LA garage rock four piece The Paranoyds already have the a new two track ep out now digitally, ‘Hungry Sam / Trade Our Sins’ with a 7″ vinyl copy to follow via Suicide Squeeze label on July 12th. Here at Backseat Mafia towers (well, my kitchen anyway) we were totally enamored with the tracks, so we decided to speak to the band about….well, everything really.
What we already knew of the band is this. Laila Heshemi (keys/vocals) and Lexi Funston (guitar/vocals) met at preschool, and continued through the galls of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, until such a time they met Staz Lindes (bass/vocals) and brought drummer David Ruiz on board in 2015, and so the journey (why is everything a journey these days?) began.
“Hungry Sam”/”Trade Our Sins” is out today digitally, and will be out on 7-inch vinyl on July 12th. This will be a one-time pressing of 750, 650 on Orange Crush color vinyl, and 100 on Neon Yellow colour vinyl – pre-order it HERE.
The core of The Paranoyds began with Laila Hashemi (keyboardist-vocals) and Lexi Funston (guitars/vocals), whose friendship carried from preschool days to the halls of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Ditching the playground for the practice space in high school, they caught up with Staz Lindes (bass/vocals) and welcomed David Ruiz (drums, vocals) in 2015. The Paranoyds’ mission to craft songs with the gritty spunk and dark playfulness of a cult-classic splatter film is shared equally. Their self-described “sister vocal act” shares the snarling, over-it-but-totally-into-it vocals throughout their songs, moving from dirty surf-pop guitar jams to power-packed garage rock.
Tell us about The Paranoyds?
It’s a tale as old as time. Laila and Lexi met in preschool and have been best friends since then. They became best mates with Staz freshman year of high school. We all played music growing up, but mostly separately. We began seriously jamming and playing music together after college. We met David in 2015, and that’s when The Paranoyds really got its legs.
How would you describe your music to someone who hadn’t heard it before?
That’s tough…but I guess you could say it’s sort of like if Devo and The Breeders had a baby, and that baby’s aunt and uncle were Sonic Youth and the B-52’s. And said baby is really into horror film soundtracks.
What were the bands and people who influenced you, and maybe continue to influence you?
Early influencers were The Breeders, Devo, X, and Television. Our current influences change a lot — we were recently on a bit of a metal kick, our jam sessions frequently turn into an early 2000’s emo night, and most recently, we want to start a country side project.
We fell for both of your songs on your upcoming 7” – can you tell us about those?
“Trade Our Sins” was actually one of the first Paranoyds songs ever written. Staz wrote that when she was living in New York, and she’d send the rest of the band voice memos and we’d work on it separately until we were reunited. It’s a bit different sonically than our other tunes, but we love its nostalgic effect. The song is a declaration of impatient love; a bratty bald calling for answers from a baby brained lover.
“Hungry Sam” is a more recent song and was written by Lexi. The song is about having foot-in-mouth syndrome—saying or revealing too much. We feel like this song is an all-encompassing representation of us and showcases our separate styles and abilities, and how those come together as a collective.
So our upcoming 7” release is a little bit of old and new. Both songs were recorded by our Georgia peach, Mark Rains, at Station House Studio in 2018.
And on suicide squeeze – how did that come about?
We’re so excited to have signed with Suicide Squeeze! We’ve always been a huge fan of their roster so it was super exciting when they reached out to us. They’re really into letting us do our own thing, which is something we really respect and value.
You’re on tour with Tacocat – That looks like a FUN bill. Do you know them? You must be looking forward to it though, right?
We can’t wait! Luckily the founder of our label knows ‘em and shot Bree a little texty-text. We’re super excited to join them on tour and to visit all these amazing West Coast cities during the best time of the year!
You busy rehearsing for that?
Yikes! Wish we were rehearsing a liiiitle more. We’ve spent the last few weeks preparing and filming a music video for our soon-to-be lead single off our debut album. We’re so stoked on how the video looks! But yes…to answer your question—we should be busy rehearsing for that real soon 😉
You’re not big on social media – you like to keep things real?
We hope we’re keeping things real! We do our best to do as much as we can “in-house” so to speak. Whether that’s designing our own EP & album artwork and merch or collaborating with directors who let us pitch our own ideas for music videos, we like to be involved in all aspects of the creative process—not just our music.
“Hungry Sam”/”Trade Our Sins” is out on 7-inch vinyl on July 12th. This will be a one-time pressing of 750, 650 on Orange Crush color vinyl, and 100 on Neon Yellow colour vinyl – pre-order it HERE.
