot of our shows with it to get people shouting and singing along early. - AntiMusic

Indie pop act, TeamMate, have released a new song titled “Don’t Count Me Out" via Rostrum Records.

Hear me out here when I say this song is a jam. It’s the type of song you’re blasting while driving with the windows down on a nice day. From Scott Simon’s vocal melodies to Dani Buncher”s groovy drum beats - It has every element of a catchy pop song that I have no doubt you’ll hear on your top 100 radio station sooner than later.

RIYL: Phoenix, Bad Suns, A Silent Film, Matt & Kim. - Nothing Original

“Don’t Count Me out” is a brand new indie Pop song by the Los Angeles Duo TeamMate. The song has been released on Rostrum Records.

The track itself it a very beautifully woven together with uplifting music and lyrics. The almost happy-go-lucky intro sets the stage for a very cheerful three minute song that follows. The drums, guitars, and music are not overly complex but they compliment the simple lyrics well. “Don’t Count Me Out” is a great summer track for 2014.

Something very interesting to note is that the Soundcloud track for this song feature lyrics in the comment section. They took the time to comment at the precise moments so you could listen and sing along with the track. I haven’t seen anyone else on Soundcloud do that. It’s very interesting. - Bracket and Bracket

When faced with the many challenges and struggles in life, you always need a teammate to be there for you and become your personal cheerleading squad. Now there is an incredible indie pop duo who do just that with their music. TeamMate was formed out from the relationship break-up of drummer Dani Buncher and singer-keyboardist Scott Simons. Both of them were passionate about music and together have created inspiring songs that take you through their life journey.

They have just released the song, Don’t Count Me Out on Rostrum Records, which I love! It is a great pick me up track that provides an uplifting message of hope. Dani explains, “Don’t Count Me Out is a song we’ve drawn from personal experiences but hope it has a universal theme. We’ve been playing it live for awhile and the response from the audiences really helped us know how to produce the song for the studio version.“ and Scott mentions, “We’re excited to still be in each other’s lives and working towards something together. We couldn’t have guessed after all this time this is where we’d end up.“

Whatever you are facing or looking at that hill to climb, battling your own internal struggles, this is your new Go To song that will give you that extra push to rise above it all. It has passionate vocals amid the dreamy synth melodies. It is very inviting and can transcend genres and I know will receive high praises by all music lovers. I really look forward to more new music from TeamMate.

Make sure to visit their social media sites and stay up to date on their latest news. We will see if we can bring you an interview with this dynamic inspiring duo! - Music Junkie Press

TeamMate - Indie Pop Duo from LA/Pittsburgh....New Single "Don't Count Me Out" out now & Check out their EP "Sequel Ep" out now too...Huge show July 10th in LA @ The Satellite..Their single was just played on ESPN during the Wimbledon coverage...Check out their music & more @ ww.facebook.com/TeamMateBand - New Music Inferno

If you’re looking for a beat that pops and words that you just can’t get out of your head, then we’ve stumbled across the perfect artist for you!

TeamMate is a brand new band on the rise whose catchy new single “Don’t Count Me Out” is a sure fire hit! You can check out the song down below, and if you look closely, TeamMate is trying something that no other group or artist has tried before - a lyric track! They’ve included the words to the song as they’re sung throughout the SoundCloud track. - Fanlala

We all have someone we can appreciate in our lives, whether it is a parent, sibling, cousin or lover. Often times, even if we do enjoy being around a loved one, we seldom think about working with them, for fear of losing the relationship.
After talking with TeamMate, a dynamic male and female band from Los Angeles, I realized that love really does conquer all.

TeamMate's story is like a fairy tale. After meeting in college and dating for over 10 years, singer-keyboardist Scott Simon and drummer Dani Buncher were setting up for a life of growing old together and eventually having kids. Unfortunately, their plans came to a halt after Dani came out to Scott, ending their relationship.

If you are meant to be with someone, the universe finds a way. After years of living in different cities, fate took control and the former lovebirds reconnected, and approached Rostrum Records in the idea of forming TeamMate.

Scott and Dani’s chemistry is undeniable and carries over into their music.

Their first Ep “The Sequel” was a masterpiece, delivering fun lyrics and allowing TeamMate’s fans to get to know them while getting old stories off their chests.

We can expect TeamMate's latest single dropping Tuesday, “Don’t Count Me Out,” to be the start of a fresh change from their last EP, filled with new experiences and crazy stories over the last few years. The single will be on their new EP Untitled, releasing before the end of the summer.

