Your Paris Releases “The Internet” [Q&A].
Interviewed by: Sarah Evangelista
Formed of Laila Kharouba and Nick Babcock, the dreamy sounding duo started off 2020 by making Your Paris official. The Canadian pair have had great success since, gaining more listeners day by day, and releasing music that’ll make you fall in love all over again, one tune at a time. They’ve just released their fourth single, “The Internet”, and we had the chance to chat with the duo about all things music. Read below.
Sarah: Hi!
Laila: Hey, how’s it going?
S: Good, you?
L: Good! We got you on speaker phone here.
Nick: Hey Sarah!
S: Awesome, hey!
L: We’re just sitting outside enjoying the weather.
S: Amazing! Yeah it’s super hot today. And I know you too are quarantined together, have you been more or less creative during the whole thing?
L: I was going to say that we definitely struggled at the beginning of quarantine in terms of inspiration. I think we were both bummed out about the fact that we won’t be able to play live for a while and what not, but then we kind of realized we kind of have to embrace the reality we’re in and kind of hunker down and we’ve actually got a lot done, and we’ve got around to learning a lot of new things that we, you know, maybe didn’t have time for before. We’ve been doing pretty well and kind of benefiting from the time at home I’d say.
S: Great! I feel like at first it was like, ‘okay what should I write about? Quarantine.’ So, have you been writing about that or anything else?
L: We actually have a few songs kind of like back logged, that we were working on before, so our main focus has been on - like Nick’s been producing our stuff in house here, and kind of pumping out our stuff we were already working on. I think we’ve both been writing a little bit, but nothing like super super super solid in the last few months, as we’ve been focusing more on the production side of things.
N: I think the creativity has actually gone down and the work ethic has gone up, and we’re just kind of grinding things out now.
L: Yeah, that’s true.
S: And you actually started the year off by introducing Your Paris into the world, so when did you two come up with the idea of the group?
N: Well we started kind of hanging out and playing music together last summer, like last June. And then we both were doing some solo things up until probably like early winter, like I think like November and early December, and just saw that we were stronger together than as individuals. And we decided to kind of work on some stuff in January, then made the announcement and made it official.
L: And it kind of started with the song “Your Shirt”, which you’ve probably heard that we put out in November, that we put out as separate artists, as a collaboration. And then I think a small part of what influenced our decision too was like seeing how that song did and how people seemed to really like us together, so I’d say yeah that came out in November, so that’s when it all started.
S: Yeah, and your voices sound so good together.
L: Thanks!
S: You’re welcome! Do people ever say you sound like another music group? If so, which ones?
L: Well, we once got a swaggier Oh Wonder, and I love them.
S: Same!
L: I think like we definitely have some similarities to them, I don’t think sound wise we actually sound too much like them, but maybe like more their style a little bit? We’ve kind of gotten Julia Michaels and J.P. Saxe vibe as well, but I think the cool thing with us is like we don’t really feel like we sound exactly like anyone else that’s out there right now. We sound like ourselves.
S: Yeah! I feel like your harmonies are sort of similar to Oh Wonder, which is amazing, because they’re like my favourite band ever.
L: Yeah we really like them too.
N: Have you seen them live, Sarah?
S: Once in 2018.
N: Nice, did you meet them?
S: No, I almost did. I saw them in 2018 opening for Beck, and I tweeted them hoping they’d plan something, and they said they’d try to find me, but it never happened.
N: Oh, that’s too bad.
S: I was supposed to meet them this year, but because of corona, it didn’t happen.
N: Right.
S: So, back to your music, you just released your fourth single “The Internet”, could you explain what the song’s about?
L: So “The Internet”’s kind of a cool story for us, because in a lot of ways it’s how we sort of started our partnership, like romantically and musically. Nick had written a big chunk to most of the song already when we met, and was kind of stuck on the direction to take it in and what to do for another verse. And the first time we ever hung out, he played it for me, and I said like ‘hey can I like try writing a verse and just see how it goes?’, and he was like ‘yeah for sure’. Then that happened and it ended up working. So I guess that song is about a relationship that’s ended or a person that you maybe like let go of too soon, and maybe you think you’re over them and you see a picture on social media and you’re like ‘oh, no, I’m not at all’! And you get reminded that you miss them, and I think it’s especially relevant during this pandemic, because you’re not able to see people in person, but you know, going through their pictures and social media kind of makes you feel close to someone that you maybe haven’t seen in a long time. Anything to add, Nick?
N: No, you said it perfectly.
S: And you could say that this song is more upbeat than your other releases, it’s not like as acoustic, was that the original idea for the song?
N: Yeah, it started more upbeat and more produced, and that’s kind of the direction we’re hoping to go into. We’re kind of trying to drop the acoustic sound a little more and go in a different kind of more pop/produced direction. That was pretty much how the demo sounded as well.
L: Yeah, I think for the acoustic stuff we pumped out was like a really good way for us to like kind of get our stuff out quickly, and kind of establish ourselves and get our voices out there, but in a way that was like pretty accessible for us. We’re still in the process of discovering what our sound is, but “The Internet” is definitely close to where we see ourselves landing.
S: Awesome, well it sounds great, so you’re on the right path. What’s nice for Your Paris? Do you plan on releasing an EP sometime soon?
L: So for now the plan is to release a single every 6-8 weeks, we’re hoping like 6 weeks for the next few, just because we want to really get some stuff out there, so that we have like more of a catalog. So yeah we have singles kind of written and in production and planned for probably the next year, I would say, or close to a year. No plans for an album or EP necessarily at the moment, but that’s something we’re still figuring out. I think singles for the moment though.
S: Yeah, that makes sense. Last question, because the blog is all about like up and coming artists, who are your favourites?
N: Oh, you go first I need to think.
L: A favourite artist in general or up and coming?
S: Up and coming.
L: I have to think as well.
N: Well we like Chelsea Cutler, she’s kind of established at this point but I guess she’s A-list.
L: I’d say, yeah she’s still up and coming.
S: Yeah! Like not everyone knows about her.
N: We also like Jeremy Zucker.
L: Yeah, like that crew; Jeremy Zucker, Alexander 23 as well. I don’t know if these guys are up and coming, but we just discovered Emotional Oranges.
S: Oh yeah they’re great!
L: We’re liking them. Yeah I think that’s it!
S: That’s a great group!