PARA LIA – GONE WITH THE WIND

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!