Columbia-base band hosts fan event with single 'Connect the Dots'
Death of Paris, a Columbia-based electronic pop-rock band, has set themselves apart with their extensive efforts to be involved with their fans and the music scene in and around Columbia and South Carolina. Since they released their debut album Oct. 22 of last year, they’ve toured nearly relentlessly, including a stop for a show at USC’s Welcome Back Concert in August.
For the one-year anniversary of their first album, they’re inviting fans to remix the track “Connect the Dots,” off that debut as part of their Connect the Dots Remix Competition.
The remixing process is something co-founder and keyboardist Blake Arambula knows a lot about, since he’s a professional disc jockey for an Irmo-based company called Sound Quest. His experience will definitely come into play when judging others’ efforts, he said.
“Being a DJ, I’ve always loved searching music blogs for new remixes of songs,” Arambula said. “I am really intrigued with how people can take the individual elements of the songs, or stems, and rearrange them while adding their own spin ... I knew we had to do the remix contest to see how others would fare with our music in their hands for a change.”
The track is highly conducive to the remixing process, with its energetic, irregular beats and synth-laden riffs. Combined with the perfectly paced vocals, it will prove an interesting challenge for aspiring DJs.
“We chose ‘Connect the Dots’ because at its core it is a very simple song with a great progression and a great hook,” Arambula said. “What makes the song is when all the elements combine. So we wanted to see what others could do when they rearranged the parts.”
Stems for the remixes can be found at www.soundcloud.com/deathofparis/sets/connect-the-dots-remix, and contestants can use all of the parts of the song, or just use Jayna Doyle’s vocal track to create a whole new version of the song. Entries can be submitted via Death of Paris’s SoundCloud group at www.soundcloud.com/death-of-paris-connect-the-dots-remix-competition/dropbox, and are due Dec. 5.
“Though the deadline is a month away, we are hoping we get some good Columbia and USC student remixers to submit,” Arambula said. “So far we have submissions from Spain, Canada, Germany, the U.K. and Prague, but we want to see Columbia represented as well.”
Voting will begin Dec. 6, and the remix with the most listens will win the “popular vote” portion of the contest. Death of Paris’s members will also choose their favorite mix, and the winners of both categories will be announced Jan. 1. Each winner will receive a $50 cash prize and a prize pack with a Death of Paris T-shirt, buttons, a CD, a signed poster and a free ticket to any of their shows.
“There is really no set thing we will be looking for when selecting our winner,” Arambula said. “So far, some of the early admissions have been disco, house, electro and dubstep-themed which is great because the remixers are taking our song into different musical territories. Ultimately, we just want the ‘WOW’ factor to come in. We want to listen to the track and collectively say ‘Wow, this is really good.’”
As for the song’s inclusion on Death of Paris’s next CD, Arambula was unsure.
“There is talk among us that the remix winners may be included on a future release, but for now we aren’t sure,” he said. “We do know that once voting begins, each of the remixes will receive a heavy push from us as well as from the remixers themselves to get the songs heard as much as they can.”
Death of Paris is planning to get back into the studio in the spring, after almost a year of recovering from their tours and writing.
“We felt like we wrote some really great songs on the last album, and the new one will have to outdo them, so there is a lot of pressure to work on making the songs the best we can,” Arambula said.