Paradox Interview on Open Pot Music.
(Open Pot Music is a Free music download platform for artists and music fans - Free Paradox Downloads @ - http://www.openpot.com/PARADOX )
Hey everyone,
Pete Mac from Paradox talks to Sophie from Open Pot Music about the history of the band, life, childhood and most importantly music. Here's how it went....
Dear Paradox Band, thank you for taking your time today.
What is the story of your Band “Paradox”? How did the three of you started and how long is it ago? Was it influenced by Idols?
Hello. Well Paradox were formed in 1997 by myself Pete and my brother Mike. We both always had a huge interest in music. Since we were kids we listened to everything rock related. Mike grew up listening to Guns n’ Roses, Metallica.. the whole 80’s metal phase. By the time I discovered music it was 1991 and the whole Alternative scene just started to take off.. I was a 10 year old kid when I first heard ‘Teen Spirit’. I can honestly say it changed my life. After my cassette copy of Nirvana’s Nevermind had worn thin from being over played I discovered other Seattle bands like Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam to Mudhoney and Screaming Trees. Nirvana turned me on to music. I picked up the guitar when I was 12 years old in 1994. Many things happened that year. Kurt Cobain passed away and the whole Grunge scene seemed to disappear as fast as it had appeared. It was a weird feeling when your idol is suddenly gone.. You’re kinda lost when you’re a kid. I started playing guitar.. learning songs from listening to my favourite bands and eventually writing my own material. Mike played guitar too but picked up on the drums a few years before the band formed. We somehow seemed to mix both our influences into our music. Mike listens to Alice in Chains, Silverchair as well as GN’R to Mötley Crue.. I love Alice in Chains too but would never listen to Mötley Crue.. We somehow compromise and try and combine both our influences. At the end of the day we love music and put all our energy and emotion into it. As for the third Paradox member the band has gone through many bass players .. I think 8 in total.. In the studio for any recording sessions it was always just myself and Mike playing everything.
What is the background of your Bandname “Paradox”?
Just like our mix of influences the name Paradox reflects just that. A contradiction.. I always like that in songs too and try to bring it into my lyrics.. contradicting what I’m saying maybe to confuse people or not to make the lyrics too obvious.
What are the musical backgrounds of each member? Have you always been playing rock or were there also other influences?
Well I started playing guitar when I was 12 years old in 1994. Hugely influenced by the whole Seattle Grunge scene and hugely affected by Kurt Cobain’s death that year I started playing guitar and writing music.. Mike already played guitar and started playing drums around 1995. I think our musical interests have always been rock related but we’re open to any kind of music that has passion and that’s authentic. Mike even likes some classical music and I listen to a lot of acoustic music too like Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley to PJ Harvey, Neil Young.. I’m more influenced by their music nowadays than Grunge music. Our longest playing bass player from 2000 to 2002 was a huge Punk Rocker and he brought that into our music too especially when playing live.
Pete and Mike, have you been always doing music together?
Yeah… since we were kids. We had a small room in our house and used to play until the early hours of the morning.. On both Paradox albums ‘Circle of Growth’ and ‘Sacred’ it was just the two of us playing everything. We just seemed to click when we play.. Mike always writes his own drum parts and seems to know exactly what fits in a song and what doesn’t. The same goes for his vocal harmonies. Maybe since we’re brothers the harmonies seem to sound similar.. like the same person singing. I think that’s the Alice in Chains influence coming through again with the harmonies.
What is the message of your album “sacred” which has been published in 2004?
There’s no real deliberate message.. I think it’s a progression from our first album.. like we’ve found our own sound.. where someone could hear us on the radio and say ‘oh yeah that’s Paradox’. Our first album ‘Circle of Growth’ was a mix of songs that I wrote when I was hugely into the whole Grunge thing and you can definetly hear it.. ‘Sacred’ is more melodic and has more hooks in the songs. I was older too when I wrote that album so I guess the music is more mature too. The general message from ‘Sacred’ is the search for something more in life.. the search for serenity, fulfilment - we’re all searching for something in life.
