Mix it up for E-Days with Catalina Rhyme Mixers

This year’s E-days celebration will feature not just one, but two live concerts, beginning with one of Mines’ own students, Cooper Newby. Newby, a senior at Mines, is one of the two members of the electronic group Catalina Rhyme Mixers. Known for mixing across genres, Catalina Rhyme Mixers has found their niche in today’s electronic mash-ups world.

They were not always electronically inclined though. The duo actually traces their roots back to Newby’s and fellow bandmate Will Goodspeed’s middle school days, where both played in a classic garage rock band. When they left for college, Newby and Goodspeed were forced to find new ways to share and collaborate on music together. The natural chain of events led them straight towards electronic mixing. “Will started making these remixes. We didn’t even know what they were called at first,” said Newby. They started with a mash-up of Ratatat and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and have become known for their tendency to mix very different genres together.

Because the two no longer live near each other and attend the same school, their writing process is slightly different from most bands. Newby described the process as one of trading emails containing songs back and forth until both of them agreed it is done. Because Newby has more mixing experience, he usually finishes off the song by “mastering it and equalizing it off.” This process can take anywhere from a day to three weeks depending on how motivated the duo is. The process seems tedious, but it has no doubt paid off for the two as they have just recently hired a booking agent and have been playing at “frat parties across the country.”

For Newby, playing at E-days represents a true career accomplishment. Newby has participated in E-days for the last four years but this year he will finally transition from spectator to performer. He is looking forward to performing this year, but for Newby, no E-days will ever match the excitement from his freshman year, in which he was shocked by the entirety of the event. “Freshman year was definitely the best E-days,” said Newby, “I just had no idea what to expect.” This year, Newby simply wants “to excite everyone [and have] everyone to be raging.” Hopefully, Newby delivers on this expectation while representing Mines on stage. If so, it will truly be a concert to remember this E-days.