Brooklyn-based Electropop artist Paul Feder has announced the release of a new single and music video “Lose My Mind”, soon on July 23, 2021, on digital platforms. “Lose My Mind” is his first single to be released from Feder’s debut solo EP “Nightwalk”, out via Aion Records on August 20, 2021.
Paul Feder’s debut solo EP Nightwalk distills his years of experience making music with sitar-infused electronic band Charcole Federation and vocoder synthpop project Pico Fermi. The songs on Nightwalk were developed and refined over the course of a year at Battalion Studios in Gowanus, Brooklyn, starting as solo vocal harmonizer experiments, developing into full-on jam sessions with Jane in Space band members Jesse Jensen, Tom Vickers, Andrew Tell, and Brian Korpalski. Nightwalk combines sparse, open-ended lyrics with dense, visually evocative synths.
His new release “Lose My Mind” is upbeat, melodic, and synth driven. Its release is accompanied by a surreal, dream-like walk through the city on its new official music video.
About Paul Feder:
As a child in the 80s, Paul Feder would always listen with rapt attention whenever his parents would play their cassette tape of Trans Europa Express by Kraftwerk. This early exposure to electronic music set the stage for Paul’s first remixes and mashups in high school, synth instrumentals in college, and
MIDI interfaces in grad school. In his 20’s and 30’s, Paul started DJing, producing songs, and gigging all over NYC.
His first release was his synthpop project Pico Fermi’s Start It Over in 2010. Pico Fermi’s Daft Punk-inspired vocoder sets would often lead to dance parties, and Paul’s role as a DJ emerged organically from the need to keep the party going.
In 2012 Paul became the resident DJ at Tromba on the Lower East Side. Also during this time he co-founded Charcole Federation – a sitar-infused electronic band – which released its eponymous EP in 2015 and performed at such venues as the Rubin Museum and Holi Festival of Colors.
In early 2019, Paul brought a laptop, a synth, and an old beaten-up harmonizer to Battalion Studios in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and pressed record. The solitude of that day, coupled with trying out old gear in a new way led to a creative and technical “aha moment”.
Paul’s debut solo EP Nightwalk took off from five songs that combine sparse, open-ended lyrics with dense, visually evocative production. Over the year, Paul’s solo sessions at Battalion expanded to group jams with Jane In Space members Jesse Jensen, Tom Vickers, Andrew Tell and Brian Korpalski. The live instrumentation injected raw energy into the budding tracks of the EP.
In February 2020, Paul Feder and Eric Martich (aka Permian Strata, live visuals artist) filmed the music video for “Lose My Mind”, the first track on Nightwalk. In the video, Paul’s journey through the industrial landscape of Gowanus is accompanied by Permian Strata’s wild visuals. To achieve some of the custom hypnotic effects, Eric Martich used a video synthesizer “to create shapes that mirror the architecture of the city, paired with its “neon” color palette, which matched the bright colors of the street art…” He then patched those shapes into another video synth “which generated an internal feedback loop, creating the illusion that the shapes are receding into the distance”.
Paul is currently working in his home studio on a follow-up to Nightwalk.
More Info about the artists and their new release:
- Artist Name: Paul Feder
- Resident of: Brooklyn, NY
- Release Title: Lose My Mind
- Release Date: July 23, 2021
- Music Label: Aion Records
- Musician Names/Instruments: Paul Feder (vocals, production, songwriting), Jesse Jensen (additional production), Andrew Tell (guitar), Brian Korpalski (drums), Tom Vickers (additional songwriting)
- Producer Name(s): Paul Feder
- Similar/RIYL: Chvrches, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Passion Pit, Electric Youth
- Genre(s): Electropop, Synthpop, Indietronica
Tracklist:
- Lose My Mind
- Nightwalk
- Desert Run
- Tooth and Heart
- In Floodlights
How did you make the video?
More about the making of the Music Video “Lose my mind”
The music video for “Lose My Mind” was created shortly before the pandemic in Gowanus, Brooklyn. It was filmed by Paul Feder and Eric Martich (aka Permian Strata) who employed a generous dose of half-speed videography together. Paul would sing the song at double speed while Eric shot the video at 60fps, and after production, the speed of the footage was halved. Finally, the Permian Strata’s wild visual effects were added to the clips to make it more interesting. The effects themselves were created very manually, layer by layer, shot by shot.
First step forward in filming “lose my mind” video-
The first step was generating abstract patterns, using the audio as an input. With the LZX Industries Sensory Translator module. They converted the audio to control voltage, and fed that into the LZX Industries Fortress, which generates graphics in the style of an 8-bit computer. Then they used its shift register mode to create shapes that mirror the architecture of the city, paired with its “neon” color palette, which matched the bright colors of the street art featured in the live footage. Those shapes were then patched to the LZX Industries Memory Palace, which generated an internal feedback loop, creating the illusion that the shapes were receding into the distance.
Step two – Manipulation of the video in Adobe-
The next step was manipulating the live footage in Adobe Premiere to make part of each shot transparent. In most cases, they did this by applying a chroma key effect tuned to the blue of the sky. In other shots, they keyed out any parts of the surrounding landscape that were a solid color. Then, they composited the abstract patterns behind the live footage to make them visible in the transparent areas.
Step three- The final touch up –
Once the digital effects were nearly finalized, they added analog effects to a few of the shots. This involved burning those shots to DVD and plugging my DVD player into the BPMC Fluxus, and plugging the Fluxus into the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle capture device. With some exploratory knob turning, they distorted the analog video signal until it bloomed into unexpected colors. Then, the duo captured multiple takes of these analog effects, and then inserted the best takes into the final edit.
Proof of pudding
Find their digital media presence on:
- Official Website: www.paulfeder.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/paulfedermusic
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulfeder
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/djpaulfeder
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6tYHKTVlgUmLlt0zYRXi6G?si=SqsAWXOPSfqUuqtv2hvT1Q
- Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/paulfeder
- Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe10aWeJfGN7NtxVDwaQa8w
- Artist Contact Email: [email protected]
