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| Photo by Tony Accosta |
It's been a big year for LA up-and-comers The Paranoyds, and it's about to get even busier with the release of their highly anticipated debut album Carnage Bargain, which is due for release next Friday, September 13th via Suicide Squeeze. So far, they've shared the album's title track, 'Girlfriend Degree', 'Hungry Sam', and more recently 'Face First'. In the lead-up to next week's release, we got to ask Lexi from the band a few questions about working on the album, mixing things up and their live shows.
Congrats on your upcoming debut album, how long did you spend working on it?
Thanks! We've been playing most of the songs from Carnage Bargain live for a few years now. We recorded it in a few song spurts, here and there for a couple of months at the end of 2018. For some of the newer ones, like 'Girlfriend Degree' or 'Carnage Bargain' either Staz or I came to rehearsal with a melody or lick or even just an idea. And then the rest of the band hashed it out. It was pretty organic and everyone was super involved in all of the parts.
The lyrics on the album are honest, direct and observant — what are some of the things that inspired the album?
There’s a wide range of topics that inspired us — there’s a lot going on in the world right now. The self-titled track is about how much waste companies produce; 'Laundry' is about... well doing laundry on a hot LA day; 'Ratboy' is a good ole fashioned love song. We don’t want to just write about one topic, there’s not much fun in that.
What track was the most challenging to work on?
I think 'Bear' was probably the most challenging in the sense that there's a lot of different layers going on in that song. We set out to make that track as "big" as possible, so I think there's like, 4 or 5 different guitar takes going on simultaneously throughout the track, as well as a ton of pedal effects.
How do you think the album captures what The Paranoyds are about?
The Paranoyds like to mix it up! Carnage Bargain shows that. It’s a great, beefy sampler plate, an introduction to who we are as a band and what we’re about.
You have lots of live dates coming up, what do you enjoy most about the live aspect of what you do?
The energy! It's like exercise for us, especially on tour. After sitting in the car for the entire day, we're just itching to get on stage and jump around. It's a big release. We also love meeting people at shows as well.
What's been your favourite show to-date and why?
Ah we’ve played some crazy shows in some very interesting locations! We played Shaun White’s festival a year and some ago where snowboarders did jumps during our set. Playing a DIY stage at Coachella a couple years ago was definitely surreal. But my FAVORITE to date was one we played this past August where we got to open for one of my top 5 all-time favorite bands, X. I’ve been to about 8 X shows since I was 14, always pushing to the front screaming and dancing. The fact that we opened for them and they actually interacted with us before and after... plus I got them to sign my records. I went home and had to just cry about it.
You've been a band for a couple of years now, what are some lessons that you've learnt along the way?
The obvious one is we gotta just work super hard for ourselves and not be dependent on anybody else. It really makes you appreciate how supportive and loyal people are and what people are willing to do to help us out. We also realized very early on that the men in this industry (which there is a gnarly abundance of) will ALWAYS take any opportunity to mansplain shit to you. Don’t get me started on sound guys. Another big rule, NO DRINKS ON THE MERCH TABLE. Umm and altitude sickness is a real thing.
As listeners dive through Carnage Bargain, what do you hope they get out of their listening experience.
I hope it inspires young ladies to get with their friends and make some fun music. I hope it leads to more self-expression. I hope it inspires people to pick up an instrument and figure out some of the parts because they are suuuper fun to play. I hope it stands as an example that there is no set mold or format for ‘female-fronted’ bands. You can be as weird or loud or complicated as you want.
You can pre-order Carnage Bargain (available September 13th) via Bandcamp here.
Check out their latest single 'Face First' below:
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