Air Dubai

I don’t know much about Air Dubai other than the fact that they’re from Denver, there are six members, they’re opening for Marianas Trench on their upcoming US tour and they seem to be incredibly modest. How so? In the opening paragraph of their about section on Facebook, they proclaim that their appeal doesn’t lie in their music, but that it “lies in its members’ passion for the music they create, as well as their love for the people who come to see them perform.” Now, while this very well may be true to a point, upon listening to the group’s Warning EP, it’s fairly safe to say that the music is every bit as appealing. Maybe even more so.

In a day and age where it’s hard to create something that isn’t compared to something else, it seems bands and artists are working to create their own sounds by mixing the sounds of what has already been created. For some bands, it works quite well, and for others... well, not so much. Air Dubai is one of those bands who has made it work. With what I like to refer to as “indie hip hop” making its way to the forefront with the likes of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and twenty | one | pilots, Air Dubai is hitting their stride at the perfect time.

Admittedly the opening track to their five song EP, ‘Warning’ featuring Patricia Lynn (ex The Soldier Thread), is the release’s weakest track but even being the weakest, it still offers enough to catch the attention of listeners. As a typical club track one might assume to be on a hip-hop release, there is a strong electronic undercurrent that hints at where the following four songs are heading from there. (And yes, they only go up from there.)

The clear standout track is ‘Hit The Dark’ which is reminiscent of some of the best ‘80s pop mixed with what Gym Class Heroes should have been. (I don’t know why, but it seriously makes me want to listen to Billy Ocean’s ‘Get Outta My Dreams’.) Add the R&B flair, and ‘Hit The Dark’ shows a glance at the future of Air Dubai. They promise a “heady mix of hip-hop, pop, soul, rock and electronic,” and this song delivers just that.

Have they peaked? No. Do they have everything fleshed out? No. But will they be something great soon? Yes. Yes they will. They’re going in the right direction, and they’re doing it at the right time and they are damn sure delivering with what they do have. This sextet has all the makings of a group that can help the aforementioned artists bridge the gap between mainstream and the lesser recognized genres-- at least, by radio-- and the Warning EP is a clear testament of that.

The only real downfall is that they don’t give us more to listen to.

4/5

Victoria Patneaude

Warning EP will be released on May 21 via Hopeless Records. - Alter The Press

I don’t know much about Air Dubai other than the fact that they’re from Denver, there are six members, they’re opening for Marianas Trench on their upcoming US tour and they seem to be incredibly modest. How so? In the opening paragraph of their about section on Facebook, they proclaim that their appeal doesn’t lie in their music, but that it “lies in its members’ passion for the music they create, as well as their love for the people who come to see them perform.” Now, while this very well may be true to a point, upon listening to the group’s Warning EP, it’s fairly safe to say that the music is every bit as appealing. Maybe even more so.

In a day and age where it’s hard to create something that isn’t compared to something else, it seems bands and artists are working to create their own sounds by mixing the sounds of what has already been created. For some bands, it works quite well, and for others... well, not so much. Air Dubai is one of those bands who has made it work. With what I like to refer to as “indie hip hop” making its way to the forefront with the likes of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and twenty | one | pilots, Air Dubai is hitting their stride at the perfect time.

Admittedly the opening track to their five song EP, ‘Warning’ featuring Patricia Lynn (ex The Soldier Thread), is the release’s weakest track but even being the weakest, it still offers enough to catch the attention of listeners. As a typical club track one might assume to be on a hip-hop release, there is a strong electronic undercurrent that hints at where the following four songs are heading from there. (And yes, they only go up from there.)

The clear standout track is ‘Hit The Dark’ which is reminiscent of some of the best ‘80s pop mixed with what Gym Class Heroes should have been. (I don’t know why, but it seriously makes me want to listen to Billy Ocean’s ‘Get Outta My Dreams’.) Add the R&B flair, and ‘Hit The Dark’ shows a glance at the future of Air Dubai. They promise a “heady mix of hip-hop, pop, soul, rock and electronic,” and this song delivers just that.

Have they peaked? No. Do they have everything fleshed out? No. But will they be something great soon? Yes. Yes they will. They’re going in the right direction, and they’re doing it at the right time and they are damn sure delivering with what they do have. This sextet has all the makings of a group that can help the aforementioned artists bridge the gap between mainstream and the lesser recognized genres-- at least, by radio-- and the Warning EP is a clear testament of that.

The only real downfall is that they don’t give us more to listen to.

