We are so excited to help spread the word on this band out of Seattle, WA named Djime. They are coming out swinging with a new album ‘Octopus Dreams’ and a video for ‘Untitled @190 v2.1’. Join us today as we kick off the week and chat with Djime about the new album, social media, tour plans, and so much more!
@skopemag: Where are we talking from today and how is 2018 treating you so far?
@djime: Djime is based out of Seattle, WA. We’ve been keeping super busy so far this year! After releasing our first album at the end of December we have been coordinating with Michael Zak at Okeditor.com to produce a music video for a track called “Untitled @190 v2.1” which turned out great! Beyond that, we’re getting ready to book some shows in the greater Seattle area.
@skopemag: Offer us a brief history on how you formed Djime and how did you come up with the name?
@djime: James began in the studio as a solo project, James and Ian met at a local Seattle open mic night. Our mutual interest in weird and alternative music lead us to joint songwriting sessions and ultimately began working together as a duo in January of 2017. Our name used to be Paradijme when James was still a solo studio project (paradigm – latin “to show side by side”), but he shortened it when he started sharing it with people for the first time; Djime (“to show”)
@skopemag: I just sent you a FB Like. How much time do you spend doing promo on social media and what platform is most effective?
@djime: We saw that! Thank you for checking us out! We try to regularly keep up with Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, etc. We don’t necessarily find one more effective then the others, Facebook is super popular in general but I think each can serve its individual purpose. We have used SoundCloud forever basically, it’s been a solid platform for indie musicians since it’s been available and they have a wonderful playback interface that lets people listen to music in a smooth sort of way (even with the embedded players on random websites). Bandcamp is a great platform for selling albums, Instagram is a great way to share quick moments & thoughts in a picture, and Facebook is a great way to share events.. so in our experience, you have to use them all together.
@skopemag: Name 1 artist/band alive today that has inspired you & why?
@djime: Daedelus is a huge influence on Djime. There are a ton of electronic musicians out there doing great things with laptops and controllers, but the way Daedelus produces his music has honestly inspired James to rethink the way he writes songs from start to finish. Daedelus makes some very compelling cases about how and why he makes music the way he does and he shares a lot of information via youtube & elsewhere with his fans (which is invaluable to see his amazing perspective), but the most wonderful part about his music is the huge energy he has in his live performance. Not just in the music but also his enthusiasm as a performer and as a musician! Using his Monome controller in conjunction with smaller effects controllers are a precisely tuned machine and when he performs they are his instrument.
@skopemag: You have a new album & music video out now. How long did you work on the album from writing to distribution?
@djime: Well the writing process has been and is currently an ongoing one. A few tunes like Life’s A Bird and Hotel Residence are somewhat older whereas the single Untitled @190 v2.1 and Octopus Dreams were still pretty new to us when they were recorded, we wanted to give a good mix of songs we were more comfortable with and others that would be a bit more challenging. But to answer the question; we seriously began planning the recordings, artwork, & distribution in late August/early September, had our 6 sessions through November and early December, James mixed and produced the album. Once the recordings were finished we had to get everything put together for copyright, joined ASCAP, so the album was released via CDBaby.com on December 25th, 2017. It was a very proud day a few weeks after that when we got our first batch of physical CDs printed and put together with the album artwork.
@skopemag: Your video is for ‘Untitled @190 v2.1’. How did you decide on that song as the single for the album?
@djime: Untitled @190 v2.1 is an interesting track for us because it’s one of the first ones we’ve written together that took away the drum machines entirely and let Ian be free to roll with his breakbeat jazz sort of style. James had been in contact with video producer Michael Zak (okeditor.com) throughout the albums production process, so he got some of the first listens to each track as they were being finished. Untitled @190 v2.1, in particular, caught his ear and he said he wanted to do a video for us.
@skopemag: Do you have any plans to tour and take the album on the road?
@djime: We are currently booking shows in the greater Seattle area, and western Washington. If anyone is looking for experimental electronic music to get bodies moving hit us up djimebooking@gmail.com
@skopemag: When it comes to how the music enthusiast listens to your album do you prefer they buy or stream and why?
@djime: The way people consume music is so much different then it has been in the past that honestly as long as we can get people to hear our stuff and give them a chance to get into our music, it doesn’t matter how they listen. We love making this music, and we love the people the support us making it by buying a download or having us mail them a CD, but if someone just wants to listen to us on a stream and hear what we’ve done that’s great! We hope that they listen again!!
@skopemag: For the music fanatics like me who are hearing Djime for the first time why should they give you listen?
@djime: We want to give you something new and strange and interesting to listen to! We are full of energy and spontaneity and vibrancy! We are sharing our vision of the workings of the universe and hope that you will join us in celebrating the weirdness!
@skopemag: When you are not making music what other passions do you have if any?
@djime: Ian is a drummer in a number of different local projects in Seattle, his website is here. Beyond music, he practices martial arts and skateboards, but mostly just works on his music and prepares for performances. James is hard to pry away from working on Djime related projects, so when not working on new tracks he is frequently working on some kind of management tasks like trying to book shows or printing artwork for albums or promotional materials. Recently James has been working hard on Djime’s online presence and built a new website, we tried a few different sites including ones Wix and Squarespace, but we ended up using WordPress because with just a little more effort to build the actual site we saved a lot of money. We think it came out great!! https://djime.net
@skopemag: What’s coming up for Djime and where you @ online?
@djime: We’re booking shows and working on new music!! Check out our brand new website djime.net, and you can also find us on social media to stay updated.
http://facebook.com/djimetext
http://instagram.com/djimemusic
