Interview: The Paradox Talk When We Were Young Performance, Opening for Green Day, and New Love of Pop Punk
The Paradox has been around for barely two years, yet what they’ve accomplished in the world of music is an astonishing feat for a band that doesn’t even have a record out yet. With just two songs and an incredible social media presence, they have amassed thousands of followers, and attracted the attention of Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer and guitarist of Green Day, and Jack White. Oh and did I mention that they were asked by Armstrong himself to open for the East Bay pop-punk legends on a date of their Saviors tour earlier this year? With a great deal of talent and a little bit of good luck bestowed upon them, The Paradox has become one of the fastest rising pop-punk bands in the scene.
The band sat down with Shameless ahead of their opening slot at this weekend’s When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas, where they will perform just a few minutes after doors open. We discuss what it was like opening for Green Day, how they came together as a band despite discovering pop punk only a couple of years ago, and what’s next. Please note that this interview has been edited solely for the purposes of clarity and length.
[Pointing to Eric’s hoodie] I like that Toy Story hoodie. I’ve never seen that before.
Eric Dangerfield (lead vocalist): Dude, I was talking about this the other day. I want to say that Toy Story is like my favorite animated movie.
I would make that argument for me as well, too. I grew up loving Toy Story.
ED: You’re lucky, man. To this day, I wish I would have been alive for the 90s. I was just chillin’ in my Dad’s nutsack.
[laughs hard] I’ve never quite hear it put like that before.
ED: I should have been trying to fucking buy a house, man. That was when the market was good! When I was still in kindergarten.
Yeah, if I knew when I was three years old that I should have bought a house then. But what are you gonna do?
ED: Dude, I’m actually in the process of buying a house right now.
Oh sick! Congratulations. It’s fun - not the process itself, but the moment that you’re like “oh cool, I own this now!”.
ED: Dude, I love your shirt, by the way. [pointing to my Misfits shirt]
Oh thank you!
ED: Yeah, I’ve gotta listen to them.
Have you seen any of the “Original Misfits” reunion shows over the last couple of years?
Dude, you know what’s crazy? I - this is why it almost feels unfair with all the shit that we’ve been getting, dawg, because I only got into pop-punk two years ago. I grew up on motown music and shit. Pop punk started as a side quest, something where I went “let me try this, let me master this”, and I fell in love.
It started with me when I was making fun of our photographer, because she was listening to all that shit. I was like, “yo, why the fuck does all your shit sound like [imitating Tom DeLonge] ‘I wanna go skateboard, na na na na na?’. Eventually, I was like, “ I wanna try making shit like that.” She was like, “you know Eric, you’re really talented and I love you, but you’re never gonna be able to make Blink-182-type songs.” I took that as a challenge. I locked in.
But I fell in love with that shit, bro. When I got into it, I think it was like a month after I discovered these bands, Tom [DeLonge] went back into Blink-182, this whole resurgence of that shit became a thing. When I was in high school, Soundcloud Rap was cool, you had dyed dreadlocks and face tats, that was cool. Rock and punk rock, that was like, “lame as fuck”. You know, it was just a time. We caught on just as [the resurgence] was happening.
The day that I met Xelan [guitarist], we were talking on Facebook and wanting to start a pop-punk band. He was like, “Dude, I talked to bassist from New Found Glory, I can get us pit tickets!” So I was like, “alright.” [That show] was my first time moshing, and like…it was over. It was over at that point. We looked at each other and were like, “we’re gonna start the best pop punk band one day! I swear to God!”
I saw them, I saw Sum 41, Simple Plan, and The Offspring; they were all playing a show in Atlanta. Which is crazy, because now I talk to Simple Plan and two of the guys from Sum 41, which is really cool.
From someone whose been listening to the genre since I was kid, those are maybe the top three or four live acts in the genre. You got a great introduction with those shows. It’s funny that your friend said you wouldn’t be able to pull of this kind of music - from the two songs you’ve released thus far, I’d say you’ve done a pretty fantastic job. You’re obviously very passionate about this music, and it shows.
ED: That means a lot. For me, with every other genre I’d fucked with, I almost had to change myself to adapt into it. But with pop-punk, for the first time, it felt like it was just me, purely and authentically. Like these dudes were just like me and my friends, skateboarding, fucking hanging out and doing dumb shit. Yeah dude, I fell in love with it.
To put it into perspective, our whole first album is done. Written and finished. Just gotta lay it down [in the studio]. And we’re damn near a quarter of the second record done. Me and this dude were literally writing all day for a month, man. We would link up from 8 PM to 8 AM, just writing riffs.
