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Death of Paris 

Electro Pop Band. Project MIOS Ambassadors. 

The goal of Project MIOS is to create opportunities through music in our schools.  What was it about Project MIOS that caused your interest about being involved?

I think that music and music education is extremely important, especially in a young person's life and upbringing.  Music education is a seemingly understated opportunity for young people to come into their own creativity and embrace their individuality while also getting an education.  I do strongly believe that music education has so much more to offer as well - in terms of self discipline, appreciation of the arts, creative development and often serves as therapy.  I did a lot of charity events while I was in middle school and high school to raise awareness for the use of music and music education as a means of therapy and am still very passionate about it and try to stress the importance of being creative to our band's younger fans.

 

 

Your music has been compared to that of Haley Williams or Gwen Stefani fronting for bands like Muse and The Killers.  What is it like to be compared to other great artists?

It's an amazing feeling to be compared to the likeness of such great artists.  We take that as a huge compliment and testament to the commercialism of our music, but we do often find that people can not pinpoint exactly what we sound like so it usually has to be a "lovechild" of multiple artists. We aspire to be a household name like those artists some day - so to hear that our music is reminiscent of bands that we look up to that actually do have a hand in inspiring the music we make - that's awesome.  

 

 

You mention that you love pop music, and have been making it since 2010, "on your own terms."  How do you bring your own influence into the world of pop?

We are still a DIY band - meaning we still self-manage, book all our own tours, and handle all of our distribution and social media ourselves.  We are a pop band going about business as an indie rock band - we tour a lot, and really get our hands dirty in working hard to maintain our buzz.  In terms of bringing our own influence into the world of pop, if anything I think we bring a different mentality to the table about how you approach being in a band.  There are no rules, there never has been - and that's been something we've discovered along the way.  You can't just write pop music and wait for something to happen - that happens a lot and we aren't that kind of band - you have to get out there and either make it happen or actually do it yourself.  

 

 

You guys have performed on Warped Tour.  What was this experience like, and what was it like to tour with many other successful artists and bands?

Warped Tour was an amazing experience for us that we are still extremely thankful for.  We met so many bands that we look up to and made a point to meet as many crew and behind the scenes people as possible - and everyone was so accommodating and nice to us and you could tell that everyone just really, truly loves what they do.

  

 

You mention that being able to play cello during the school day was the first time you felt proud, confident, and inspired.  What was it about music education that made you feel this way?  What else has music education done for you in your life?

For me, music education was the first time that I had the opportunity to tap into and find my creative identity and being able to do that in a classroom experience was a very vulnerable feeling that I still feel every time my band performs on stage.  Exposing who you are creatively really defines your individuality and that's really what life is all about, isn't it?  Having access to that music education background and being in orchestra taught me a lot about work ethic and the fact that how far you go and how successful you are really depends on how much effort you put into what you do.  I had so much respect for my orchestra teacher because she was able to bring that creative side out in me, something up until that time I had been very shy about sharing - I really pushed myself in practices and rehearsals to make her proud and in turn tapped into some potential that even I didn't know I had.  That was all a huge part of coming into my own and I really hold those years of my life very dear to me and hope that with my band I can help other people and our fans realize how important it is to embrace your creative side and to not be shy about your full individuality.  

 

 

Can you tell us about the song you will choose to feature on our collaborative CD?

We'd love to have our song "Secret" featured.  I play cello on the recording of that song - which, isn't something I get to play a lot of, as an electro-pop/rock band and a front person that has a hard time multitasking instruments!  "Secret"  is a very emotionally raw song about questioning yourself, love, and how trust works.  

 

 

Were your families as interested in music as you?  If not, where did you begin to show interest in music?

My mom sings - not with a band or anything, but she would sing a lot when I was a little kid and brought me up on lots of Rolling Stones and motown music.  My dad isn't musically inclined at all - but he's still super supportive. I actually used to tell my parents that I was going to be a singer in a band one day and I was so sure of it when I was only 4 years old.  I used to stage concerts in my living room and sell tickets to my family and then sing for them and sign autographs - I was a real ham from the get-go, but I looked at making music in a more serious way when a small group of string students came to a 2nd grade music class I was in and I immediately fell in love with the cello.  My parents never pushed for me to start taking cello lessons, and actually begged that I choose a smaller instrument, but I was sold on the cello and then that branched into me being very involved with chorus and learning to write music.  I think that that classical background in cello and music theory really gave me a better intuition when it came to writing pop music.

 

 

The title of your band, "Death of Paris" is interesting.  Where did the inspiration for this name come from?

When coming up with a name for our band, we really wanted the name to capture the essence of what we were writing about but to also be an idea within itself.  We started talking about the state of love - and how the self proclaimed "hook up culture" has devalued love and romance...how no one seems to want to personally connect anymore because of iPhones and social media - it feels a little bit like love is dead.  The actual thought process in the name comes with Paris symbolically representing love, being the city of love and light - and then to imagine the death of that idea.  In a nutshell - the death of romance. 

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