New Single: Runaways’ Released 13.9.24
Club Paradise a four-piece indie rock band from Newcastle Upon Tyne made up of school friends Ryan Young (vocals/guitar), Jackson Vert (lead guitar), Harry Webb (bass) and Nathan Hogg (drums), the band cite the likes of Foals, The Midnight, Jungle and The Horrors as influences.
1. For someone that is yet to discover Club Paradise, how would you describe your music?
Jackson: An amalgamation of 80s power ballads, synth wave and country radio rock.
Ryan: I agree, we’ve been telling everyone we’re a blend of The Midnight, The Killers & Bryan Adams, but we really also love American country rock.
2. What inspired you as an artist?
Ryan: I think watching people play massive festivals and thinking it looked like loads of fun. I used to watch all of those BBC 4 documentaries about musicians and processes and recording and touring and I was just in awe of it all.
Jackson: Being able to make music that I would listen to myself.
3. What is your process for preparing to perform live? Do you have any Diva demands?
Ryan: Na, none at all…
Jackson: Ryan has a no haze demand which is certainly the most Diva request we get to. The other is council pop.
4. Where do you feel you fit into the music landscape?
Jackson: Somewhere between Morgan Wallen and Nik Kershaw.
Ryan: That is so specific. I get it. I think we’re often told we aren’t quite pop enough for pop or rock enough for rock, so maybe this is the perfect blend we’ve been meaning to nail down.
5: What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any you dislike?
Ryan: I think my music taste is constantly expanding and changing, I’m currently very much into chilled out 70’s stuff at the moment, with some more of the chilled indie rock stuff going on too.
Jackson: My favourite musical genres are Posthardcore, Metalcore, Synthwave and Country Music. Maybe some Nu-Metal sprinkled in there too. I thoroughly dislike postpunk bands that do the whole talking instead of singing gimmick. It bores me to no end.
6. Is there a story behind the new Single?
Ryan: Runaways is a track that is just purely about escapism. Not really knowing where you fit in and feeling like you still don’t after trying. It’s about a fresh start, it’s about the risk that it brings and maybe the regret, but ultimately about finding your place and being ok with that in the world, whatever expectations you had beforehand. It is the rock anthem of Life On TV we were looking for.
7 What would you say is your greatest strength as an Artist?
Jackson: Currently it’s the ability to grieve ideas and move on to different parts without getting too hung up on what you previously had written.
Ryan: Yes, definitely this. We spend a lot of time recording at home so without any hard deadlines etc we can go round in circles and get super invested in the wrong things, but with these tracks we took them to a studio, half finished (purposefully) to put ourselves under pressure and it’s been a humbling process to put those egos to one side and do what’s actually best for the track.
8. What would you say is your greatest weakness as an Artist?
Jackson: Committing to ideas and making “final” decisions on songs/productions.
Ryan: I think that’s even more than songs, like we deliberate on everything so much almost to a fault. The EP that’s coming out in October, Life on TV, we just had a big debate on the tracklisting – who is even really gonna care other than us? But it matters because we want people to see this as we see it and hopefully love it the way we do, too.
9. What can fans expect from your new Single‘’ Runaways ‘’
Jackson: Raw undiluted sonic assault.
10. What music artist would you say have influenced your work?
Ryan: We’ve been playing together in a band since we were teenagers, like 13 years now, and the influences have changed a lot in that time. In terms of Club Paradise, the standouts that really bind us together are The Midnight, White Lies (mainly To Lose My Life) and probably The Killers / Bryan Adams stuff like we mentioned earlier, but we individually have all of these amazing influences that add such a unique value and perspective to what we do. Harry our bass player for example, he loves Jungle, but he’s also very much more into grime than a couple of us are too, our drummer Nathan loves all sorts of stuff from RY-X to Foals, so pairing those with what myself and Jackson said earlier is a real hotbed of collaboration that really needs to be intentional and insightful about the direction you want to take things in collectively.
11. Who would you most like to collaborate with artistically?
Jackson: The Midnight or Limp Bizkit
Ryan: I’d say let’s do a track with Erin Kinsey on it. That would be crazy, maybe a part II to Stayed A Summer
12. What was your worst performance?
Jackson: Lindisfarne festival on the BBC introducing stage, I could not hear a thing and I reckon I was out of tune more than half the set.
Ryan: We opened up a show for someone once and I was so drunk I thought my guitar was broke. Not my finest set. I’d rolled off one of the pickup volume pots and flicked to this pickup. Just needed to switch back to the other pickup ffs.
13: What was the most difficult obstacle you have ever faced and how did you overcome it?
Ryan: We’ve had a few difficult moments I think. One that sticks in my mind is the first time we went from being ‘managed’ and then they took off. It was all a bit sudden but think it was a lesson in not being so dependent on those who are there to support you – they need you more than you need them. We didn’t give in to what they wanted because we know who we are.
Jackson: Probably having to record during lockdown and remotely. It completely changed the way we wrote music and it was difficult getting into the headspace of making music in the same environment you always were in.
14: What is your creative process when making music. Do you work with others or is there just you?
Ryan: The full Life On TV EP was recorded at Blank Studios with Chris McManus, he engineered, produced and mastered everything. It was a really interesting experience going from lockdown and being all remote to booking out a studio for a week and really just spending that time to nail everything and get it done right.
Jackson: Yeah, usually we are very much self contained, we produce the songs ourselves, and dry hire out a studio to record. We outsource mastering but the writing, production and mixing is all done in house. But we’re constantly looking for different people or places to work with and just see how it goes.
15 Where do you see your musical career in 10 years?
Jackson: Reunion tour.
Ryan: a 4-sided Club Paradise: GOLD the greatest hits compilation album
