Doubting Paris
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Doubting Paris

| SELF | AFM

| SELF | AFM
Band Alternative Folk

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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"The Perfect Soundtrack For Fall"

“August lasts forever / maybe we can leave our lives / if only for a moment…”

These words open up one of the best indie albums I’ve gotten my hands on in God knows how long. The melodies, the voice—it’s all just phenomenal. It shocks me to the core that there is talent like this just lying around out there not attached to a record label.

You know you’re listening to a good album when your guitar-playing roommate hears a song through the wall, comes over and knocks on your door, and asks to borrow the CD so he can learn the song he’d just heard. It’s pure dumb luck that I even heard of the band I’m talking about; the DJ for the local indie radio show in my town happened across a copy of their music, and played a track from it on air. I don’t usually get to listen to the show (I’m usually working when it’s on); but I was running late, so I had it on while I was driving. The DJ introduced the track as “a cross between the Counting Crows, and Our Lady Peace.” By the description, the song sounded right up my alley. I was almost to work, but I was on a back road; so I just slowed down to about twenty miles-per-hour so I could finish it before I got there. The guy behind me didn’t like that too much—but music supercedes driving manners in my book; so I continued on. It was at this time that the song “August,” by the band Doubting Paris, began pouring out of my car’s tiny speaker system.

Upon doing a little research, I found out that the band hails from Vancouver, Canada. I also found out that, at the time of this albums recording, the band had only been playing together for less than a year. To have been playing together for that short a time, they showcase an amazingly mature, tight sound on this record. With their eldest member rounding out at a mere 23 years of age, I’m utterly blown away by how guys this young have already mastered the craft of songwriting. The lyrics are far deeper than the usual rock fare, and somehow these guys manage to sound fresh—which is, without a doubt, one of the hardest things to do in the music industry we live in today.

I suppose the best way I can describe the vibe of the album is this: You’re driving down the road in a convertible, with the top down, on the first day of fall. It’s a cloudy day, but the sun is trying desperately to fight its way through the grey. You slow down to take in the view; the mountains in the distance, the forest reaching as far as your eyes can see—and, suddenly, you catch sight of the first golden leaf slipping from a tree as you drive past. If this were a film, Doubting Paris would be the soundtrack playing in the background in that moment. Beautiful.

This full-length, debut album stands as one of the most unique, potential-filled records I’ve laid ears on in quite a while. It’s only a matter of time before a record label catches wind of these guys, and picks them up. But, for now, this album can only be found in a few choice indie record stores in Canada and online.

By Trent Moore
Sound the Sirens Magazine - Sound The Sirens Magazine


"We'll Always Have Paris"

Even though two members of Vancouver’s Doubting Paris once called Medicine Hat home, the band has never played their melodic, moody pop tunes in Alberta. In fact, as soon as their self-titled debut disc came out earlier this year, the foursome hightailed it to Denmark for five weeks. Although singer/guitarist Timothy Lindberg jokes about heading to Europe in search of Nordic beauties, it just seemed like the perfect place for them to start building a fanbase. "We’ve always felt that there’s a European edge to the music itself," he says, "so going there was maybe a bit of bringing the music to its home. It kind of felt right there; all of us felt super-comfortable."

After building up a team of managers and publicists, Doubting Paris is ready to take their music to the people. "We’re following the grassroots style of playing and earning your right to be able to make statements through your music," Lindberg says. "I don’t think anybody can really make a statement to people when they rise to the top too quickly. You have to go to school and pay your dues in the industry. So I think that’s definitely the plan for the next year, for sure."

The band’s edgy, breathless vocals and keyboard-driven hooks are definitely easy on the ears and their lyrics are moving without turning heavy-handed or sappy. Lindberg says their cohesive sound is the result of allowing the entire band to take part in writing each song. "You kind of put it all together," he says, "and all of a sudden a sound comes out and it’s like, ‘Wow—none of us would have created this with just our own influences.’"

