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BIOGRAPHY:
The beginning.
The members of Paris had been in different bands
for as long as they could remember, before that day in 2001. The day
when Paris really became Paris.
At the end of the 90’s, Annika and Mattias lived
together in a small apartment in Söder, in Stockholm. Half of the
bedroom concisted. of an 8-channel analogue port studio.
They recorded songs and ideas and sketches of
songs,. Mattias was responsible for the machine. Often he also played
the bass.
Sometime in 1998, they hooked up with Emma through
a friend. The reason? Annika was looking for a new member for her band
“Smiling Politely”. The girls hit it off. And after various sessions
with singing, screaming and nice harmonies, they decided to start a
little project on the side. Just for fun.
They recorded some songs, in the bedroom of course,
with Mattias on bass and with programmed drums from their synthesizer,
rather than real drums. Which pleased the neighbors as well.
A demo was put together, during the simplest forms.
One chance, one take. Whatever stuck on tape became the song.
They realized the needed a name, too. And they
wanted it to be simple and short. They decided on Paris!
The first demos
The first demos, fully equipped with ambitious
album covers of fluffy animals, were handed out to friends and friends
of friends. To the bands surprise, the songs were appreciated in a
much larger group than just proud mothers and kind friends. They made
more copies. Over and over again. And the CD-burner was seriously put
to the test.
The band figured that they should focus on handing
out their music at clubs. And so they always had a demo or two in
their pocket when they went out. Sending the music to record labels
didn’t appeal to them. So they didn’t.
After the third demo they gathered their songs on a
collection. Simply named ”Greatest hits vol. 1”. They started sending
the demo to clubs and venues, hoping for gigs. And as faith would have
it, one demo found its way all the way down to Rockparty in Hultsfred.
The band was offered a gig and they accepted gladly.
Although soon, they started worrying, as they
realized that they had never played their songs live. This however was
a small problem compared to the fact that they had never rehearsed.
Time to call
Johan Efraimsson
With their very first and upcoming gig in mind,
Paris realized that they needed someone on drums. They called Johan
Efraimsson from Annikas old band ”Smiling Politely”. Convincing him
wasn’t that hard. They asked, “hey, you wanna play at Hultsfred?”. He
answered “Hell yes” and Paris now had a drummer.
Three weeks later, after borrowing every rehearsal
space they could find, they were ready to go on stage.
Live!
June 16th 2001 Paris played live on Hultsfreds demo
stage. After four days of partying and living the festival life (oh
yes, tent and all), the band were likely candidates for the title
“Most run down band at Hultsfred.” But when they got on stage they
were boosted by the audience and had a great gig. Also, Paris were
voted best demo band of the festival.
Suddenly, Paris was a band that had a real
audience. And that loved to play live. So they decided to do more of
that. Lots more.
Best sellers!
Three more demos were recorded.
One in Thomas Troelsens studio ”Delta
Lab” i Köpenhamn. Once again
they gathered their material, now on the demo ”Greatest Hits vol. 2”.
And that’s when things really started to happen.
”Greatest Hits vol.2” sold 1500 copies and the
songs “Tonight” and “Disco Fever” both got heavy rotation on the
radio. The demo sold especially well at Pet Sounds, a small record
shop in Stockholm. Peter Ejheden, not only a employee but also known
as the man who discovered Swedish rock band Kent, liked the songs a
lot. And so he put together a plan to release the material on his
label “Look Left Recordings”.
The band was approached by several large record
companies as well. But since they wanted to do their own thing, they
decided to sign with Ejhedens “Look Left Recordings”. Early in 2003
the 6-track EP ”Les amis de Paris” was in stores.
The big wide world.
Before signing their record deal, the band had
played close to 100 gigs in Sweden. And with the EP out they kept
going strong. They played clubs, festivals, and even toured Germany.
During the tour they also finished their first full-length record
”Yellow Eden”.
Yellow Eden was released in October 2003 and got
great reviews in Sweden and Germany.
Secrets On Tape
Annika och Emma stayed productive. By summer 2004,
they had a new bunch of songs. And as tradition had it, they went into
Mattias apartment to record (but the studio had now moved from the
bedroom to the living room and the analogue port had already on “Les
amis de Paris” been replaced by a computer). One year later ”Secrets
on tape” was finished. The first song on the album “Millions of tears”
fulfilled an old dream: it had strings on it.
The record was received well by critics. Paris
seemed to overcome the “tricky second record” with applause.
Germany here we come! Again!
The release of ”Secrets on tape” was followed by a
series of tours. Mostly in Sweden and Germany. In Germany, fans
followed the band from gig to gig. Paris felt more at home than
ever.
In the fall of 2006, the drummer Johan decided to
move to the US. A farewell gig was held at Debaser in Stockholm.
Paris as a band, however, had no intentions of
taking a break. Between the tours they had been working on new
material. So to keep up the pace, a new drummer was brought in. Oskar
Kvant joined Paris and together they began recording album nr3.
Parismusic
As the new material started to take form, their
previous contract ran out. Instead of signing with a new label Paris
decided to release their third album on their own lable Paris Music.
”The Landlord is kind enough to let us have our
little sessions…”
The first single off the new record was ”When I
laid my eyes on you”. The band also decided to bring in a guest artist
Nicklas Stenemo from The Mo lends his vocals on ”Take a chance on
romance”. Needless to say, Paris is very proud of this collaboration.
The strings are given more space this time around.
Arranged again by Nille Fornelius and performed by Stockholm Strings.
“The Landlord is kind enough to let us have our
little session” will be released 27 September.
Stay updated at
www.myspace.com/parissthlm.
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