LAKE STEVENS — Paralexis, an electro-pop group with Snohomish County roots, is among four semi-finalist bands who will perform Feb. 27 in the Sound Off! competition for young artists at Experience Music Project at the Seattle Center.
Alexander Bonilla, 19, a student at the University of Washington, and Aprille Perez, 19, a student at Seattle University, are best friends and have been bandmates since graduating from Lake Stevens High School in 2014.
If they win Saturday’s semi-final round, they head to the finals March 4, also at EMP.
Like many best friends, the duo often finish each other’s sentences and frequently give each other warm praise.
They had a lot in common even before they met.
In their freshman year at Lake Stevens, Aprille, thinking she was calling a new friend, misread the phone number from a scrap of paper. A 1 looked like a 7 when she dialed.
Instead she reached Alexander. They talked and it wasn’t long before they found out they share a similar Navy-brat background, that they both had lived on Okinawa, Japan, and that their dads were reassigned to Everett Naval Station.
“I used to think all that we have in common was just random coincidence,” said Bonilla, “but it’s crazy how it has all lined up and worked out.”
Bonilla had been experimenting with music-making programs on the computer when he asked Perez to add her voice.
They began to put down some tracks.
“We decided it was really cool and that we should do this,” Perez said.
It’s all about collaboration, Bonilla said.
“All that you see and hear is work we agree on.”
How did they arrive at the name Paralexis?
“We think it translates to ‘beyond words’,?” Bonilla said.
Their electronica music is “like a dream; shades of meaning hidden in the colors and the narrative; all wrapped up in a warm oasis of sound and rhythm,” as described on their Facebook page.
Friends encouraged the duo to enter the Sound Off! battle of the bands contest, which allows for multiple musical genres, but performed only by people younger than 21.
The Everett band Fauna Shade won the competition just two years ago.
“We saw the flier. It looked legit,” Perez said. “‘How cool would it be to participate?’ is what we thought.”
The duo emailed their four favorite tracks.
Out of 100 applicants from throughout the Northwest, Paralexis was one of just 12 bands chosen for the semi finals.
“I was speechless,” Perez said.
“It was incredibly validating of our work,” Bonilla said. “This is the biggest thing we have done so far.”
How do they do it, though?
Bonilla and Perez are fulltime students, they work multiple jobs and Alex is still commuting from Lake Stevens, Aprille said.
“It’s nuts, absolutely,” Bonilla said.
“We’re exhausted,” said Perez. “We just push ourselves.”
At the show on Saturday, Bonilla and Perez will be joined on stage by their friend Joshua Kim, who will deal with the recorded sounds, drum pads and more.
“It’s going to be like singing karaoke to our own music, but Josh helps us complete the look of our band,” said Perez, who said she enjoys the visual aspects of their venture.
Like costumes?
“No, but we do have a unified look,” she said. “Mostly we wear black or sometimes white.”
The Sound Off! prizes include performance slots at music festivals such as Sasquatch, Folklife, Bumbershoot and Timber, plus recording time, new gear and radio airplay.
Now in its 15th year, Sound Off! has boosted the careers of such bands as Lonely Forest, Manatee Commune, Dyme Def, Sol, Kithkin, Tomten, Brothers from Another, Schoolyard Heroes, Brite Futures, The Fame Riot and Dave B.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
If you go
Lake Stevens band Paralexis performs at the last semi-final round of the 2016 Sound Off! competition at 8 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Sky Church, at the EMP, Seattle Center. Tickets are at EMPmuseum.org and cost $10 for students and EMP members, and $14 general. Listen to Paralexis at soundcloud.com/paralexis.
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