Hi, thank you for joining us today, so tell me a bit about yourselves, what have you been up to over the past 12 months?
We've been recording a lot, start of March/April time, we ddi like 6 tunes at Blank Studios which is just down the road which was loads of fun because it's the first time we've been in a studio together in years. Even before covid we didn't even do that, we just recorded at home and other than that we've been playing some shows. We've played with King No-One this year, Corella, and we did Coastella last weekend, we've got this one now and we've been over to Whitehaven and stuff so that's really fun, we did an EP release like a month ago we should probably mention that. By the end of the year there should be another 6 songs coming, so yeah that's what we've been up to.
Where did your bands name come from and how did you form?
So the band formed 10+ years ago now, back end of high school we formed a band with a name 'Street Party In Soho' which was named after a poster in one of the rooms but we decided we were going to change the name in 2017 ish. Then I saw a picture of Phil Collins, Vaporware edited Phil Collins with Paradise written on it and there was two dolphins on either side, I'll send over the photo but it came from that. It came from Phil Collins Vaporware editor. It's somewhere o the website as well, there's a secret link on the website where if you click on. it, the Phil Collins photo comes up, I can't remember where it is bu tit is on there somewhere.
What has been the biggest highlight of Club Paradise so far?
The Cobalt headliners were pretty good. I would say the best highlight for us would be the week before lockdown we did Cobalt Studios which was sold out, it was rammed but the reason that was so good was because the week running up to it we had done a sold out show at the Deaf Institute in Manchester, we did London Notting Hill Arts Club and all those different things and then we came home and did that and then we all went in lockdown and life just kind of froze. Then we did it again after lockdown didn't we and that was probably a better show, it was so good so probably them two headliners.
How did you first get into making music?
We were probably like 11ish and Nathan was so good at drumming from the second he picked up a pair of sticks and I would try and play guitar next to him but then slowly we did do a band for a bit didn't we. Then eventually we did a school band because we went to school together. I should say the names so me and Nathan did a band once and then that was still going and then me, Jackson and Harry did a school one. The band we started was completely brand new because yous had been in a band with Joe Edwards and Dean and that, right, yous had all did that but then that ended and we started once because we got put together in school. So the singer left, the drummer left, Nathan joined, I said I'll sing, Jackson said you'll be fucking shit at that and then we've stayed like that since.
How would you describe the sound on your EP?
The one that's just came out was quite nostalgic sounding, weighing quite heavily into the 80s like piano, pretty sad, quite melancholy. A lot of songs we write, we write because we're like this will be the best one, the loudest, the best single but then we were like we've got a lot of those songs so we will mix it up.
Someone told me we sound like Talk Talk.
Talk Talk's cool.
I think as well, we had those 3 songs but we never chose one to be a single because we liked them all loads but 'Surfacing' which I think is the middle track, we've had that since we were like 15/16 and we've rewrote it like 5/6 times now and every time we've rewrote it we've recorded it again and this time round when we did it we were like ok this time we will use it. But there's like 10 other versions of that song sitting on a hard drive somewhere and nobody's allowed to see it.
What is your earliest memory of music?
I've got a great one, I had just go the Internet and I was on a Rey Mysterio website because I was well into Rey Mysterio, probably around 2006 just at the end of primary school and Jay Z Numb/Encore with Linkin Park was just embedded into the website with pictures of Rey Mysterio. I was just like this sounds really good and I asked my sister what is this and bless my sister she had to download it on LimeWire and I was like this is the best song ever.
What are some of your main musical influences?
The Midnight definitely which our stuff sounds nowt like but I think the new EP is starting to go a bit more in that route. It's funny because I feel like people are either going to love it or hate us even more than they already do and then not come to the next show.
If you could have any celebrity to star in a music video, who would it be?
Rey Mysterio I reckon with his mask because you have to recognise him. I would probably be wrestler theme or country singer. I'm thinking someone with a mullet, Billy Ray Cyrus would be a great one. Tom Cruise doing some mad mission impossible stuff as well when he's like 94 something, nearly ready to tap in. TAP OUT!
Do you have any pre-gig rituals and if so, what are they?
Lemon and Ginger tea and a good old steam. Harry likes a shot of Sambuca that he likes to buy. We've have a little group huddle though, I've got a video of it from almost every headliner, before every show before we go on we do a little huddle. We will do it tonight as well. If we're going in the van somewhere we will normally just blast music for ages and that's really really good which will be White Lies. The first White Lies album is the album that is like our album as a band.
If your music could be in any film, which one would it be in?
Probably Drive, the new Barbie as well. There's still one unnamed artist I think, it might be us, it could be Billie Eilish but it could be us as well so who knows. But Barbie for sure. Maybe Samurai Cop as well.
What album cover best describes yous as a band?
Phil Collins. I think that Steely Dan album cover, Aja. I think Red Earth & Pouring Rain by Bear's Den with a hand on the steering wheel and red light, which very much has the sort of 80s vibe that we kind of put through now and again so yeah.
What's next for you?
6 new tunes on a big EP but we don't know when and we've got no money so we will have to do them one at a time, it's going to take fucking ages but hopefully at this gig if we sell like 3 t-shirts tonight, we've got enough to get the first one mixed. We are buzzing to be fair, the sound's just a different direction we are just having way more fun with this next EP. We've never done something of that size it's always been like we build up to 4 songs and but then this one we are going to do a couple of singles and then 6 songs all in one go which is cool for us. We don't have a lot of money so it's cool even doing 6 songs that quick, we were in for a week and we normally spend a week just on bass on other songs so it's nice. It's always bass actually.
By - Katie Graham
Photo- Will Gorman
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