Pop-punk band from North Dakota, Paradise Fears, have been touring with Andy Grammer and Alex and Sierra since February and are ready to hit the stage on Wednesday at 20th Century Theatre.
The band, who was originally called Paradise Fears the Turtle, consists of Sam Miller on vocals, Cole Andre on guitar and vocals, Michael Walker on keys and vocals, Jordan Merrigan on guitar, and Marcus Sand on bass. They started out together in high school and grew up playing in high school talent shows.
Influenced by Coldplay and Drake, Miller says Drake’s “pretty honest and tells pretty interesting stories in his lyrics and I really do like that quite a bit and that’s where the similarities start and end.”
The band has released two EPs and two LPs, Yours Truly (2011) and Battle Scars (2013). As of now, they are in the process of creating their next album, which will be out sometime in the summer and will include some new material such as their new song “Who We Were With.”
“We kind of wanted to make a record that would be a bit more fun live, a bit more bright and uplifting and you know, music to jam to and we realized we hadn’t really had a chance to do that yet,” said Miller.
Even though the band is experimenting in newer material, they have not forgotten about their slow lyrical ballads that they also had on previous albums.
“It’s not that we’re getting away from that, it’s something that we still have in mind and we’re still focusing on lyrics just as much,” said Miller.
Compared to other tours that they’ve been on, this tour is a bit more settle and focused primarily on the music.
“I really like that they’re perhaps stronger than any tour that we’ve been on before,” said Miller. “There’s a culture of musicianship.”
Be expected to see a lot of energy on stage from these guys.
“That’s kind of always has been the life-blood of our live shows and that we go full intensity all the time.
The fans will hear an array of sound from pop-punk sound of Paradise Fears to the low-key/ pop sounding singer/songwriter duo, Alex and Sierra to pop-rock sound of Andy Grammer.
“I also love watching both of those bands every night, Alex and Sierra are amazingly talented,” said Miller. “Their voices sound so incredible together every single night and Andy’s show is like a true showman’s show, a lesson in the performance value.”
