Buffalo-hailing act Downupright from Bill Boulden shares their experimental project explores the end of the world sixty different ways across sixty different genres on one-of-a-kind project We're Doomed We're Dancing: Sixty Apocalypses. Rooted in their love for sonic exploration and collaboration, the project takes the vivacity of Crunk, the beats of Jersey Club, and even an unexpected touch of Opera to weave a nonstop party soundtrack.
With each intricate production coming to life as each artist's reaction to their own unique apocalypse, the project which was fully crowdfunded through fan support has earned it a spot on Kickstarter’s “Projects to Watch. Backers have shaped its direction, and choosing themes, tracks, and guests, and the final product accordingly features a full fifty different musicians, is an absolute celebration of collaboration and teamwork.
Having begun their musical journey aged 10, Boulden's passion has evolved and expanded to culminate in this unique project. In conversation with Earmilk, Downupright dives into the inspiration behind the album, the challenges of working across multiple genres and artists, keeping creatively motivated and more.
We're Doomed We're Dancing, is definitely a one-of-a-kind project. Where did the spark of inspiration for it come from and how did things kick off for it?
I would say it came from my DJ experience as a multi-format Top 40 DJ at a casino. One thing that a lot of people don’t get about multi-format DJing is they think that they want to be a DJ so they can pick what the crowd listens to, but in many cases, you’re a servant- your job is to make sure everybody gets what they want
That means that I had to set aside my own tastes and learn to love what everyone loves, across so many genres. It doesn’t matter if I disliked country, or could pass on reggaeton since I don’t understand the language, or found R&B too meandering for my tastes- I had to mix them in, because that is what people want. And then I learned how to love them and got over myself, because you can’t sit there and amp up a crowd while letting on that you secretly think the genre is not good- that’s fraud. So you see them having fun, and then you’re having fun too.
When I was younger, I used to sit around and guffaw with my music-elitist friends about country being Redneck Pop or 80s hair metal being a corny joke. But then you watch everyone have a great time when you mix Bruno Mars 24 Karat Magic into Honky Tonk Badonkydonk with a great scratch, or laugh with delight when T-Swift’s Bad Blood slam-mixes into Pour Some Sugar On Me. I started to realize it all goes together. Every last bit of it. No more boundaries. This project was that epiphany, taken to an extreme.
Blending sixty genres and working with so many artists is a huge task, take me through the creative process from beginning to end?
It really was different for every track. I wrote almost every track on the album; I perform about a third myself. For the ones I don’t perform, I would write the lyrics and hire a session singer if it was in a genre I felt comfortable using my own identity’s perspective in, such as the Linkin Park type track or the Gecs style hyper pop track.
But then for things that come from other identities or languages, I left that up to the performer- so most of the hip-hop, Spanish and Korean language stuff- I didn’t want to be putting words in a performer of color’s mouth, so I would give them the beat, tell them the same prompt “The world is ending, which reason is up to you. There are many to choose from, do a verse about how you react to it”.
Also worth noting is that some genres, the performance IS the songwriting. So for instance I “wrote” the jam band track, but really, the magic of jam band is 100% up to the execution of the guitarist’s noodling, so when you look back at it, the charm of the executed track is really 90% the guitarist and not me. In some genres execution matters more than songwriting.
And then the production, mixing, and mastering was all me.
This is a project that would be hugely rewarding yet challenging to pull off. What is it about the album that makes you most proud and what was the most unexpected challenge of working on it?
I am most proud of the fact that I really do think I pulled off creating an environment where I show how all these genres aren’t really that different and can actually get along.
When I told people two years ago I was going to create an album where a crunk song could slam-mix into a Sinatra swing number, where a Norwegian black metal could fade into an Opera, and it would all sound completely natural and like they complement each other perfectly… I got a lot of strange looks and weird questions, like “Who on earth would WANT that”, “It’s going to sound weird”, and so on. I am most proud of the fact that I think I actually did nail that though. They fit with each other, and a combination of songwriting and production work really makes all sixty feel like kin. Nobody doesn’t fit.
Working with such a range of artists would be incredibly inspiring, what lesson sticks out from various artists?
I mean, I just didn’t expect so many to go so hard. Nearly everybody just slayed on their parts. There is not a contributor among the fifty-plus that I am disappointed in. I was amazed at how many different takes people brought to the idea of responding to the apocalypse. I was kinda worried it was gonna be like, oh no, sixty tracks that climate change is bad.
But some of the guests came over the top with pledges to rise above and survive or even thrive, like Hollyhood or Singtrece; and yet some got introspective, like when Rocz Nice rhymes “take ten Excedrin while watching Letterman ".
And then I never saw it coming with Fabien Myles’ bonkers tale where he imagined that the Voyager Golden Record reached aliens who came to conquer us for our superior music.
Is there a genre you didn’t get to explore or include in the project that you’d like to experiment with at some point?
If I could do it all over again, I would probably do one fewer EDM (not sure which I could bear to give up, though) and one fewer metal (same) to fit in an early 90s funk-rock (think of something Fishbone, Primus, or Chili Peppers with slap bass etc) and probably a Bollywood.
Personally, I would have loved to have fit in a Psytrance, because those are so much fun, but the album was overly represented with EDM subgenres as it was already.
This project is rooted in a lot of creativity and ambition. Was it daunting and how did you work through any obstacles to keep yourself motivated throughout the album?
It was absolutely daunting. I went through a serious creative dry spell over the summer of 2023 while I was overworked at my day job and my family was recovering from a serious and traumatic car accident and its injuries; I had nothing left to give musically. I don’t think I worked on We’re Doomed We’re Dancing for about five months. Thank god the muse eventually came back.
Finally, what message would you give to any artists who also want to work on similarly complex and ambitious projects?
First, don’t embark on them lightly!
It’s all fun and games while it’s an Idea, but the grueling part comes in execution. I have a real problem with this, especially since I am given over to periods of manic episodes; it can be so fun to ideate “AAH! A WHOLE ALBUM THAT DOESN’T USE ANY QUARTER NOTES AND ALSO IS RECORDED IN ANTARCTICA!” but then you gotta imagine what it is gonna be like when you’re on track eight and the fun is over and you are banging your head against a wall with logistics.
Plus, doing a Kickstarter, which I usually do, is a PUBLIC COMMITMENT. So when you say you’re gonna take these pledges in return for sixty tracks, you’re making a promise- no quitting, you’re finishing no matter how daunting it seems.
So I like to enforce a six-month marination period for the Big Ideas. I can’t think of a great album idea when I’m in bed and launch it in the morning. I need to think of it, and then keep noodling on it, and then if six months later I still think it is a good idea, and I still think it is something it would be fun to bring to fruition and I still want to do it, then it is okay to embark on it.