If you still haven't fallen in love with TeamMate, then this act of gratitude will catch your attention. If you’re a fan and show unconditional love to the group through social media sharing, they reciprocate by dedicating a “Wednesday Wall Bomb” every week to one of their fans. They write, play and perform the video, posting it on YouTube and the lucky fan page for everyone to see. What band do you know does that?

We are also excited to hear about TeamMate opening for the Grand Marshal at the Los Angeles LBGT Festival this year. We haven't heard the last of these two and look forward to what they have in store for the future!

If you want to check out the TeamMate band and their latest projects, visit their website or Facebook. - Examiner

For the last four months, Dani Buncher has been living on Scott Simons' couch in West Hollywood. They live with their dog, Maya, whom they love like a child. They also make up the indie-pop duo TeamMate and are fresh off of touring with the likes of OneRepublic and Skylar Grey.

They also broke up years ago, after dating for a decade, when Buncher revealed to Simons that she was gay.

It came as a surprise to the two musicians (Simons played with pop-rock group The Argument, Buncher played drums in a band called Big Hurry) that music could bring them together again - especially when music is what distanced them to begin with.

Buncher met Simons when she was 17 and about to start college at his alma mater, West Virginia University. After graduating, Buncher moved to New York City to work for Arista Records. Meanwhile, Simons split his time between Morganstown, WV, and touring with The Argument. The couple lived apart for five years, seeing each other every six to eight weeks. Issues began to surface, but it was easier to ignore them in order to appreciate the time they did have together. Then, after nearly nine years of dating, the couple got a place together in Pittsburgh.

But things still weren't clicking. It was at this time that Buncher's sexuality began to surface and she had to admit to Simons, and herself, what she had been repressing. "I was never scared of what it meant to be gay," says Buncher. "I was more afraid of how I would live without Scott."

After 10 years, though, Buncher and Simons couldn't call it quits. At least not completely. Simons moved to Los Angeles to work on a solo project after The Argument split, and Buncher backed him on drums when he came to play in New York, where she moved after the breakup. They found a "weird awesome chemistry" through music they had not yet explored. So, they decided to explore it with TeamMate.

While they wouldn't wish that kind of break-up on anybody, the couple sees it as a gift. TeamMate has become a way for Buncher and Simons to keep their bond, but with a new-found freedom that has allowed them to be closer than before. "There's no question of what our relationship is now," says Simons. "We are a fully formed duo. We are in love with this band."

The bi-coastal band wrote and recorded their first EP, The Sequel, over conference calls and instant messenger. With the opening lyric of the title track, "She said 'I think I like girls'/I said, 'I do too,'" the album is a strikingly honest narrative of the break-up. But these aren't your typical break-up songs, with heart wrenching lyrics about lost love and what could have been; TeamMate's music doesn't have a drop of sadness in it. With dance-able drum beats, happy hand-clapping, jingling tambourines and shimmering synthesizers, TeamMates uplifting indie-pop falls somewhere in between Madonna (check their cover of "Causing a Commotion") and The Colourist.

After a year of touring together, TeamMate is ready for the next chapter. After relocating here from New York, Buncher is finally off the couch and into her own place, and the duo has shifted away from writing specifically about their breakup to working on songs with more universal narratives.

"The first EP was about looking back," says Simons. "Now it's looking forward." - LA Weekly

Scott Simons likes girls, and so does Dani Buncher, but that’s not the only reason they make such a great team.

TeamMate, a synth-pop duo comprised of keyboardist and vocalist Scott Simons and drummer Dani Buncher, is slated to open for OneRepublic Friday as part of the truthLIVE tour, sponsored by the Ohio Union Activities Board and the truth campaign, which focuses on unveiling the truth about the tobacco industry.

Simons and Buncher will also have a few truths to reveal about their relationship through their music.

The Los Angeles and Pittsburgh-based duo commenced following the conclusion of their romantic relationship. The couple had dated for 10 years before Buncher came out to Simons, ending the courtship.

“It was really heart-wrenching,” Simons said. “It was a tough process for Dani and a little less hard for me, I think … but we went through it together, and we had our ups and downs for those years, but we got to a point where we were just comfortable talking about it, talking about moving on personally, and once we figured out, ‘Well, this person is still going to be in my life,’ the band just started in a natural reaction to that.”

This revelation inspired part two of Simons and Buncher’s relationship, embodied in TeamMate and its first single, “Sequel.”

Beginning with Simons singing, “She said I like girls / I said I do too,” which he explained to be a joke between the duo, the song was a way for them to express what they had been through, Buncher explained.

