Paris Blue: Tracks That Shaped Our Sound

Creativity is the focus for Post-Punk band, Paris Blue. They aim to move the listener literally and metaphorically while crafting dancey/quirky alt-rock tracks, resulting in comparisons to bands like The Talking Heads and Bloc Party. The Hastings band have supported local heros Kid Kapichi and will be supporting The Enemy at the De La Warr pavilion in November, which is when they kick start the release of their new material with single ‘Remedy', performed on their BBC introducing live lounge earlier in the year. We spoke to them about the tracks that shaped their sound.

Bbydhyonchord - Apex Twin

This track was the initial inspiration for ‘remedy’. Electronic music influences a large amount of our music, and we often catch ourselves listening to it, so it’s no surprise that we pinched an Aphex Twin beat. We loved its driving monotony and its use of toms to do so. Aphex Twin uses synths in a very interesting way, and he doesn’t shy away from it on this track. We’ve always loved the effect its had, adding levity to a very hectic backing. It can be seen in the bridge of ‘remedy’ 

Born under punches - Talking heads

At the time, we were desperate for a scatty post punk track to break up our set, so once we had the beat we used the guitars to simulate the percussion used on tracks like bone under punches. The use of a percussion guitar is demonstrated well on tracks like ‘born in Luton’ by shame. On ‘remedy’ the best example is the rhythm guitar used as an accent to the snare, adding to the monotonous feeling the drum beat gives. ‘Remedy’ is a slower take on the idea, but you can still hear the rhythmic feeling intended. 

Helicopter - bloc party 

Silent Alarm has been the biggest influence on the band since the beginning and is very clear on our earlier releases. We still claim it as the main one but it isn’t as obvious as it once was as we have matured and grown as artists. Our use of Harmonics is a defining characteristic and is shown clearly on ‘remedy’ by the main guitar hook. As an ode to that album, we made a nod to the track ‘helicopter’ with the decaying echo, leading the track out. 

Psycho killer - Talking heads

A second Talking heads track influenced this song. However, this one was unconscious and only realised later on in the writing process. The verses of the songs carry a very strange likeness to the verses in ‘Psycho Killer’ with its short and snappy delivery. Probably brought about by the intent of talking about conversation and the comparison the song already had with the band.