Signed to Stalkers Records, four-piece Party In Paris have been creating an addictive blend of high-octane alt-rock, indie pop and post-punk since early 2011. Now firmly established in the Northampton music scene and with their sights firmly set on expanding beyond, the band's debut album 'Deslote' was released at the end of July this year.
Bedge Music caught up with frontman Jack and bassist Richard the weekend before its release to discuss the record, the band and what's next to come.
Bedge Music caught up with frontman Jack and bassist Richard the weekend before its release to discuss the record, the band and what's next to come.
Your debut album 'Desolate' is completed and ready for release. How was the process of making that?
Jack: The album's been a long time in the making. We didn't really do it how other bands do it, we did things the non-conventional way. The reason it's called 'Desolate' is because of the way we recorded it; we were never really all in the studio at the same time. It's turned out well though. We're pleased with it.
Richard: We tried to give it that live feel. We wanted everything to sound raw and make it feel like you could put in on really loud and feel like you're there rather than it being processed and completely polished.
Jack: There aren't really any effects on the album. There's a few on the vocals, but instrument-wise the only effects really are the pedals we use. We didn't want anything on the album that we couldn't recreate live.
Richard: We didn't want it over-produced. We basically just wanted to plug in, play, and that's how it sounds so hopefully people will enjoy it as much as we want them too. We'll have to wait and see.
Have you got anything planned for the release?
Jack: We were looking to do an album launch but because our guitarist is on holiday and with various things that are going on we've had to push it back. So we will do a launch, just not at the minute. But we haven't made this album to make money or anything like that, we've made it because we love making music and we want other people to hear our music. Obviously it would be great if it sold a million copies but being realistic it's not going to do that.
Richard: It's a platform really to show who we are and show people the stuff we're doing, the stuff we enjoy doing, and hopefully they'll like it the same as we like it.
Any surprises on the album that we should be looking out for?
Jack: If you follow us as a band you'll have heard most of the songs, but there are a couple on there that we haven't played live in about two years.
Richard: It should be a nice surprise for people who have just recently found us and they might hear a song they've never heard before.
Jack: We think it's quite varied as well. There are a couple of slow songs on there, there are some heavy ones, there's some poppy ones. I was very conscious especially when we were writing the album that I didn't want all the songs to sound the same, I didn't want them all to have the same structure. I wanted to be able to go through the album and it be an album of different songs not an album of variations of the same song. Hopefully it'll appeal to a wide audience.
You put the album up to stream online before it was released, but only for a few hours. What were the thoughts behind that? Did people receive it well?
Richard: From what we gather and from the feedback we've had: yes, we had quite a few people who enjoyed it.
Jack: A lot more people listened to it than I expected.
Richard: We just wanted to be transparent. We wanted people to have a chance to listen to it and if they like it they can buy it rather than just buying something blind. We wanted to be honest with everyone.
Jack: There's no way I'd spend £7.50 on an album that I've never heard. You always buy an album because you've heard bits of it or, with things like Spotify, listened to it in full. So if I'm not going to buy an album before I've listened to it how can we expect anyone else to? But we didn't want to put it up there forever. We thought we'd give people a little bit of a time limit, give people the anticipation and give that factor of having listened to it and wanting to listen to it more.
Richard: We just wanted to build up the excitement.
Your band has had quite a few changes in members. Why is that?
Jack: That's literally just due to personal things that have gone on with band members: people having babies, people doing other jobs and other people having different interests.
Richard: There's never been any real conflict though. It's just been personal things that have made people have to stand down and make room for the line-up that's here now. We're hoping to push things forwards now and keep together as long as we can and as long as we're enjoying it.
Jack: We're pressing on with writing more material now, especially with the new lads. I've started writing songs and I'm interested to see how they're going to turn out with everyone putting their input on it. Although this album's only just come out, and for some people it might brand new, for us we've been playing these songs for quite a while so we want to write album number two and get that out as soon as possible.
Richard: We're just spinning out with inspiration at the minute. It's a very exciting time. Obviously when you're writing the album you've got the recording to focus on, you've also got the practising ready for gigs. At the minute our focus is getting into a room, enjoying each other's company while writing new music.
What's it like being in Party In Paris?
Richard: Very fun! In Party In Paris, in my opinion, we're all hard workers but we like to have a joke and I think that's what makes us work so well. I don't think there's ever a time when we're not winding each other up or having a laugh. But we have confidence in each other. We know that we can have a joke and a laugh but we all know that everyone wants the same thing and we're going to push it in the same direction.
How do you think Party In Paris is different to most other bands?
Jack: Difficult question.
Richard: I'll let you answer that one.
Jack: What we've come across when people speak to us is that people who don't usually like the sort of music that we play tend to quite like us. And I think because some of our songs are so varied we appeal to a wider audience. I could tell you who are influences are but I don't think I could tell you who we like. I take influences from Arctic Monkeys, Biffy Clyro, Twin Atlantic, Foals, Bloc Party, even Fall Out Boy.
So we've got lots of very different, diverse influences and it gives us that unique sound. We can sound similar to other bands but I don't think there is a band that we could go "Yes we sound like them." Which is a good thing I suppose. We class ourselves as an indie rock band but I think we're an indie rock band that plays typical indie rock stuff.
Richard: Good answer.
I'd definitely agree with that. Party In Paris - Paris is in the name. Have any of you ever been to France?
Jack: This is probably our most popular question.
Richard: Didn't the name come about when we were all on the Eiffel Tower that time eating a croissant and wearing berets?
Jack: I don't actually know how I thought up the name and a lot of the time people ask "Is it because of the UK Subs song?" "No because: 1. I'd never even heard of UK Subs before I thought up Party In Paris and 2. I'm not really a big fan of them." It's catchy and it rolls off the tongue and it sticks in your head I think.
Any last words?
Jack: Tell your friends. Tell your mum. Tell your dad. Tell your dog.
Richard: Watch this space.
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