“It was also a way for my mother to out me to other people in my family,” Buncher joked. “(She would say), ‘If you listen to this song, you can tell she’s gay.’”

The single spiraled into an EP of the same name, released in April. Buncher said Simons wrote “99.999 percent” of TeamMate’s songs on the EP, which were produced solely with keyboard and drums, Buncher explained.

The resulting four songs of the EP, Simons said, provided as a form of therapy for the duo post-relationship, allowing them to express through music what they could never say in person.

“You get to play almost a character version of yourself (when writing music),” Simons said. “So once you step outside of it and start looking at the story and you’re objective, then it’s easier to say, ‘Oh, this person would say this,’ even if that person was supposed to be you.”

Looking upon the stage at Friday’s performance, TeamMate’s set will appear as only a two-man show. However, Buncher insists no musical elements will be missing, as guitar and bass will be mixed into the percussion and synthesizers.

“(Friday’s show) is going to kind of be just a more elevated extension of the record, I hope, like high-energy performance and maybe audience participation (in singing and clapping). Hopefully glow sticks,” Buncher said.

Although this is not the first time TeamMate has performed in Columbus, the truthLIVE tour, which is its second tour in two years, will be making its first appearance at Ohio State.

“We want to go to places where … there’s a large student population,” said Patricia McLaughlin, assistant vice president for communications at truth. “We try to look at places where there may be higher smoking rates than other states. More than 20 percent of youths smoke in Ohio, (and) that’s above the national average.”

The truth campaign relays its message through many different mediums, including advertisements on networks like MTV and FUEL, to endorse smoking prevention in youth.

At the show Friday, the truth campaign plans to unveil the truth of tobacco companies and their addictive products during the show through free gear and video.

Both Simons and Buncher said they believe the truth campaign to be powerful and are happy to be a part of it.

“It’s such a great program, and it’s such a great concert series for us to be a part of,” Simons said. “It was kind of a no-brainer that once they approached us, we were just 100 percent on board with everything they were doing.”

OneRepublic with special guests TeamMate is scheduled to play Friday at the Schottenstein Center. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are sold out for the event. - The Lantern

Are you kicking off December with fists clenched in balls of impotent Christmas rage, exasperated by the emptiness of vulgar consumerism, feeling trapped by encroaching tinsel ghettos of forced holiday cheerfulness? Or perhaps you are just experiencing a baseline malaise or anxiety that happens to many of us who are otherwise functional outside of this time-crunched, emotionally draining, financially worrisome time of year.

The holidays can be really rough. Sometimes you just need someone to write an awesome song that perfectly describes a melancholy holiday sentiment and then make a hilarious yet heart-shredding video for that song starring their pets (Maya the Dog and Cheddar the Cat), which shows us all how simple and profound our shared humanity is while simultaneously demonstrating that cat paws can't answer calls on an iPhone for shit.

Teammate, the bi-coastal musical lovechild of Scott Simons (Los Angeles) and Dani Buncher (Pittsburgh) is an excellent band year round, but this video for the song, "I Won't Be Home For Chanukah" places them them solidly in my pantheon of "Holiday Music That Almost Makes Me Look Forward to the Holidays.

You know. Like, Wham's "Last Christmas," Mariah's "All I Want For Christmas," RUN DMC's "Christmas In Hollis, Queens," The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping," or "O, Holy Night" by any number of older dudes.

I implore you to watch "I Won't Be Home For Chanukah" at least once a day for the rest of the year. If you're already happy, it will expand your sense that all is well in the world. And if your heart feels two sizes too small, Teammate provides some warm cider for your winter-weary soul. - Huffington Post

