Buke and Gase Break Up

Buke and Gase are breaking up. After nearly 20 years of being a band, the New York experimental indie rock duo will formally call it quits in April after they perform two final concerts: one in Brooklyn and another in Hudson, New York. Find more info about those shows below.

In a statement posted to her Substack newsletter, Arone Dyer explained that she is pregnant and wants to focus on starting a family. “It’s annoying to admit, but the income-factor is a part of it,” she wrote. “Everywhere we go, music is being played in the background, and somehow the money for that usage never reaches the people who create the art. Streaming has made the selling of albums nearly impossible! And now artists have to contend with AI? Really?”

Dyer and Aron Sanchez formed Buke and Gase in 2008. They named the band after their hybrid instruments that they built themselves: the buke, a six-string former-baritone ukulele, and the gase, a composite guitar-bass. To simultaneously play percussion, Dyer also built and used a bicycle pedal toe clip modified with tambourine parts and bells, while Sanchez combined a kick drum with a tambourine.

Throughout their run, Buke and Gase took a DIY approach to their music whenever possible, from their full-length debut Riposte to their final record, 2021’s A Record Of featuring Sō Percussion. They went on to release five albums overall, four EPs, and a self-titled documentary in 2023.

Statement from Arone Dyer:

Buke and Gase!
How I love thee,
Let me count the ways…
Oh wait, no. That time signature is way too convoluted.

My Buke & Gase collaborator Aron Sanchez and I have been in each other’s worlds for a while now, nearing twenty-six years! We’ve traveled a lot, much like a family, or perhaps more than a typical family. And we’ve become family because of it. And now it’s time to break up that family, and start our own…

Case in point: I’m pregnant! Which means big (welcome) changes.

I’m sitting here trying to write a blurb explaining why we, Buke and Gase, are throwing in the towel, and it’s annoying to admit, but the income-factor is a part of it. Everywhere we go, music is being played in the background, and somehow the money for that usage never reaches the people who create the art. Streaming has made the selling of albums nearly impossible! And now artists have to contend with AI? Really? Is this what the kids are into? (More like what a small number of money-making adults are forcing upon all of us.) Do you really want to listen to music made by…let’s be real, it’s not Intelligence, but Artificial IMITATION? Pah! Mere mimicry! (I feel like I need to note that no AI was utilized to write this.)

I digress.

And yet: we love our fans. We want to share our energy with you one last time. Or two or three last times. Brooklyn and Hudson are both places that are essential to our story—the former is where we met; the latter is where we both ended up living by the early 2010s.

So we’re calling this our New York farewell!

Let us give you a warm hug goodbye.

Revisit Laura Snapes’ 2012 interview with Buke and Gase.

Buke and Gase:

04-16 Brooklyn, NY – Public Records
04-25 Hudson, NY – The Half Moon