The Paranoyds Talk Talk Talk

L: Laila Hashemi

Lx: Lexi Funston

D: David Ruiz

S: Staz Lindes

Amplified: I’m Will McLaughlin from Amplified Chicago and we are sitting here with The Paranoyds who recently released - what two months ago? You released your album Talk Talk Talk.

D: Yeah, just under two months ago.

Amplified: If you would like to go down the line, introduce yourselves, feel free.

L: I’m Laila Hashemi, I play keys and im 5’ 9”

Lx: (laughs) Cool, I’m Lexi, I play guitar.

D: I'm David, I play drums.

S: I’m Staz, I play bass.

D: We’re all 5’ 9.”

All: (laughs)

S: We’re all uh -

Lx: The same shoe size

S: On the cusp of turning twenty and 5’ 9.”

Lx: The cusp of Gemini rising Scorpio falling.

D: This isn't funny (laughs).

Amplified: We don't even need to do an interview now because I know everything about you though.

D: Yeah.

Amplified: When did the band form and how did it happen?

S: We started playing music together when we met in high school and then formed the band like seven years ago.

Amplified: All of you met in high school?

S: Me and the girls. The girls all met in high school.

D: And I came after in 2015.

Amplified: And originally formed in what year?

L: 2015

Amplified: So really you guys have been rolling together pretty much the whole time.

L & Lx: Yeah

D: They were in the beta phase of it.

Amplified: And then you came and kind of?

D: Eh? (laughs).

Amplified: You can say it’s okay.

D: No, I didn't do anything. It's just everybody was in different cities and then everybody was in the same city and I just so happened to be there too.

Lx: Right guy right time.

D: Yeah.

Amplified: Awesome perfect. Where does the inspiration come from if you had to pin it down to any specific bands? I’ll say, I couldn't think of any specifically, but your music gives me a certain feeling that is very familiar, but I can’t exactly pin it down to any bands.

D: That’s good.

Amplified: I know that’s what I figured, but if you had any inspirations what do you think they would be?

Lx: We all like Devo and X and the Breeders and 90s - things that feel familiar. It's familiar because (laughs) it

D: (laughs) Yeah we all draw from all kinds of rock and other kinds of music. But lately in this tour I feel like we've been…

Lx: Been listening to pop.

D: We’ve been listening to a lot of pop. No, we always listen to pop. We’ve been listening to a lot of like rock.

Lx: Hair metal, rock, arena rock.

L: Rock and roll.

D: We listen to a lot of rock and roll.

Lx: Scorpions.

(Band gets their order of some “heavy” mac and cheese)

Amplified: I saw the album cover. I thought it was an awesome album cover.

L: Thanks.

Amplified: Definitely feels very Devo.

L: Definitely

D: Yeah it’s not even subtle.

Amplified: Now that you mention Breeders I definitely can hear it and I think that's awesome because I love the Breeders.

L: Thanks.

Lx: Sweet thanks, us too.

Amplified: So, Talk Talk Talk, let's talk about it specifically. Are there any memories that stuck with you from the writing or the recording of the album?

Lx: Joo Joo (laughs)

L: Yeah

Lx: The producer we worked with, Joo Joo Ashworth who was in the band Froth and has produced Automatic and SASAMI and a few other acts. He’s just freaking hilarious, like I don’t even know where to start with him. Just so much energy and keeping the whole train moving. You guys have a fond Joo Joo memory? A fun Talk Talk Talk memory?

D: My favorite - or not - I always just think of like getting the demos and like not leaving my room for like days at a time because it was like in the middle of the pandemic and having like my little studio set up in my bedroom and then like playing along to them.

Amplified: When did writing start for the album?

Lx: Probably like 2019, 2020.

Amplified: Wow.

Lx: Yeah.

Amplified: So it's been in development for quite a while.

Lx: Yeah it usually doesn't feel like - the songs still feel really new but yeah it does take - it takes time to start from like an idea to like the whole band writing it, writing their parts, recording it, deciding to stick with it, and flesh it out - and then it's like an album takes six to nine months to exist. It’s just it takes so much time for some reason.

S: Yeah we weren't able to, like, finesse the songs live too. We weren't able to like, I don't know.

D: Which made the process faster, kind of.

S: Yeah.

D: Yeah because there's no like. There was no interruption while like coming up with the songs or like doing shows and stuff like that.

S: We just committed to them.

Amplified: And then maybe afterwards you see things you want to tweak and you re-record it.

S: Yeah

D: Yeah and we didn't play the songs together a lot until we we’re in the studio. Which was different, it was cool.

Amplified: On a production level, what was the producing situation in the past? Did you work with other producers? Did you self produce?

Lx: I mean everything’s pretty self produced. Even the Joo Joo stuff was self produced but he was really collaborative and the fit was right where he was like lets just add this extra part just because. And you're like okay yeah lets do it you're saying that, yeah.

D: But everybody else we worked with before like was very hands off where they were like yeah just do whatever you want. Like they didn't have - like we didn't tell them ahead of time like you're producing - where Joo Joo was like I have the perfect sound for this, and he'd like show it to us and we’d be like “oh yeah”.

Amplified: Do you think in the future you'll work with him again or do you think you'll try and switch up your sound going forward?

Lx: Yeah we're already working with him again for other stuff. Other EP’s and albums and stuff down the line.

S: When you find your good hairdresser you stick with them.