“There’s gotta be a sequel to us,” goes a lyric in the title track of indie-pop duo TeamMate’s new EP, and indeed there is — and a very unusual one at that.
The members of TeamMate, drummer Dani Buncher and singer-songwriter-keyboardist Scott Simons, were a couple for 10 years. Then four years ago, Buncher came out as a lesbian, and their relationship ended. But they realized they still needed each other, and so they have forged a new type of relationship, as close friends making music together.
“It wasn’t easy,” Simons says of the breakup. “It was definitely heartbreaking, and it took a long time to figure out what we were going to do. But I figured, I need this person in my life.”
“After all the tears,” Buncher says, “you look at the relationship and the dynamic, the history of friendship and partnership. I think we’re able to just kind of focus on that.”
Their musical partnership has resulted in the four-track EP Sequel; besides the title tune, it includes “Girls With Boys’ Names,” “L.A. Winter,” and a cover of Madonna’s “Causing a Commotion.” They also have recorded some individual tracks, such as their recently released marriage equality anthem “Love Is Love.” A full-length album of their energetic but thoughtful pop songs is in the works for Rostrum Records, and the two are on tour this summer with singer-songwriter Skylar Grey.
Buncher and Simons met at West Virginia University in Morgantown, where she was a student and member of the marching band and he was an alum fronting a touring power-pop group based in the city. Given their common interest in music and the fact that both are Jewish, they moved in the same circles and frequently encountered each other at parties. Friends who didn’t know the two were already acquainted would introduce them over and over, and they generally humored these friends by acting as if they were meeting for the first time.
They soon started dating, and they maintained a long-distance relationship after Buncher graduated from college. Simons embarked on a solo career, and Buncher worked for major record labels in New York City, handling artists and repertoire. She also often advised Simons on his musical choices — for instance, encouraging him to record a cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella.” Eventually she returned to her hometown of Pittsburgh, where she started her own band and shared a home with Simons.
While there was pain involved in their breakup, they note that Buncher was able to come out without facing homophobia from Simons, friends, or family members. “Overall, there was definitely some processing to do, but it was never really much of an issue,” she says.
Simons adds, “My mom thought I was the gay one, I think.”
They didn’t make music together while dating, but now, as TeamMate, they have found it an enjoyable pursuit. They also see each other more often than they did when they were a couple, even though West Virginia native Simons has relocated to Los Angeles — Buncher helped him move cross-country, which was a good way for them to reconnect —and she has remained in Pittsburgh, as they get together so frequently to record and perform.
“We’re just really enjoying each other’s company again,” Simons says. “We’re enjoying making the music and telling the story and being around each other. It might be the best form of therapy ever.”
Watch the video for “Love Is Love” below, and find out more about TeamMate here.


- The Advocate / Shewired.com

In the world of live music, Guns N' Roses returned to Webster Hall, but I ended up selling the ticket to go to a Knicks game. Could anyone have predicted that in January? A show I did go to, was one at the Bowery Electric by Pittsburgh-based duo TeamMate, recently signed to Pittsburgh's Rostrum Records, whose roster includes Wiz Khalifa of "Black and Yellow" fame. Vocalist/keyboardist Scott Simons and drummer Dani Buncher used to date for several years. Then Dani came out as a lesbian. Now they make beautiful music together. Check out their website.
- AfterEllen.com

When most couples split, remaining friends is difficult, but then again, Scott Simons and Dani Buncher aren’t most people. After a decade of dating, their relationship came to an end. But after heartache and with time—and a keyboard—the pair would not only remain friends, but go on to form the indie-pop duo, TeamMate.

Scott grew up in Bridgeport, West Virginia, surrounded by a musical family. He picked up many instruments throughout his childhood, but it was piano that won his heart. “When my parents bought me my first keyboard in 8th grade, the first thing I did was write a song. My dad told me then, ‘You know, you can major in songwriting in college?’ From age 13, I knew that was what I was going to do.”

Scott’s father continued to guide him through the world of music, introducing his son to The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. His father helped Scott book his first gigs—at the age of 15. When Scott was just 20 years old, his father passed away. “He was my idol and my mentor. The pain of losing my dad drives me to be the best version of myself that I can be. And I won’t let his memory down by giving up creating music, no matter what level of success I ultimately achieve,” Scott says.

When it was time for college, Scott took his father’s advice and studied music composition at West Virginia University. There, in the college town of Morgantown, he met Dani.

Dani was raised in Pittsburgh and started playing the drums when she was 8 years old. She went on to study social work at WVU, and her drumming talents led her to play snare drum in the WVU marching band.

Scott had just graduated when Dani enrolled as a freshman, but he was still living in Morgantown with his then-band, The Argument. Both being raised in Jewish households, mutual friends kept introducing the two at parties. Before long, they were dating. While the pair’s relationship may have ended since then, Scott says he and Dani have a connection that goes beyond being a couple.

Over the years, as Scott’s solo music career took off, he realized that Los Angeles was where he needed to be. There, he wrote and recorded work for The X Factor as well as noted musician Drake Bell. As Scott continued to book shows in L.A., he decided to ask Dani to play a few with him. Making music together felt so natural that in the summer of 2011, the two formed their own band, TeamMate.

With sounds comparable to artists like Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan and Sara, and Elvis Costello, TeamMate’s music is upbeat and catchy, like their latest single “Sequel.” These days, the duo has been playing shows since early 2012 and is in the process of recording an album. Check out some of the band's tour dates below.
- WV Living