Fronted by the hypnotic - and super cute - Holly Dodson, Parallels' '80s-evoking, dark electro-pop is the perfect music to make us from this summer's beach-wave bonanza into light and winter's chilly grey days. Turn up the book on their debut album, Visionaries, and you'll have an experience. For Dodson, the frequent comparisons to Kylie Minogue, Kate Bush, and yes, even Madonna-circa-True Blue make sense.
Her pipes have a sweet but haunting fragility to them, and when juxtaposed with synth-heavy, gothic pop gems - thanks in great contribution to bandmate/former Crystal Castlesdrummer, Cameron Findlay - the results are a kaleidoscopic, aural roller coaster that you'll probably need to drive over and over again. See the euphoric music video for their first single "Ultralight" for further proof, or hold them out alive this week at CMJ. They're playing the Highrise/Popjustice showcase tonight at the Toll House.
Tell us about how Parallels got started.
Cameron played with CrystalCastles for a short bit as the drummer. While he was on tour, he had all of these demos and he emailed me some. There was a lot of support and forth writing lyrics for the first few songs because he was away. And so we wrote "Ultralight" over email. We were only playing around at first. Parallels was his solo project - there weren't any vocals on it. But he kind of wanted to develop it and get a singer in.
So, were you a solo artist pre-Parallels?
I have been writing stuff since I was like 16. And all of our friends sit and jam and stuff. So it was only natural that he sent me something he made. I would ever send him my demos and stuff for feedback too. I give a lot of songs before Parallels. Maybe they'll become Parallel songs some day. We'll see.
For those who aren't familiar with you guys just yet, how would you discover your sound?
I've said this before, but to pay some pop culture references - New Society and Mary in the year 2010. It's a pop album and it has a lot of hooks and melodies and mixes in electronic aspects in it as well.
You've been compared to a lot of bold names - Kate Bush, Madonna, Kylie Minogue. How does this have you feel?
It's very flattering. They are all my inspirations too so it's a huge, huge compliment to me. Yeah, I'm fine with it. I mean, they did well. (laughs)
Are there any flamboyant performance elements going on a la Madonna? Will we see you doing your thing alongside your very own back-up dancers?
No, I wish! We missed our keyboardist so before I was more the front-woman, and now I picked up more keyboard. So it's more of a band feel now. We're hoping one day to extend and whatever so maybe I can be the front-woman again. But it's more of a hot band thing as opposed to modern bands and all that fun stuff. Which would have been awesome.
How did the rainbow-rave of a music video, "Ultralight", come about?
We didn't need to do a storyline - we wanted something visual. We were running with our dear friend in Toronto who's very involved in the art scene. And he had a sight for "Ultralight" and wanted to try out different technical things. We kind of scene that picture and it was run through a projector so it was projected back onto us. He did all of this cool stuff. It was his vision, but we had in mind something similar. We know all that stuff.
Well, your music could definitely be described as dreamy-pop.
We try to make that kind of humor with our playing and it would be amazing to take that visual aspect as well. It all depends on the order and everything. We can't get a light rig and all of that stuff just yet. One day we'll do that for sure.
Do you think there's a convention for fashioning the perfect pop song?
Well, good hooks, catchy melodies, and I don't know - memorable songs that get stuck in your brain and are annoying at first but so you cave because they're so catchy. David Bowie has a perfect song found on love - "China Girl", that whole era is so awesome. Obviously Madonna on every level - production, something you can dance to. Kate Bush too - "Running Up That Hill" is her most mainstream pop song.
Would you ever consider screening a little Kate Bush?
I wish to! We covered "Pet Cemetery" from The Ramones so we're trying not to destroy that one right now.
Best concert experience ever?
I believe I'm really lucky because I've seen nearly all of my favorite acts of all time. I suppose the better I always went to was David Bowie when he toured last time. Arcade Fire was really awesome as easily from a few days ago - so cheap and chaotic but very simple at the same time.
You've toured with a lot of your fellow pop acts of today. Any favorites out of the bunch?
There's so many people. I know La Roux. Lady Gaga I believe has set the bar high for everybody. Those are my two favorite pop acts right now. I simply love pop music - I can listen to mainstream stuff and not shrink as often as other people do.
And, clearly the most important question: Have you chosen a Halloween costume yet? Well, we're acting in Miami at the Raleigh Hotel for this really cool party that's Gatsby-themed. It's gothic Gatsby!
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