4/5

Victoria Patneaude

Warning EP will be released on May 21 via Hopeless Records. - Alter The Press

What's better than six handsome, talented musicians in well-fitted T-shirts? How about six handsome, talented musicians in well-fitted T-shirts getting all moody and #noir in an empty warehouse? Sounds pretty good, right? (Well, at least to those of us who have a weakness for brooding musicians in tight T-shirts.)

And that brings us to our favorite tight T-shirt wearers, Denver pop/hip-hop six-piece Air Dubai, who appear to have some major issues to work out in their dark and stormy "Soul & Body" video.

Watch Air Dubai's "Soul & Body" video after the jump.

The latest cut off their their Warning EP, "Soul & Body" sounds influenced by brooding hip-hop/R&B masters Miguel and Drake, but its video looks like something that came right out of The Weeknd's noir playbook (think: his "Live For" video).

In Air Dubai's "Soul & Body" clip, the band hangs in a dark, dank-looking, empty warehouse space with tons of room for feeling all the #feelings, #brooding, and generally looking 50 shades of #emo.

Later, interlaced between aqueous black-and-white fade-out shots of the guys slinking around said warehouse, the camera pans to a girl who is occasionally shot in color, but always looks sad, confused, and lonely. (Kind of how Avril Lavigne looked in her "Let Me Go" video, minus Chad Kroeger, that is.)

Now, do we know what Air Dubai is brooding about? Not entirely. Could be girl problems. In fact, judging by the track's lyrics ("I'll never fall in love, I'm too careful"), it's almost certainly girl problems. But throw six cute musicians in a smoky, sad warehouse, and you'll always have our full attention. Mainly because we wish we could be there to "comfort" them. - MTV Buzzworthy Blog

While many people attempt to lump Air Dubai into some vague reggae genre, Day Escape is sure to break the band away from this musical pigeonholing. The album is a mixture of rock, electronic, jazz, and R&B. Like a warm summer day, it is just quick enough to keep you moving, but just relaxed enough to wash your worries away.
Although Air Dubai is often, and rightly so, compared to The Roots, I couldn't help but hear Jamiroquai in the first few tracks of Day Escape. Sure, the members of the band might have been tots when "Virutal Insanity" was popular, but the jazzy, funk fusion of "Soul & Body" could be the song's long lost brother.
The strongest thing about Day Escape is the strongest thing about Air Dubai: the band keeps a consistent sound throughout every unique song. These guys are a far cry from the same three-chord songs, and while some hooks might be reminiscent of the electronic beats of 3OH!3, others are closer to the pop hip-hop sound of Gym Class Heroes.
With trumpets, keyboards, synthesizers, and vocals ablaze, Day Escape offers a peak into a band that has perfected their style. Air Dubai knows what they want and they show it in their music. If the band stays at this level, they are sure to join the likes of 3OH!3 and The Fray as another successful band from the Mile High City.
Day Escape is one of those rare instances where a band is both talented musically, lyrically, and stylistically.
With an EP this well put together, it's hard to believe that Air Dubai remains unsigned. - UCD Advocate

If it feels like much longer than two years since Air Dubai won CU's Battle of the Bands, it's probably because of how far they've come since then.

The win landed them a spot opening for Chiddy Bang and they released their first studio album, Wonder Age, about one year later. In the meantime, of course, they were busy touring - stopping at festivals like South by Southwest, Snow Ball, and Westword Music Showcase. Then in March 2011, they released RemixTape, with the help of some producer friends. Seven months later, they dropped the six track EP Day Escape.

“We're really excited about it, we're really excited to get new music out,” Julian Thomas, Air Dubai's emcee, said. “The receptions been really good.”

A somewhat startling amount of work went into Day Escape. It's not that it doesn't sound like they worked hard - the EP has been very well received. It's the volume of work they produced compared to what they released.

“We spent a couple weeks in a cabin in the mountains, which is like in the middle of the nowhere in the mountains. We were up there just writing songs,” Thomas said. “That's kind of the way we did the fist record and that's how we started doing the second one. Wrote all the songs for Wonder Age basically at that cabin.”

Air Dubai went into the studio in California with about 15 songs written, but after they played them for a producer, she suggested they write some more. So, they wrote around 40 more and scrapped all but one of the original 15. All that for a finished product of six tracks.

The process was a definite deviation from the norm for the group. In the past, their approach has been steadier, more paced.

“We don't do what we did in California, where we sat in a room for three weeks and forced ourselves to write songs. It just sort of comes naturally,” Thomas said. “Usually what happens is someone will have an idea and bring it to the group and someone else will add to it, or we'll all ad it it. It usually starts as an individual idea, but it builds into a big group effort. We've written in a bunch of different places and different atmospheres, but it's always been the same process.”

