Features

Summer Stars: Paper Diamond

Here’s yet another of our “Summer Stars,” emerging acts featured in the 2011 Relix Festival Guide who will be making the rounds this summer…

While on hiatus as bassist for The Pnuma Trio, Alex Botwin is a busy man.
Based out of Boulder, Colo., the 26 year old acts as both music producer and aesthete entrepreneur, heading the hip record label/design firm Elm and Oak. Botwin’s ’s latest “dance-oriented” side project, Paper Diamond recently signed to Pretty Lights Music, under the direction of Derek Vincent Smith.

“Paper Diamond came from the idea of taking something simple and making it complex,” Botwin explains. “With music, you basically take nothing and turn it into the complex or the not complex.”

Currently touring to promote his EP Levitate, Botwin is already half-finished with Paper Diamond’s sophomore release. “This summer, you are going to hear stuff at each show that you won’t be able to hear elsewhere, because it isn’t out yet,” he reveals. While he is a gifted multi-instrumentalist, Botwin performs his set from the mobile comforts of an iPad. “I programmed my own layout so I control my entire live set wirelessly, giving me the freedom to move around,” he says. “I plan on using the iPad for the summer unless something else catches my eye—whatever makes the experience most fun for myself and the audience.”

Appearing at: Wakarusa, Starscape, Electric Forest, Camp Bisco, Global Dance Festival and more.