College Online Cources

The Internet: a place where a student may go to download music, to make status updates and to order textbooks. And, for the UW’s very own Beat Connection, a place to land yourself a record deal.

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Beat Connection performs at a private house party on Northeast 50th Street on Sept. 28.

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Reed Juenger and Jordan Koplowitz of the UW-based band Beat Connection ponder ideas for their compositions in the basement of their studio.

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Reed Juenger (left) and Jordan Koplowitz (right) started a band out of the UW called Beat Connection.

“Our experience was a lot different than other bands. It took a while, but the Internet is an amazing way to get things done immediately and efficiently,” said Reed Juenger, one of the two musicians behind Beat Connection.

Founded by juniors Juenger and Jordan Koplowitz, the genre-defying band is already gaining some recognition, the product of a combination of tireless online promotion and musical ingenuity.

But first, the creation — one that saw its beginnings in the residence halls of the UW.

“We met at Early Fall Start about two years ago,” Koplowitz said. “We both had an interest in DJ-ing, ended up writing a few songs together and went from there.”

The Beat Connection project continued on and off throughout their freshman and sophomore years, but early 2010 saw them at their most productive, culminating in the release of their inaugural EP Surf Noir. The duo’s sound, which their MySpace page accurately claims is like “waking up to a sunset,” mixes pop and electronic music in a similar way to one of their heaviest influences, LCD Soundsystem, whose 2005 song “Beat Connection” lends them their namesake.

Their influences cover a wide range, citing electronic groups such as LCD Soundsystem, The Avalanches and Ratatat, as well as older new wave and pop-rock like Talking Heads and Fleetwood Mac, respectively.

“Daft Punk was a huge one,” Koplowitz added, Juenger echoing this assertion.

Surf Noir was released independently in July and has seen a rapid rate of success. Airplay on KEXP followed shortly, as well as a mention on indie music’s marquee site, Pitchfork.com. The EP can be heard streaming on MySpace and Bandcamp and is scheduled for a re-release in the coming months.

“I’m excited for it (the re-release), because it will be more legitimate,” Koplowitz said. “People will take us more seriously, and more people will be able to find out about us.”

The duo worked hard to get their sound out, and the efforts paid off in a record deal with Tender Age, a UK-based imprint of Moshi Moshi, a label with a roster of bands that includes Hot Chip, Florence and the Machine and the Very Best.

The process of getting their name out, however, was not without persistence. “We were constantly e-mailing 25 blogs a day,” Juenger said.

When bloggers liked what they heard, they would offer free promotion by posting about the band. One of the group’s widest exposures came from the aforementioned Pitchfork Media, who streamed their song “In the Water” on the site’s “Forkcast” section. Because it was a site viewed by Internet users the world over, there was a degree of surrealism for the two.

“We had to go through the process; it didn’t happen immediately,” Koplowitz said. “But Reed just e-mailed them again, and next morning, we were on there.”

The Internet avenue of success highlights a shift in the music industry toward a novel way of getting music heard, especially for some electronic artists who operate from their own computers or dorm rooms.

“Our primary fanbase would rather buy beer than music, so the ability to reach anyone immediately via the Internet is liberating,” Juenger said. “The Internet is an opportunity for people to hear music they otherwise never would and that’s an excellent thing.”

With the recent success of Beat Connection, Koplowitz and Juenger have a number of plans for the near future, beginning with Surf Noir’s re-release on the Tender Age imprint. They also expressed a desire to experiment with expanding their sound — adding a drummer, a bassist and a singer to achieve more of a live sound, something they said that they felt limited by in their latest round of live shows.

“It’ll allow for a more interactive show,” said Juenger, who admitted the group was still settling into a live sound, having played three shows as a group since the group’s inception.

The band remains relatively busy for the next few months.

“We’re booked pretty well through December, about three shows a month,” Juenger said. The band will play the KEXP Audioasis Benefit at the Sunset Tavern this Saturday, Oct. 2, and an all-ages show at Chop Suey on Oct. 11, opening for Copy and Dan Black.

No matter what happens for Beat Connection, they remain sure about one thing.

“I just want to continue to make music that I’m proud of,” Juenger said.

Koplowitz had a more colorful take.

“I want to make music that makes people make bad decisions,” he said.

But Juenger added, “…That they’re proud of.”

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