The collaborative writing process works well for them, and it accounts for the variety of styles that come through in their music. Thomas said each of Air Dubai's members has different influences, and his own are a bit surprising.

“Everyone has their different methods and influences that drive them to write what they do,” he said. “Since I'm the rapper in the group, I honestly try not to listen to a lot of hip hop. I listen to a lot of alternative pop music like Phoenix or Passion Pit and I try to extract some of the emotions in there and put it into my own, so it's not me copying other rappers.”

Air Dubai is back in Boulder this weekend, and genuinely looking forward to it.

“Honestly, Boulder, Colorado is probably one of - if not my one - favorite place to play,” Thomas said. “We've never had a bad show there. The crowd has always been so into it and so receptive. It's definite going to be a really good time on Saturday night.”

You heard him.
- Colorado Daily

The Scene: The Aggie was not packed to the gills but there was a solid Sunday night crowd for Air Dubai’s show this past weekend. The Denver based hip-poppers were wrapping up a four-night Colorado tour with Chicago based funk-pop-rock outfit Kids These Days. While some of the crowd looked a little dazed from a long weekend of avoiding assignments, the majority was grooving hard so the bands had lots of energy to draw from for their performances. I could not quite hear the raps and vocals clearly throughout the evening but it seemed like we were supposed to have fun and we did. The Aggie’s 105 years of concert history are a testament to Colorado’s truly bumping, if occasionally cowhide covered, past.

Opener: Bop Skizzum. Denver group Bop Skizzum opened the night handily. Julie and Andy fronted the Skizzumites with energy and skill, pumping up the crowd. As a side note, Bop Skizzum’s “Nerd-Prom” is happening at The Gothic on February 10 and the contest for king and queen is on now on their Facebook page.

Opener: Kids These Days. Chicago-based and youthful, Kids These Days are about to take the world by storm. I fully recommend destroying any Justin Bieber and Glee materials your children have and replacing it with the genuine, and real-world, musical role model that is this band. Seriously, I got their EP Hard Times (you can iTunes it, but it won’t be signed like mine is) and love it.

Macie, Vic, and JP (keys/vox, rapper, and trombone respectively) told me the band got together from a couple of different high schools and now that everyone has graduated they are touring and playing their music for the people. They have some room to grow from their current skill set but if Kids These Days are any indication of a trend in America, the kids are alright! If you happen to be in the Midwest in April, Air Dubai is touring Kids These Days turf, it’ll be a double bill worth catching.

Air Dubai: If you’ve only read about this band it is high time you got out and saw them! There is just so much energy and music to enjoy from these Denver based hip-poppers. All of the members of the band contribute accomplished musical styling and finesse to a create very danceable and fun sound.

Jon Shockness and Julian Thomas (vocalists) started working together in 2008. Julian and Jon have their John and Paul hats on in the sense that they provide separate but complimentary guiding spirits for Air Dubai to form itself around. Julian is generally the cool rapper to Jon’s smooth singing. The group breaks its own path through the music-space continuum with it’s legion of fans close behind.

Air Dubai’s show Sunday was widely accessible. They have a big future from what I saw and heard. If you want to be able to say you “saw them before” you better see them soon because their wave is starting to break. The great show they put on at the end of a long weekend demonstrates an ability that will serve them well in their travels (which include SXSW in Austin later this year). Be sure to buy Air Dubai’s great six-track album Day Escape and turn your headphones into party central until you catch their next live show!

Energy: A
Sound: B-
Musicianship: A-
Stage Presence: A
Set/Lights: B-

Overall: B+ - Listen Up Denver!

Colorado music was well represented last week at South By Southwest Music Festival, in Austin, Texas, and some Boulder and Denver favorites put up a particularly impressive showing.

Now that the festival has come to an end, we caught up with The Yawpers, Air Dubai, Boulder roducer Alex (aka Paper Diamond) to see how they're feeling about South By 2012, now that they're back in Colorado. The general consensus: Everyone is very tired but very satisfied.

Paper Diamond

Producer Alex B is definitely no stranger to SXSW -- he's been making the trip to Austin with different projects for years -- but this was his first year performing at the festival as Paper Diamond.

One of his bigger shows that week at Austin's Beauty Bar Backyard was so popular that only people with official SXSW badges were admitted. After an incredibly funky set from Thundercat, he jumped on stage to a screaming crowd with his iPad in hand.