You’re going to be the first band playing at When We Were Young, just shortly after doors open. From what I’ve seen, you have two songs available for listening, but if you have a twenty minute set, I assume that you have more down the road. What can fans expect to hear upon entering the fesival grounds?
ED: Shit, lowkey I can read off setlist for you. This is probably the first time ever that I’ve been prepped, because usually I’m writing that shit with a Sharpie right before we go. But, the first song is an original called “Ansley”, that’ll be on the album. Then we’ re gonna hit “Linoleum” for a little tribute to NOFX, man, even though they just broke up. Yeah so it’s gonna be “Ansley”, “Linoleum”, our song “Kaityln”, “Elise”, another original song that’s out called “Imani”, “2000 Light Years Away” for a little tribute to Green Day, then “Ms. Lauren”.
Beautiful choice, that Green Day song.
ED: Oh it’s like my favorite Green Day song! I love the Dookie album. When I first got into pop punk, my whole shit was that I was like in my uncle’s fuckin’ garage, smoking blunts and fuckin’, you know, learning Dookie, learning Enema [of the State, Blink-182], learning Take Off Your Pants and Jacket [Blink-182 album], cover to cover.
Xelan (guitarist): All the way, all the way.
ED: Oh! And Take This To Your Grave by Fall Out Boy. Funny enough, bro, my Grandpa, who lives in Kentucky - I knew him to listen to a lot of rap and shit. But he got really, really into pop-punk back in the day. So he sent me the vinyl for Take This To Your Grave, which is how I first heard it. That shit blew my fucking mind. When you hear “Ansleigh”, you’ll know that it’s very Take This To Your Grave-inspired.
You guys are picking great albums and you’ve got great inspiration. I have to ask as a massive Green Day fan - you guys got to open for the band on one of the Saviors tour dates. What was that like meeting and performing with them, on what’s probably their biggest tour to date?
ED: Surreal, dude. One hundred percent surreal. So Bille [Joe Armstrong, vocalist and guitarist of Green Day], found us pretty early on. We had a really, really fast come-up. When we started this band, my whole goal or intention, was that we do this, grind it out for like a year, do the social media thing, do gigs locally, build the audience, and then in a few years, we might blow up, right?
It was literally a week after we put out videos on Instagram and TikTok - we were at like 30,000 followers. There was one day that we got 60K followers in a single day - it was crazy as fuck.
But Billie had found us early, from a cover of “Basket Case”. He followed my personal account, and the band account. That made me shit myself. I tried messaging him on Insta years ago, trying to ask him how to learn the riff for “Basket Case”, but you can’t message him. But once I had that line of contact - he texted me first, bro! He was like, “hey man! I’m a big fan, I love your songs, dude.” I was like, “What the fuck?! I’m a fan of your songs, bro!”
We started talking about guitars - we’re both massive Beatles fans, so we’re talking about Beatles, gear and shit.
I work at a smokeshop right now, and one of my customers came in and was like, “Yo! Green Day is coming here, and they’re playing both Dookie and American Idiot in its entirety!” I was like, “what the fuck? Dude, I gotta go!” I knew we couldn’t afford the tickets though, man. So I texted Billie Joe, and was like “Yo, I know y’all are coming, could we get some tickets, man?” He was like, “how would y’all like to open for us?” We were like, “Yeah! Fuck yeah!”.
We went and saw the stadium - that was insane. I think the show we had just done before that wasn’t - we did a house show, and then we did another house show, because Lil Nas X came to that shit, then we did his sister’s wedding with him after that. I got a cold, horrible timing. The day before the Green Day show, I was fine. But my voice still wasn’t fully back for that shit, but I gave it my fucking all.
We did the soundcheck, and that was crazy. They don’t talk about how sound reverberates in a fucking stadium like that. Like when Percy was hitting that kick, it sounded like a gunshot. [imitates snare drum echoing noise] It was crazy as fuck. We do that shit, we get settled in; we’re nervous but hyped. I realized I left my phone, so I run back to the stage to get it, and I see that there’s a text from Billie’s manager.
He’s like “oh, we’re on site, where are you?” I look to my left, dawg, and there he is, bro. Fuckin’ Billie Joe Armstrong.
And dude, I’ve never been startstruck when I’ve met celebrities and shit, but I was just like, “Yo…you’re not just a poster in my bedroom. You’re a human, bro! What the fuck!” For me, what was crazy was this - I said that I worked at a smokeshop; I started that job like a month before we started doing the social shit. My coworker who raps was like, “you should just livestream on TikTok”. It was like our second rehearsal, and I was like “Okay”. That shit just took off, bro. Best advice ever.
