1. Hello, thank you for your time, please introduce yourself in a few words!
hello! we are Club Paradise a four piece indie pop-rock band from North Shields just outside of Newcastle in the north east of England, we have Nathan Hogg on Drums, Jackson Vert on guitar, Harry Webb on bass and Ryan Young on vocals
2. Please give us an update about – new single, new album, tour dates, new videos?!
We’ve been releasing a few tunes this year as the world began to open back up, our latest is called Friends Online and is really about the persona’s people create in their online self, which isn’t to challenge everyones right to privacy, but is a comment on something people see but don’t talk about much – just showing a world they want everyone to think they live in rather than reality. With our first single of the year, Do You Feel The Same? We put out a Live at Polestar Studios video, which we’ve just put out for our previous single, Don’t Call Me Over, and we will be putting out another for Friends Online, too! There may be a couple of our more known tunes coming there as well
3. Name 5 things we all should know about you as a band?!
Jackson’s dog, Axel
Nathans rabbit, Vonbuck
We all have a burning passion to be US country musicians
Between us we’ve drank enough Apple Tango over the years to flood the town of North Shields, we’re we all grew up and starting playing music together.
Before we were Club Paradise, we travelled up to Scotland to play in a pub when we were all under the age of 18 and when the owners seen the state of us and discovered our age, they wouldn’t let us any near their venue, which meant we had to go to our hotel and watch wrestling videos instead of gigging.
4. What fashion style or brand would best describe your music?
Nathan – When I think of what I’m going to wear on stage, I’m always trying to find the most vibrant Cuban or Party shirts I can. I feel it helps create a promising first impression with anybody seeing us for the first time, the more colours the better and it fits our tropical, sunset Boulevard style of music. Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet always springs to mind for inspiration, there’s also a great store I recently visited in London called ‘Friday On My Mind’ which embodies this style really well too.
Ryan – have you ever watched the jazzercise youtube videos from the 80s? I think those videos but blended with the arcade game era of really disgusting like Atari merch, come to think of it, I cut that jazzercise/aerobics stuff into our music video for Sugar so if you want to know what I’m on about:
5. What’s your songwriting process?
Our songwriting process changes as we progress as musicians, people and band, but mainly, either myself (Ryan) or Jackson will have an idea either on guitar, vocally or even with synths these days that we kind of take in turns to experiment with or pull out a structure from, from there Nathan and Harry get involved and make it a real collaborative effort – there’s not any 2 people or any 1 person who rights our stuff, we’re all heavily involved once we’ve got that initial idea together
6. If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
I think the industry often feels like you get stonewalled for not knowing people or not knowing how to get in their faces, it’s a really saturated industry because who the hell doesn’t want to play music with their best friends for a living?? Inclusion is an absolutely huge huge topic that needs more action too, it’s really sad that we still even need to push for progress in these areas in 2021, but that’s exactly why it’s absolutely crucial that we all do together
7. Tell us more about your songs! Topics! Message!?
So our music is like the biggest nostalgia trip you really want to get drunk on, we have Teenagers which is all about this longing to not get older and to not take on responsibility, as well as Growing Up which kind of touches on that issue but also looks at the bleaker realisation that you can’t avoid the fact that life is always moving and changing and we have to adapt to that. We have some more upbeat, indie dance tracks like Closer which is all about the night you meet someone truly special and the emotions connected with that as well as the bars you go to along the way, losing all of your friends until the very end of the night and ultimately not knowing what’s going to happen next but that you had the best time.
Our first single of 2021, Do You Feel The Same?, is a bit more of an anxiety driven track. I think with this one, lockdown got the better of us all and being stuck in the same walls makes us second guess everything we do. Do You Feel The Same? is my way of checking in with everyone, as well as seeking my own reassurance and help because there are times when we’re stuck and we just have to lean on our friends and those around us to help us through.
8. A question you’d like to answer, but never been asked in an interview before?! + Answer pls
Hi I’m Troy McClure and what might you remember me from?
Such nature films as Earwigs Ew and Man Vs Nature: The Road to Victory
Such self help videos as Smoke Yourself Thin and Get Confident, Stupid!
Such educational films as Lead Paint: Delicious But Deadly
Instagram: @thisisclubparadise