Then the sound system failed. The bass was so weak that it might as well have been coming from the laptop in front of him. The start was delayed while the workers scrambled to fix the problem and audience members yelled, “It's not your fault, man.”

“That was the craziest beginning to any set ever I've played,” Alex said. “It's interesting about South By because you play these stripped-down showcases where there's no lights or anything. Usually I travel with my entire crew -- I've got my light rig, my DJ booth and my team.”

Next time, he added, he'll bring all that along to make sure everything goes smoothly. It didn't take long to fix, and the crowd didn't seem to care once he got going. They never stopped dancing, and Alex kept it going with brand new beats.

“I was really glad to showcase new tunes and it just kind of progressed and made me step up,” he said. “I still had a blast and I love being down at South By,” he said. “I got to see Thundercat's set and that was amazing. Definitely one of my highlights.”

The Yawpers

The Yawpers first SXSW outing had them in two unofficial showcases. The two impressive performances definitely got them some new fans and some professional connections.

“I had a blast, and met some important people, and played in front of a lot of people, and think we played pretty well,” singer Nate Cook said, talking on the phone during the drive back to Boulder. “Shows at South By -- you're always meeting people. Maybe something will come of it.”

The experience wasn't limited to their own shows. The band got out to party and check out other shows, and taking in the scene turned out to be an inspiration for them.

“We definitely met some really cool people,” Cook said. “Seeing it all makes wants you to be better musicians.”

Part of that was seeing their fellow Colorado musicians at Illegal Pete's 2nd Annual Starving Artist showcase at Peckerheads in Austin. With all the talent in one place, The Yawpers got to check out bands they'd never even seen back home.

“Air Dubai kicked ass. I‘ve never seen them before. I thought that show was awesome,” Cook said. “You had to go out of town to see other Boulder bands that are killing it, and the Denver bands are really killing it too.”

Air Dubai

And speaking of Air Dubai, the not-so-long-ago CU Battle of the Bands winners had a hell of a run during their second year at SXSW.

They went down to Austin with three shows planned, singer Jon Shockness said, but then The Blind Pig called and invited them into the 10 p.m. spot on Saturday night, right before their Illegal Pete's set at Peckerheads.

“It was like super tiring, but we still wanted to put on a good show,” Shockness said. “We were about to pass out. I know I was.”

It seems like the band didn't put too much pressure on themselves to make connections. Instead, they just focused on putting on the best shows possible. Anyone who attended one will tell you they nailed it.

“I think that South By is a different kind of energy. There's so many events everywhere. I don't know if it's that you want to make an impact because there's so much music at any time that people can see,” Shockness said. “There were people there -- labels and stuff -- but I don't really care about all that. I just wanted to see other musicians that are passionate.”

Of everything Air Dubai could have seen, one of the more important shows for them was Boston band Bad Rabbits. Both bands heard from many about how similar each were to one another. They briefly met once in Denver, but they finally got to check each other out and talk in Austin. Shockness said he hopes they'll make plans to play together in the future.

And like all the SXSW musicians, he's already thinking about how to step up their game for next year.

“Hopefully we'll just do it even harder next year,” he said. “I think we were really proud of the work we did, but we can always do better.” - Colorado Daily

Hip-hop/pop troupe Air Dubai release their newest single off of their upcoming album Be Calm for mass consumption today. The Denver-based seven piece outfit has been lighting up the local hip-hop scene since their breakthrough first album Wonder Age in 2010. Formed in the summer of 2008 by vocalists Julian Thomas and Jon Shockness, they quickly hit the ground running with their ambitious and electrifying live shows that culminated in their winning the 2010 “Best New Hip-Hop Act” award by Denver’s Westword magazine. “All Day” showcases the band’s ability to mix the modern with a retro sound and with a hint of R&B.

-JoeK - The Marquee

Heads up, Air Dubai fans, there's a lot of good news coming from the Denver band these days.

The group announced a release date for its next LP, Be Calm. It's set to drop Nov. 13. They've already released the single "All Day," a track has the trademarks of Air Dubai -- a celebratory chorus and Childish Gambino worthy lines like "hipsters go crazy cuz I spit this shit gluten-free" -- with a shift in instrumentals from the funky and horn-heavy to a thumping, club-ready beat.

With the annoucement of the release date comes the artwork, designed by Greta Tu, which can only be described as lovely.

Just about a month after Be Calm's release, Air Dubai is headlinging the Ogden Theatre of Dec. 15. Presale tickets are $15, but the price only lasts through this week. After that, they'll cost $20. - Colorado Daily