D: Until they mess up your hair.

Lx: No, even if they mess it up you gotta stick with them still. Because then they'll slay down the line.

D: Nah. (laughs)

Lx: Yeah.

Amplified: If you had to explain the meaning behind one of your songs that people may misinterpret or not pick up on on the first try, do any of them come to mind?

Lx: All of them.

Amplified: Yeah?

S: A lot of them are pretty simple to understand though.

Lx: I think our band takes time to digest. I think you might not understand our band at first.

D: I don’t know.

Lx: No?

D: No I feel like they're all -

S: Yeah they’re all pretty simple.

D: They’re either like simple or all cryptic but I don't know that anybodys ever even tried to interpret anything (laughs) I haven't even thought about that.

Lx: Yeah, are people doing that?

Amplified: I feel like you're so swept up in the music that's being thrown at you and you're just into it enough that you don't really think too hard about the lyrics. At least that was my experience listening to it. I loved it but I was like, I feel like I get the surface level meaning and I love it for what it is. I'm not really going to delve into the meaning behind it.

D: That's a good way to be.

Lx: Yeah I mean a song like Heather D is - I care about lyrics for sure, I’m like a lyrics first person sometimes. Heather D was like a weird mashup of like. Its about having a really overbearing parent but in the end they were kind of right about - I don't know trying to keep you safe I guess like from a toxic relationship and then it just turns out to be a toxic relationship. Because the chorus is like “it's just a different man behind it but it's the same trick.” I don't know its a weird - that's a weird one I think could be misinterpreted. I feel like the lyrics get put down wrong and stuff.

Amplified: Do you have any words of advice for people looking to pursue a career in music? What lessons have you learned since releasing your first EP?

Lx: Practice, Practice, Practice.

S: Have good intention.

Lx: Practice again.

D: Practice your intentions.

All: Yeah (laughs).

S: Play with a bunch of people.

Lx: Be a good person.

Amplified: Work with people you like I would imagine.

Lx: Don’t piss people off.

D: Or do, I mean if you piss them off for the right reasons that's fine.

S: Yeah and like the people who are like why are they getting all this stuff and we’re not - like that never works out.

D: That's true, it’s also like yeah be happy for other people's success.

L: Yep.

S: Everyone’s trying to get to the same island.

D: It makes you feel lighter.

S: Yeah, don't expect anything really from it, besides if it makes you happy.

Amplified: Awesome.

L: Then it can't be that bad.

Amplified: If you were to give an elevator pitch on why people should listen to your music - last question - what would that be?

S: It’s live (laughs).

D: Yeah, yeah it is live.

Lx: (laughs).

S: It’s female fronted and it's live and has a great drummer.

Amplified: Perfect.

Lx: I think we nailed it. I think we freakin’ crushed it with that.

Amplified: For sure.

L: That was a good pitch.

Lx: That was a first floor to the second floor pitch.

Amplified: (laughs) That's the best kind though because you don't want to bore the person in the elevator.

D: Yeah

Amplified: Anything else you'd like to cover?

S: Buy tickets before the show comes up.

Lx: Yeah support your music scene, it's hard to be on tour.

L: It's very hard to be on tour.

Lx: And if you want to see a show check it out because it might not be there the next time you want to see it

S: And if you can't tell i’m horizontal right now because you haven't been buying your tickets in advance.

L: Yeah

D: Nah but also, we remember - like people who come and buy stuff.

Amplified: Oh I thought you were saying you remember the people who don't buy stuff.

All: (laughs)

D: No no we remember like - I feel like at home too it's like we know everybody that's been coming to the shows since the beginning, you know and even if we don't talk to or communicate we’re always like dude look they're like grown up now or stuff like that you know. It's like we see that and everyone and we’re fans of the -

S: Fans.

D: Yeah we’re fans of the people who come to our shows.

Lx: Fans of the fans.

S: We also like when the audience is the bigger entertainment than us.

D: Yeah, yeah we love all that stuff.

Amplified: How widespread has your tour been so far?

S: America.

D: America, yeah.

L: Yeah we started in LA and went up the east coast.

Lx: Drove south east across Texas, the south.

L: Up to New York and then we flew to Austin and then flew back to New York and then we went to Toronto and now we’re here.

Amplified: And almost done with the tour?

L: We have ten days

Amplified: Wow homestretch.

All: Homestretch.

L: We’re on day nineteen.

Lx: But no ones counting.

L: Nobody's counting.

D: We're so stoked to be here in Chicago today.

Lx: We love Chicago.

D: We got to do an Audiotree session today.

Amplified: Oh shit really?

D: Yeah that's why we're like so tired, we had to wake up so early and we did an Audiotree session and then immediately had to come here and do soundcheck.

Amplified: Was it everything you dreamed it would be?

All: It was awesome.

Lx: I'm excited to see it, in March of 2023 (laughs). I'm not kidding, that's when it's coming out.

Amplified: It takes time.

L: Oh shit really, oh my god.

Lx: It's a slow, slow roll.

D: Oh yeah cause they record them like every day so they gotta like - they have a huge backlog of like stuff that needs to get released.

Lx: I think that's it, you heard it here first from The Paranoyds. Laying horizontally, some of us up right.

Amplified: Perfect, and I am still Will McLaughlin and thank you for listening (or reading).

D: What a name, Will McLaughlin.

S: Still Will.

Amplified: Really, you think?