You know, I was learning how to play “2000 Light Years Away”. They let me play guitar there and shit - it’s the chillest job ever. We play guitar and hang out. I was learning to play that record then, man. To then, you know, play that opening for Green Day.
And that was another thing! We had to ask him. We’d never played with a band that we’d covered. We were just like, “dude, can we do 2000 Light Years Away?” He was like, “Fuck yeah! We’re not playing it. I love your guys’ cover of it.” Even when we showed up, he was like “Are you guys doing it?” But like, I met him bro. The first thing I told him was, “yo, can I please get my band here [to meet you]?”
When we met Jack White, I met Jack White. The rest of the band didn’t get to meet him at first. It was only because I happened to be talking to his team. I was like, “yeah, we just started this band like two weeks ago.” They were like, “What the fuck? Two weeks ago? How did you get here?” I was like, “I don’t know, he hit us up!” We were talking, Jack White shows up, that was crazy as fuck. I got to play his guitar. So that was the first thing I told Billie, I was like, “Please, my band will hate me forever.” He was like, “yeah, let’s just go to the green room!”
So I just fucking show up at the green room with rock legend Billie Joe Armstrong. You know, a normal fuckin’ Tuesday afternoon, I guess!
X: I was trying to run. I swear to God, I turn the corner, the sun is shining so bright, and here comes Billie coming around the corner. I was like, “Billie! I’ve gotta meet Billie! Holy shit!” This happens as I’m fuckin’ speedwalking.
ED: He was so nice. And Tre Cool was like riding in a golf cart with Rancid - I forgot about that. That was something, when me and Billie were talking. But yeah, we ended up getting to meet Mike [Dirnt, bassist] and Tre! Rancid, Smashing Pumpkins, they all gave us shoutouts at that show, too. Billie made everybody - friends, family, everybody - come out to watch our set and he recorded it. And when I met Adrienne [Armstrong, Billie Joe’s wife], I didn’t even know who she was; I had just asked her for some water. She gave it to me, and then his manager was like, “oh, have you met Adrienne?” I was like, “Wait! 2,000 Lights Years Away was about you! What the fuck!” She was so nice, man. She said that Billie was a huge fan and talks about us all the time. That was probably the best thing to lead with - besides the experience, meeting all of the great people, knowing that my hero is a fan of my band is fucking wild.
That’s so fantastic that you guys have had this experience.
That’s incredible - they truly are one of the best bands in the world.
ED: Billie is like the godfather of pop-punk to me. I love Blink-182, they’re probably the band that’s inspired me the most, but Green Day is just a household name for me.
I can understand that.
They’re like different tastes, too. Like, our influences are different. When I was talking to Billie, he likes a lot of what I call “grandpa punk”, like The Ramones and stuff like that from the 70s and shit. He’s been around for a minute - I was born in 01, and I was a baby during the height of this. The first pop-punk song that I ever remember hearing in my life was [Simple Plan’s TV theme song] “What’s New Scooby-Doo?”. I never knew that that was Simple Plan until later. But it was literally so surreal. Shout out to Billie Joe, shout out to Green Day. They did not have to do that at all. It gave us so much, like, I don’t even know the word for it - clout’s not the word, because we were already blowing up online, but the first thing that Simple Plan asked us when we met them was “did y’all really open for Green Day?” Everyone kept asking and how we did it! But yeah, man. It was insane.
I’ve been asking everyone a variation of this question, but who are you most looking forward to seeing at When We Were Young this weekend? You guys are obviously very huge fans of this music. Since you play first, you’re going to wander and get to see everyone that’s playing.
Xelan: Fall Out Boy
.
ED: Easy. Fall Out Boy. Taking Back Sunday. Simple Plan - we’re gonna hang out with Simple Plan. Damn, I gotta look at that list again.
It can feel overwhelming to look at that lineup sometimes.
ED: You know, I’m trying to hear that [does an Adam Lazzarra impression] “your lipstick, his collar, don’t bother angel, I know exactly what goes on!” I need to hear that, in front of my face!
And what’s so cool is that it’s two days, so we’re like, “whatever we miss the first day, we’ll hit that shit the second day.” I was trying to go to this [festival] last year, but I couldn’t afford my plane ticket. It’s honestly so surreal that they’re paying us to go out and play. I’d just go out for free! But to play our shit and open up the show is an insane blessing.
The Paradox will be performing at When We Were Young Festival on the Ghost Stage at 10:40 AM on Saturday, October 19th and Sunday, October 20th. For more information on the festival, click here. For more information on music and touring from The Paradox, click here.
