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Dawn Storey chats with the excitable indie rockers about their new EP
October will be a busy month for Club Paradise. Originally formed at school back in 2011 to do a show of cover versions, they began to write their own songs soon afterwards, and now the North Shields four-piece are preparing to release their new EP, followed by a hometown headline show at Three Tanners Bank on Saturday 19th October.
“In terms of life span, we’ve been in a band together collectively almost longer than we haven’t,” says lead guitarist Jackson. “The one thing we realised back then was we all had this mad love of music. That hasn’t changed, but I think that was the reason we thought this is actually a really good idea – we should play the songs we love and we should write stuff we love even more. That’s always been the goal, just to love what we do.”
Let Me Lose and Chasing the Summer, the opening two tracks on new EP Life On TV, wouldn’t sound out of place playing in an 80s movie as the protagonists drive past neon signs in a convertible, which vocalist Ryan says was “big-time deliberate”.
“I’d describe it as something you could hear at the end of a John Hughes film for sure,” says Jackson. “Coming of age is something that a lot of us have felt a connection with in terms of becoming an adult, and what that means to us as individuals as well as a collective, considering we have been a band since we were teenagers.”
get the Roland synths out, get the tape reels out – we’re here for the 80s sunsets along the boulevard!
“Definitely get the Roland synths out, get the tape reels out – we’re here for the 80s sunsets along the boulevard!” Says Ryan, explaining that the writing process for the band can vary. “I don’t think we do or don’t sit down to write, I don’t think it’s ever that conscious. It’s more that we’re noodling on instruments and come up with some tiny melody or catchy phrase that takes us down an avenue we end up writing from. Colette, for example, that’s an older single of ours and I remember driving to work humming the pre-chorus to that track.”
Drummer Nathan’s favourite song on the EP, What If These Days, is also the oldest and has a wistful, classic guitar style. “It has a more vulnerable feeling than the majority of work we’ve previously released,” he explains. “The tension builds from start to finish in a really nice fashion and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.”
“I think Let Me Lose has an energy at the end that we’ve rarely tapped into as a band,” says Jackson, “and the larger than life ending is something that always gets me excited.”
Ryan, meanwhile, chooses Years as his favourite. “We’ve been playing this live recently and I cannot cope with how good that feels. It’s lush.”
Speaking of playing live, what can we can expect from their EP launch show in North Shields? “Banger after banger, with some awful mic banter sprinkled in between,” says an honest Nathan. “Nadedja is also playing and she will probably be the best act on the night,” says Ryan. “But we cannot wait to squawk and shred.”