VUE WEEKLY
We’ll always have Paris
By PHIL DUPERRON - VUE Weekly


"Notables"

Doubting Paris Songs have been featured over 65 times on various Television shows, including:

America's Next Top Model
Joan of Arcadia
MTV's 'Real World' & 'Road Rules'
Global TV's 'Falcon Beach'
Bravo Network's 'Godiva's'

Doubting Paris has shared the stage with bands such as:

KEANE
PILATE SPEED
SLOAN
STABILO
DAVID USHER
HOLLY MCNARLAND
THE TREWS
WIDE MOUTH MASON - Misc.


Discography

'The Weapons of the Tongues of Lovers - May 2007

'Doubting Paris' - January 2004

Photos

Bio

Doubting Paris was conceived in the back of a van, so to speak.

The story of DP began in Vancouver, BC where vocalist Timothy Lindberg and drummer Jay Stewart had secured a month-long tour of Denmark. They were just missing some key components for the endeavor—namely, a guitarist and bass player.

Meanwhile, 800 miles away in Medicine Hat, Alberta, guitarists Zac Pick and Ben Rogers began to collaborate on their own music projects. The stars aligned when the new friends took a weekend road trip to the west coast, and Ben, a native Vancouverite, introduced Zac to his old friend Tim in a parking lot. The introduction turned into an all-night conversation in Tim’s pink ’65 Volkswagon bus, and by sun up a band was formed—or at least a tour-worthy lineup.

After a spring of touring Denmark, the boys arrived home and independently realized they saw a future in creating music together, and enough potential to merit a drastic change. They quit their jobs, and moved shop to Langley, BC.

With no name and no songs of their own, the four musicians embarked on a six-month “boot-camp”—laboring eight hours a day in the studio, subsisting on potatoes and Kraft Dinner, jogging each morning, and hashing it out over lyrics and chord progressions. At the end of their self-imposed school of rock they surfaced with a name, a sound and dozens of original songs.

In the throes of formation, the very best and worst of each band member was revealed. “Doubting Paris” is a reflection of this tension between good and bad: an expression of who we are at the very best of times—bright, creative, amorous, community-minded; and at the worst of times—casting shadows and battling fears, withholding trust.

Transformed from a slap-dash combo to a bona fide indie quartet, Doubting Paris made their entrance onto the Vancouver music scene. A handful of early song demos made their way to the ears of producers Daniel Mendez and Dwight Baker, who promptly invited them down to record their full-length self-titled debut in Austin, Texas.

The release was followed up with a rash of shows throughout Vancouver. Since then, Doubting Paris have graced stages across Canada, the Pacific Northwest and Europe with their fresh combination of introspective indie rock and summery pop hooks—supporting high-profile acts like KEANE, SLOAN, DAVID USHER and PILATE SPEED. Their songs have meandered across the continent finding their way onto the soundtracks of AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL, MTV’s the REAL WORLD, JOAN OF ARCADIA and FALCON BEACH.

This past May, fresh off a ten month break, Doubting Paris released a new six-song EP, The Weapons of the Tongues of Lovers. The band has stitched up a few frayed edges and polished the scuffs, but there is still a raw edge and an honesty, courtesy of Lindberg’s trademark gravelly vocals—once likened to the wizened voice of thirty years-worth of cigarettes.

As suited to summer drives as they are to indie film soundtracks, the songs on Weapons maintain Doubting Paris’ identifiable sound—echoing guitar underscored by head-bouncing piano and beautifully tormented vocals.

Swaths of instrumentation offset simple melodies and show a new maturity in Doubting Paris’s song-writing. Out of ethereal riffs emerge hopeful up-beats, and songs light between sugary pop and the melancholic with the flick of the fast-forward button, breeding a sense of lovely anticipation.

Lyrics tread dually in the poetic and profound as they casually transition between hopeful romance and broken reflections on friends with mental illness. Each of the six sing-able tunes smoothly marries acoustic folk and full-blown indie rock—yet another tension in which Doubting Paris is happy to dwell.