How would you describe rock music in today´s world? In which ways rock music has changed?
It’s changed a lot.. in some cases for the worse. It’s all about image nowadays and no band seems to be original anymore when it comes to rock. It’s like a packaged product direct from a major label.. a lot of rock bands could be boy bands really.. just puppets for the industry. I can’t really think of any good new rock bands that I like… If there’s any good new rock bands it’s the unsigned underground bands.. I’ve come across many really cool bands on MySpace. It’s just the industry really. The labels sign whatever is popular. If it’s Emo they’ll try and sign as many emo bands as possible.. It’s good that bands like Sonic Youth and Pearl Jam are still playing. It’s just my opinion about rock music today. It just doesn’t affect me the way bands from the 90’s did. I can’t hear another Mando Diao.. every band seems to be playing that style.
What is your personal aim with your music and with your Band?
World Domination.. joke.. I just want to play music and if possible make some kind of a living out of it.. but I don’t want to sell my soul to do that either. For the last year I’ve been playing solo and released a solo album ‘In Limbo’.. more of a side project from Paradox. But Paradox are still a band and Mike is still a music addict just like me.. I’ve got so many ideas for new songs that I would like to record and I think we’ll always be playing music somehow. It’s what we love and what we do.
How did you promote your music? If I am right you never worked with a label, so you did it all by yourselves. What was your way of “selfmarketing” your music in the internet?
We were on an indie label from the US for our first album ‘Circle of Growth’. They flew us out to Los Angeles for 2 weeks in 2000 and we recorded in a studio there. It was a great experience but when the album was finished we felt like we had no control over what they did.. how the label promoted the album.. it was like we just had to sit and wait for the label to do the work.. if they chose to do so.. Maybe that’s where we get our DIY approach. With the internet bands nearly don’t need a label anymore. You can record your own album.. keep all the rights and sign it up for distribution on iTunes and so on… That’s what we done with ‘Sacred’. We paid for everything ourselves – studio, artwork, website.. and signed up our albums on CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes and so on.. and then just tried to put ourselves everywhere.. MySpace and Facebook had a lot to do with growing our fanbase. We made our own music videos or got college students to make a music video for us (in the case of the song ‘Infinite’). Put the videos on YouTube.. and from there put the videos on other sites too. It’s a lot of work but if you really believe in what you do and want it bad enough it’ll pay off.
What does the music industry mean for you? Is it still necessary to get a “record deal” ? Do you work on that, or do you prefer the independent way?
From our experience with our old label we prefer the independent way.. But in saying that we don’t judge bands that sign to a major and call them sell outs. Every artist wants to reach as many people as possible and make a living from music. Once a band doesn’t compromise their music that’s the main thing. We’re still open to any offers but we’re not going to sit around and wait for a label to sign us.. You have to do it yourself too.
What do you think about the “digitalization” of music? Could there be also any dangers?
Just like when tapes took over Vinyl and CD’s took over tapes.. now it’s all mp3’s.. I suppose the quality of the music isn’t the same with mp3s. I still like having a CD with a color booklet to read.. Digital music is good for the indie artist though. When we used to sell our CD’s before it was always a big expense to press them up with a full color inlay and now when people buy our albums from iTunes there’s no expense. We still sell physical CD’s though on CD Baby.
Which possibilities do you and also other Bands have nowadays to finance your Band?
Working at a job. Selling your music online is probobly the best way to finance music. Most of our income from the band seems to go straight back into the band. Websites like openpot are great too. Even though the idea of giving your music away for free may not be that appealing to a lot of bands it’s a great promotion tool. We have a mix of songs from both our albums up on Open Pot as a Free Sampler. It’s great. Maybe free downloads are the future of digital music.
Will you be on Tour soon?
We played some shows this year in Ireland and Germany and we’re planning some more next year…. maybe in the US too. We also plan to hit the studio in December with plans for a possible new album.
Thanks again for your time!
Interview by S.K.