Newcastle, England band, Club Paradise started 2020 with the release of their nostalgic 80s inspired track “Teenagers.” Their latest single, “Growing Up,” is a sentimental synth-rock anthem that looks at our paced culture that makes changes before many are ready to let go of familiar items, trends or technology. The catchy lyrics plead for understanding of readiness, noting that “We’re still growing up.”
We chatted with Ryan Young, Jackson Vert, and Harry Webb about the single, recording in lockdown and more from the Club Paradise universe. Take a listen.
Excerpt from the podcast:
What was the inspiration and writing process for your single, “Growing Up”?
Jackson: We were in Ryan’s – essentially a locked away little studio room. I remember the original idea came from using Ryan’s DL6 964. I was like, let’s just use the reverse function and see what happens. We used double time and then, after that, it was just like this is too cool of a sound not to use. That’s how the original beginning of the song came from one session.
Ryan: For me, once we had that part, Jackson did this low guitar riff that you hear in the chorus. Once you add those bits, I was kind of like well we can’t let this go. We wrote it as a demo before we wrote “Teenagers,” which is the single before this one. We kind of just let it sit for a while. Because it came around from a loop, it was a different process to approaching it. It follows the same structure, but dynamically is all it’s driven off of because it follows the same pattern. It was cool to do something that style of song something that felt a little bit darker. I remember when Jackson did that little riff, it was the “Night of the Long Knives” by Everything Everything – kind of like that industrial sort of tone we kind of had going on and we kind of went for that thing. The lyrics were the precursor for “Teenagers” because they go together so well, but this is kind of the more dystopian take on growing up, whereas “Teenagers” is the more nostalgic, dream-boat version, I guess.
If you could set fans up in the perfect environment to listen to “Growing Up,” what do you imagine it looking like?
Ryan: The artwork bedroom. So you’ve got your favorite band posters on the wall, your Nintendo 64 and then there’s the GameCube in the corner. You’ve got your headphones in, playing music on an mp3 player. You’ve got some Reebok classics on, but at the time they’re not classics because it’s still back when they were new. You’ve got some straight cut jeans and a gray oversized t-shirt. You’ve got your trucker cap like Jackson’s on and a skateboard lining the wall at the side. Then when it turns to night, you can see all the stars and the lights going through your window, but a very colorful palette as well.
Listen to more of our interview with the band here:
Listen to their new EP here: