Para Lia is an indie rock band, which came here to stay. Listen to the beautiful songs of “Gone With The Flow” and you will understand why! Myth of Rock thought it would be nice to have a conversation with the band, so we talked with René, who had many nice things to say.  

by Dimitris Zacharopoulos

Give us a short biography of the band.

Hello guys. Thank you for getting in contact. Para Lia is an indie rock duo, founded in 2018 from Cottbus near Berlin in Germany. Cindy and me already were a couple in life when we discovered that the connection between us also works in music. After a longer break I started to write songs again and the interplay between our voices became an important part of the arrangements. That was the birth of Para Lia.

Why did you name the band Para Lia?

We have a deep connection to Greece and its people for many years now, we have friends there and we love to spend time in Greece - what we do for several times every year. When Para Lia was still ‘unborn’, the first songs were already written but the project was still nameless, we were in Greece for some days and we gave the idea of a band name a thought. And indeed we were sitting on a Greek beach in the evening sun with a cold bottle Retsina– where the idea of the name came in mind. We decided not to use it as single word, so we split it. It made sense, we are two. And so Para Lia was born.

Your latest album was “Gone With The Flow”. How do you see this new album now? Are you satisfied with the response of the media and the fans? What would you change to it, if you had the opportunity?

We are still very happy with ‘Gone With The Flow’. The feedback from fans and listeners was very nice, the album got good critics and first of all it was great to work with fantastic musicians from UK, USA, Canada on it and to work with the amazing Louis Renzoni and all the team during the process.  A great experience. … Thoughts of ‘changes’ belong to future projects.  

Have you prepared your new album? If yes, how does it sound? Describe the recordings and the production please!

We think it sounds exactly the way it should and we are very happy with it. It was a pleasure to join Thommy Hein in his Berlin studio for the mastering of the tracks and we love the sound we created. We added an extra dose of 60’s feel and garage and psych rock elements to the indie rock guitar sound and we think now it is a tasty kind of rock soup!

How would you define the music style of Para Lia? Which are your music trademarks?

Melodies, harmony vocals and driving guitars – these are the elements of our musical cosmos.

Who is responsible for the music and the lyrics of Para Lia?

Rene is the songwriter of the band.

How is a song of Para Lia usually composed?

René:  A song starts to play in my head and I have to get me my guitar, the bass guitar and then I record a short demo to save it, together with a drum take. Then I start to work it out. Often the whole song plays already in my head and I just have to record the instruments. Also very often I have a hook line for the lyrics in mind and so I have to find the words around it. Cindys voice always is the cherry on the top of the cake, so it is the last thing which is recorded.

Where do your lyrics refer to? Your favorite topics?

Love, life, relationships, philosophy, mythology – and the things in between.

How do you sound live in concert? How much important are live shows for you? Which are your tour plans?

We never played live shows in the past. Now we are about to change it. If you will ask again in about a year – there will be an answer.  

How did the pandemic affect you?

Musically we focused on song writing and recording, so we used the ‘pandemic life situation’ as input for creativity.  If i would have to describe the lyrics of the upcoming album i would call it a collection of pandemic love songs.

Nowadays internet and technology has changed the way music business works. What do you think about internet and its impact?

Light and shadow, both of it. A positive effect surely is that musicians and artists can connect worldwide. So we did with guest musicians on the last album.  ‚Gone With The Flow‘ was a fantastic experience in the making and after the release. We worked with international artists, came in contact with interesing and creative people and widened our horizon.

In your opinion, how much easy or difficult is it for an indie rock band to have success nowadays? Why?

It depends on your own definition about ‘success’. To sell x100 records? Difficult. To be authentic and make music with passion and quality? All the time!

If you could cooperate with a famous musician in a song of yours, who would he/she be? Why?

Neil Young. At the end of his 70’s meanwhile and still creative, authentic and able to play his lead guitar the distinctive way he did for decades.

Send a message to the fans!

Stay tuned for the upcoming releases of new stuff! We hope that you like our new album as much as we do. Take care!

If you are into post punk, then you should check the name of Black Nite Crash. With a new album in their baggage ("Washed in the Sound with Black Nite Crash") and twenty years of successful music making, Black Nite Crash are still productive and manage to surprise and impress us. Myth of Rock came in contact with the band and arranged an interview, which you can enjoy right here below!

by Dimitris Zacharopoulos 

Can you tell us the backstory behind Black Nite Crash?  

The original line up of Black Nite Crash came toward the end of 2002, playing our first show that December. We played every chance we could get for the year or so, then fell apart. We came back together again pretty quickly and have soldiered on with a rotating cast of characters keeping things fresh for the last twenty years. The current line up has only been together just as it is for 7 or 8 months, but it feels like this is the best version of the band we've ever had.

Can you tell us about your discography to date?

Black Nite Crash EP (2004) The sound of a band that didn't know what we were doing.

Array (2008) The first album. Some of our best work. Some other stuff, too.

Split 7" with The Tamborines (2009) We did a song called "The Story of Me and You." It was about my wife. I like it.  I think she does, too.

Split 12" with Sky Parade (2010) I love this EP. The Sky Parade stuff is great and our stuff was amongst our best from the early years. Highlight: "Last Time." We were trying to out Verve the Verve. I'd like to think we came close...

Drawn Out Days (2012) The sound of a band profoundly breaking. Still some great songs, especially "Baby Its You," a personal favorite.

Nevergreen (2017) Another "band falling apart" record (that seems to happen to us a lot), but this time kind of in slow motion. Still, some great tunes...

Conflict of Disinterest (2019) Our most cohesive work and the closest we've eve come to our original mission statement of "Keep It Simple, Stupid."

Colony Drive EP (2020) Our most overlooked/underrated work. We made the mistake of releasing this during the pandemic. We're re-releasing it on vinyl on the flip side of our next EP because it deserves another chance.

Washed in the Sound (2022) See below...

You released a new album (“Washed in the Sound with Black Nite Crash”) some months ago. How do you feel about that? How do you see this new album now?

We feel good! We love this album. It's the sound of a band growing and trying new things, but still wrapped up in the warm feelings of the familiar. These songs are some of the strongest we've ever written. And even as we pull further away from the album temporally speaking, we still feel strongly that it's some of our best work ever.

There have been a lot of line-up changes in Black Nite Crash. How has this affected the band and its sound?

You would think that it would make a big difference, but it kind of doesn't. And also, it kind of does. What we do now doesn't sound a million miles away from what we were doing ten or twenty years ago, but every new member has had an impact on the sound. The style is still the same, more or less, but the songs themselves do change. From "era to era" some things may ebb and flow, with some line ups being a little more 'rock' and some a little more 'pop,' but, overall, the band has maintained a certain surprising consistency.

How would you define the music style of Black Nite Crash?

Noisy Psychedelic Post-Punky Pop? Did I cover enough ground with that? I don't have much interest in genres or pigeonholing bands... I always think about it in this way: I have a normal day job. When people I work with find out I'm in a band, they always ask, "who do you sound like?" I start with something like "Spacemen 3", then they look confused. So I say, " The Jesus and Mary Chain." They look even more confused, so i say, "The Cure," and they raise an eyebrow and nod 'no,' so I say, "The Rolling Stones" and they go, "Ah, yes!" So what difference does any of it make, really? We sound like all of that. And none of that.

Who is responsible for the music and the lyrics of Black Nite Crash?

I take the lion's share, but we all work together. At present there are 4 song-writers in the band. We all bring our own ideas and we all build on each other's ideas. At the moment, Claire and I write most of the words. Over the years, various other collaborators have contributed to the process.

Where do your lyrics refer to?

I both love and hate this question! I can only speak for myself, but they really come from everywhere and everything. My most common subject matter is from personal experience. I've always felt as a writer personal experience is the best well to draw from. That being said, I've also tried to branch into other areas. "The Take" from our latest album is very much, in my mind, a fictional murder ballad, I'm telling an American Gothic story of crime and betrayal. Going back an album or two, "The Astronavagatrix" is a little SciFi love story. If you dig in a little bit you'll find traces of everything from Dostoyevsky to Shakespeare, Camus to Kierkegaard. Also, Peter Murphy, Ian McCulloch, Mark Gardner, Guy Chadwick... I consume media in every form and regurgitate it in songs.

Describe the recording and the production process of the new album.

We started this one pre-pandemic, not knowing what was about to happen. Once the pandemic hit, it took fooooreeeevvveeerrr to get things done, but to be fair, it always seems to take us forever to get things done. Usually because of money and the fact that we have none (so, dear readers, feel free to buy stuff from us so we can have more money!). Our process over the years has essentially been the same, we write a bunch of songs, then go to the studio and bang out as many basic rhythm tracks as we can over 3 or four days, then get to work with the overdubs. This project was no different. It just took a bit longer.

I liked very much the cover artwork of the new album. Can you give us all the info?

Thanks! Me, too! We've been working off the same picture set for years from run of Holga photos I took a few years ago.... and I wish there was some great story to tell about the new album, but there really isn't. It felt like it was time to change our aesthetic a bit and it was really just an image I had in my head, and a friend of our drummer's named CJ Burton took that concept and made it real. I suppose it's some kind of commentary on isolation and the pandemic, but I think it was just an interesting idea that a gifted artist (the aforementioned CJ Burton)  turned into a really cool visual. I cannot stress how much of the coolness is down to CJ's work from my half-assed idea. (Seriously, go to CJBURTON.COM, do it now... you will not be disappointed!)

What should we expect from Black Nite Crash in the future? Which are your dreams as a band?

More of the same. and less of the same. We're always trying to do new stuff, maybe more so now tan ever before. But the heart of it all never really changes. We're a pop band at heart that likes to make a lot of noise. We're starting to fool around more with beats and stuff, but it'll probably still just be noisy pop in the end. What you can expect, neigh, count on, is a lot more music. We've never been more motivated  or driven to create new music than we are right now. We intend to have a new EP and at least one, maybe two albums done before the end of the year.

How do you sound live in concert? How much important are live shows for you? Which are your tour plans?

Live we are electric. Except when we're not. I've long referred to us as "The Replacements of Shoegaze." Some nights we're the best band in the world, others slightly less so, but we are always guaranteed to be a spectacle, and we always give it everything we have. It's just that occasionally all we have is a lot of whiskey and/or beer. Live shows mean everything, though. Why else make music unless you mean to share it with the world, preferably in person. As to touring, we'll see. There are still some pandemic issues to resolve. In the near term we intend to play up and down the US west coast as much as we can.

How did the pandemic affect you?

It really just slowed us down a bit. We all kept in touch and tried as much as we could to keep working, but it was definitely hard. It impacts us now as it can still be difficult to get folks to come to shows and support live music, but we certainly don't blame folks for their caution and concern. we definitely share their nervousness.

Nowadays internet and technology has changed the way music business works. What do you think about internet and its effects?

It's given smaller and independent artists a stage that they didn't have historically speaking, but it's also created a situation where it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, or maybe not just to separate, but to find a way to find the wheat. With so much noise, it can be hard to find a way to `get folks to listen to your signal. Add to that the fact that some folks can get zeroed in on some specific style or sound and become blinkered to other things they might find interesting. On the whole I think it's all a net positive, but there are definitely new challenges for indie bands to overcome.

Is there something else you’d like to share?

First, to those who already follow us: THANK YOU!!! We sincerely appreciate your attention. We know it's a crowded media world out there, so any time you give to us is greatly appreciated! Next, to those who don't know us or are just learning about us here and now: dig in, please. We've got a lot going on and a lot to say, not the least of which is 'thank you' to Myth of Rock and also Shameless Promotion PR for arranging this interview (and everything else)!!!!

 https://blacknitecrash.bandcamp.com/album/washed-in-the-sound-with-black-nite-crash

Chicago-based Scottish music legend Chris Connelly has released new album 'Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico', an exceptional 20-track collection pays tribute to the iconic muse of The Velvet Underground and one of the most unique, tragic and misunderstood female artists in the history of modern music. Here, Connelly purposefully adopt the personas of Nico, Lou Reed, John Cale and even Andy Warhol. In four decades of making music, since his days with Fini Tribe in Edinburgh, Chris Connelly has over twenty solo releases and frequently collaborates with other musicians, including Ministry, The Revolting Cocks and Pigface. He has also published four books (poetry, autobiographical and fictional narrative). Initially planned as an album of ten Nico covers, Connelly ended up writing additional compositions spanning her life, from her first Jimmy Page-composed single, The Velvet Underground years and her intense and unique solo recordings until her death. Connelly follows her from Berlin to New York via Paris, Ibiza, and Rome, then back through Paris, London, Edinburgh, Manchester and up to her tragic and needless death in Ibiza. We had the opportunity to speak with Chris Connelly this past weekend and can finally share this conversation with you.

 by Dimitris Zacharopoulos

You released “Eulogy to Christa” a few months ago. How do you feel now that this new album is released? Are you satisfied with the response of the media and fans to date?

I am very, very humbled at the response, I don’t take it for granted, and to be honest, I don’t ever expect much feedback, you always start from a place of doing it purely for yourself (at least that’s what I do) and if others find something in it that resonates with them, that’s great!

Why did you decide to pay this tribute to Nico? How important is Nico and her music for you?

Her presence and music has been felt in our lives for so long, I felt she has a story worth telling, it’s sad, there was never much redemption for her, except for the important fact that her music, her spirit, was so unique and singular, I have always loved her music , and something about her spirit has always resonated with me, I think it was a compulsion, I felt like I had to do it.

How easy or difficult was it for you to make this tribute album? To what things did you pay special attention while working on this album?

The hardest part of doing this was to be able to be respectful and differential to her spirit, it’s easy to cover or copy someone’s song, and it’s a lot of fun too! But to look inside a song, to try and feel the person who made it, that’s the hard, and most rewarding part, to me it is like meditating or praying, to try and feel her presence beside me , it’s a mental and physical thing.

How did you compose the songs of this tribute album? Did you begin with the lyrics or the music?

Both and neither: composition, for me is not a rational or even physical trajectory,  which is why I can never remember honestly how I do it, take for example the song “OH JIM II” which is about the duality of Jim Morrison & Jim Osterberg (Iggy Pop) in her life. When I try and remember writing that, all I see is sand and snow- desert & tundra, that’s what the song is, that’s what I think I created, the science and logic of it is unimportant.

Describe the recording sessions and the production process of “Eulogy to Christa”.

All my sessions happen between the hours of 4 a.m. & 7 a.m., right when I wake up, that’s when I have dreamt, and I wake up with a purpose and I follow my hands, it does not take long at all, I sort of plan out the sessions in my dream time, and I am always alone.

You are also quite famous for your industrial/alternative rock works in the 80s/90s. What are some of the things you remember most strongly about the music scene from these days (the good and the bad)?

As you say, 80s and 90s . It was a long time ago, and I made some great friends who are still close to me now. I am proud of what I did , but it was shrouded in this awful toxic energy and I am so far away from that now, I don’t particularly like going back to that place, I am grateful that people got something out of it though. But it nearly killed me

You have released numerous solo albums. Of them all, which ones are your favorites? Which one would you consider your ‘breakthrough’ album?

I am not sure what you mean, I guess it’s fair to say I DO NOT make records if I don’t have something specific to do, once I am done with a record, it is the best record I have made until I make the next one, The success of my records, at its heart, is how much I enjoyed writing them, after that, recording is fun, but it’s not nearly as transcendent for me as writing…and after that, if people like what I did, great!

You have collaborated with Revolting Cocks, Ministry and Pigface. How do you feel now about each of these respective collaborations?

It is something I did, like anything you do when you are younger, it has good bits and bad bits, I don’t think about it too much, I don’t want it to define me, but that’s not really my choice to make.

Apart from a musician, you are also an author. How would you describe your bibliography to a fan, who has not yet read your books and writing in general?

Well, I have a couple of books of poetry, an autobiography that I would describe as comical (it’s supposed to be funny) and one novel that is supposed to be a psychological thriller.

Did the Covid-19 pandemic affect you as an artist?

I wrote a lot, it was a very productive time, it brought a new focus to my writing that I did not have before

Can you share some thoughts about Russia’s war on Ukraine?

It’s brutal and heartbreaking and Putin is an evil man, like Trump.

Which feelings of your do you try to express through your creations?

That is hard to answer, I think the only thing I can say is that my writing comes through me, I do not follow any earthly formulas for writing (though I readily admit to my influences) I personally feel like I have to leave myself open to what comes out of my fingers, I am uneasy about the word “spiritual” because I think it’s too easy of a word to throw around, but what I do certainly comes from the spirit.

What might the next year or two hold for Chris Connelly and his creative output (or even live performances)?

I am finishing a new album right now which I can’t talk about yet, but it has a LOT in common with “Eulogy to Christa” …as far as live performances go, I don’t know, I am sure I will, but I have grown to really dislike playing live, sadly.

Can you share a message with your listeners and our readers?

If you listen to my music and get something out of it for yourself, then I am so grateful!

https://chrisconnelly.bandcamp.com/album/eulogy-to-christa

UK-France electronic rock duo The Noise Who Runs presents 'Beautiful Perhaps', the anthemic first track from their imminent 'Preteretrospective’ LP, scheduled for release on April 7. This follows 'These Will Be Your Gods' EP, released in January, and ‘High Time in Lo-Fi’, their third EP released in mid-2022. The Noise Who Runs is the project of songwriter and performer Ian Pickering, best known as a member of and songwriter for 90s British trip hop outfit Sneaker Pimps, having co-written such hits as 'Spin Spin Sugar', '6 Underground' and 'Tesko Suicide'. Over the past two years, he has churned out this new album while also working on the new Sneaker Pimps album. Hailing from Hartlepool in the north-east of England, Pickering launched this project in 2019, three years after relocating to Lille, France. Today, The Noise Who Runs is a duo of Pickering with Brazilian-born French guitarist Felipe Goes.  Today Myth of Rock presents our chat with these two fine sound-crafters….

by Dimitris Zacharopoulos

How did The Noise Who Runs emerge? Can you share your backstory?

Felipe: We met at work. I think I wasn’t supposed to work that day and was just covering for someone. Anyway, we talked about music for a bit and that’s how the two of us decided to play some music together.

Ian: I’d never see him before. He was new at the office. But he had a guitarist look about him and I’d just decided to put a group together to play all these new songs I’d been working on since I moved to France. It was a perfect coincidence - he WAS a guitarist and he was Brazilian, and my son is half-Brazilian, so, to me, it was a sign. So we set about rehearsing, recording a little as we went along. Then the COVID pandemic and the lockdowns and confinements started and everything shifted towards remote recording and production. Three years later, we really need to get back into the rehearsal rooms and work up a new set. It’s gonna be very different to the pre-Covid approach.

“These Will Be Your Gods” is your new EP. Introduce this EP to the fans, please.

Felipe: We’ve made tons of music, a lot of which is unreleased as of today. This is our best music yet.

Ian: There’s a lot of things to be learnt in the world. Listening to fucking arseholes making speeches, aspiring to their cheap fortunes, vacuous talents and runaway egos isn’t the good way. This is the start of the soundtrack to the fight for change that we’ve so far failed to win.

Who is the main composer in The Noise Who Runs? How is a typical song of The Noise Who Runs composed?

Felipe: Ian does most of the work. Lyrics, music, most of it really. Then he sends me the song or plays it to me when we meet up. I try to figure out what’s going on and then play some guitar and keyboards, turn off a few sounds, turn others back on. Basically it’s musical lego.

Ian: He means chess! Musical chess. Musical chess, made from lego.

Which are your music influences? What music do you listen to nowadays?

Felipe: I honestly have no idea how to answer the first part of this question. I like a bit of everything really. On my drive to work you might catch me listening to soul one day and heavy metal on another. One of my current favourites is a japanese duo called “Yorushika.”

Ian: Everything you might ever think we sound like is probably an influence. It’s just been composted over decades and evolved through a range of life’s few ups and many downs. I like songs with good lyrics more than any particular type of music. Right now, I only just discovered Wet Leg. I’m surprised I didn’t notice them earlier but I’m writing all the time and I don’t like listening to music when I’m writing - live music, yeah, but not a lot other than that.

Which are the music trademarks of The Noise Who Runs?

Felipe: We often have keyboards and synths making cool new sounds or beeps and boops. There’s usually no guitar solos.

Ian: "Under The Sun" has a guitar solo, but that wasn’t you and really it was a one-off and totally alien to the song, which is the only reason I allowed it. No guitar solos. No anything solos. Showboating bullshit. And though it’s not a  musical trademark, a lot of the songs have ludicrously long titles. I do like that. The second single from "Preteretrospective", after "Beautiful Perhaps", is called ‘Takes a long cold look and then the kitchen sink’. Possibly commercial suicide but I think it’s a very cool title.

Which feelings of yours do you try to express through The Noise Who Runs?

Felipe: For me it’s the joy of playing music. I’m always busy at work so I like doing something that does not require too much thinking.

Ian: I think the music and the lyrics communicate for themselves. First and foremost, I’m a lyricist, have been for nearly 30 years now, and all the songs express so many different things all at once - they include a range of emotions, reactions and aspirations in reflection (or complaint or incredulity) about the wider world at large, sometimes through a very specific story or tale, but more often they represent a bigger picture zooming in, rather than personal subjective experience kind of presumptuously and arrogantly masquerading as the core beliefs, fears and anxieties of everyone else. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people only view the world through that lens - this is my situation, extrapolate that subjective view and insist that everything is the same for everyone else. It’s a dangerous arrogance not to look harder, more objectively, not to research, to ask questions, to never consider more than what exists within the confines of your own bubble.

Have you ever performed live in concert as The Noise Who Runs? Any tour plans?

Felipe: We never got to perform because when we were ready to do it, the whole covid thing started. We were ready to play as a 4-piece with Gérald on bass and Julien on drums/pads, plus Ian singing and myself on guitar/keys.

Ian: There are no firm plans to play live but now we’re thinking about translating the recordings and releases and the wealth of as yet unreleased material into a live set and the best way to do that, so rehearsals will be starting next month. For me, the pre-Covid approach was too heavy on the traditional band set-up. The plan is to use elements of a traditional set-up within a more interesting mix that allows us to play more like the recordings sound and evolve them and recreate them so it’s not just a karaoke version or tribute act. Hopefully, it’s gonna be a fascinating experiment where no one gig would ever be remotely the same. Such is ambition!

How did the Covid-19 pandemic affect you?

Felipe: We lost our momentum to play and make new music just as we were ready to start doing some serious stuff. I’ve also grown lazier than ever before. It was not all bad though, as for long stretches of time during 2020 and 2021 I did not need to go outside!

Ian: To be honest, my family was better off financially for the first three months of the first wave than we had been for the previous four months. I actually received 450 euros a month during that period, whereas my awful almost zero hours contract had seen me working, on average, five or six hours a week maximum from September 2019 to February 2020. After that first confinement ended, it was back to struggling like hell and I had to take two extra jobs and change my original job and even then it took until the end of 2021 to be in a more secure financial position.

As regards the band, I’ll take what happened as a good thing - we got a lot of recording done and I got a lot of writing done and right here and now I feel very confident about the next two years for TNWR. After "Preteretrospective" comes out in April, we have two new releases practically ready to mix and master. And we’ve just started to look at the album we were in the middle of making before the pandemic.

At closing, is there anything else you’d like to say?

First, thank you Dimitry for your interest in our music. Please come find us at https://thenoisewhoruns.bandcamp.com and support what we’re doing with a download or share. Thanks also to Shauna McLarnon at Shameless Promotion PR for making this interview (and our surprisingly successful campaign) even possible.

 https://thenoisewhoruns.bandcamp.com/album/these-will-be-your-gods