DNA was created by Arto Lindsay, who turned down a position in Mars to pursue his own project. He joined up with performance artist Robin Crutchfield. They were both inspired by transgressive artists like Chris Burden, and wanted to shock their audiences. The third member of Mars was Ikue Mori, a Japanese art student visiting the NY punk scene who had befriended members of the crowd despite a tricky language barrier. Arto was close with all the members of Mars, so their influence was evident in his bizarre, shrieking vocals and slide guitar technique. But they wanted DNA’s sound to be unique, so they developed their own rhythmic style, held down by drums and keyboards.
