The London music duo Paradise is a band that’s caused some trouble for FDRMX. Not trouble in the musical sense (the only musical problem is we can’t get enough of them) but rather the inability to classify exactly what genre Paradise falls into. Thankfully, members Tony Harewood and Jospeh Marshall spoke to FDRMX about their band, how best to classify their style, and their deep commitment when creating music videos.
1.
FDRMX: A common starting question for our interviews: Why the name Paradise?
Jospeh: It just made sense for us, music lets us escape to more a beautiful place.
2.
FDRMX: How did you two meet?
Tony: Well we both had mutual friends from the north of England living and studying in Leeds. I’m from Hull and Joe’s from Grimsby and we both moved down to London around the same time. Somehow we both met an artist called Jeremy Jay from California who was looking for a band to tour with and I ended up on Bass and Joe played Guitar. We toured with him for about 2 years around europe and the U.S and we got on really well. I was writing my own songs and so was he so we just kind of naturally ended up working on each others songs and starting our own band.
3.
FDRMX: Your band has been together for more than 3 years now. What would you say the secret is to keeping stable relationships between band members?
J: Being open to change. Being happy to progress in different directions and to try new things that don’t meet expectations you had for a paradise song
4.
FDRMX: When we featured your music videos on our site we couldn’t quite decide what genre your music fits into. What would you say your music is?
T: Motivational songs for the voyage of starship earth through the unknown oceans of the galaxy.
J: Zoooooooom!
5.
FDRMX: The “Endless Wave” video takes place entirely outdoors with a large stretch in pitch black night. Did you feel you channeled your inner animal while filming it?
T: Yeah we went completely method for the video, our diet consisted of raw carrots for one month prior to filming so we could see in the dark. Joe is actually part opossum so the night time shots were easy for him.
6.
FDRMX: In that video there’s significant footage filmed underwater. Was it hard to hold your breath for so long?
T: Again we net method on this too, We’d been training the north sea.
7.
FDRMX: You spoke before about how you’re both huge World Cup watchers. Has your love for Football ever find its way into your music at all, either intentionally or unintentionally?
T: Yeah, totally! We’re both fans of football, and are pretty interested in chants. There is something interesting in the idea of communal chanting.
J: There’s some pretty terrible chants that make me embarrassed to be a football fan, but there’s also some pretty sharp wit on show in a lot of grounds. It’s a kind of folk music.
9.
FDRMX: What time of day do you find is the best to create music?
T: Well we both use to be night owls, and if you heard any of our first songs then that is evident, but we’ve both grown up a bit now and like to work during the day. I think it’s more effective and definitely good for inner peace.
10.
FDRMX: What are your three favorite music videos?
T: Mine has to be ‘Life in a northern town” by the Dream Academy, ‘Rabbit in your headlights’ by Unkle and ‘Let forever be’ by Chemical brothers.
J: Heres some that stick in my mind
•The KLF – Stadium House Trilogy I really like how overblown these videos are. They really committed to the idea of what the KLF could be.
•Cibo Matto – Sugar water, a really interesting split screen video that plays with time.
•MIA does a great job with videos that Are really strong visually and completely unAfraid to make challenging social and political comments.
•Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson Scream – still stands up.
•Blood Orange – Chamakay – Great video showing Dev really finding his feet. I know this video was a big thing for Basil as, he too, is part Guyanese.
11.
FDRMX: Your music video “Stars Shine Bright” is quite the psychedelic visual ride. When writing the original song did you imagine that such popping visuals to be associated with it?
T: Well one of my favourite songs is ‘do you dream in colour’ by Bill Nelson and I liked the idea of answering it with a song. His video is shot n black and white and when we wrote this I guess I imagined a vivd explosion of colour which comes with a moment of joy or ecstasy. I directed the video and I definitely wanted it to effect the senses when watching and listening to video.
12.
FDRMX: Any plans for the immediate future? Any albums or upcoming tours?
T: We’re writing a lot at the minute. We want to finish an album sometime soon and find a label to put it out.
13.
FDRMX: What advice would you say in order to prepare someone about to go to their first Paradise concert ever?
T: Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream.
A huge amount of gratitude to Paradise for taking the time to answer our questions. Be sure to follow the band on Twitter and Facebook. If you want to make your Monday a lot better, take a listen to all of their songs right here.