Introducing The Sharp Punk-Hip Hop Duo Para Fiction
Para Fiction is a punk-hip hop duo that is walking to the beat of their own drum! Calling Brighton home, James and Jules first met at a Drum and Bass gig –bonding over shared tastes in music. The two eventually started to make music together, with TIME DEBT being the first track they ever wrote. Holding nothing back with their lyrics and sound, the two are creating a hybrid of music that needs to be on everyone’s radar!
We got the chance to chat with Para Fiction about everything, including their single No Comment, the video for TIME DEBT, and so much more…
Your track No Comment is an absolute banger. How did the record come to be?
I guess it was back when we were writing loads of tunes in the bedroom, that was one of the first tunes we wrote. It’s an earlier tune from the first batch we ever did. It’s a lot more youthful, it’s got that energy, we love 70s punk and all that kind of stuff. We met at a drum and bass event and we both grew up on drum and bass when we were younger, so we combined drum and bass with 70’s punk.
What was the inspiration for your guy’s video for TIME DEBT?
I think the whole idea about Para Fiction is that we’re almost post-modernist. It’s like an internet band, it’s not a conventional band. Where we live is more in the internet rather than in physical records. So that kind of translates with the whole green screen stuff, it’s like we’re trapped in the screen. We wanted to delve into a surreal world, kind of like a spin-off from reality. We love bright colours and TIME DEBT is a big step up. The last time we did the green screen was ‘Wavey Days’ and there was less we could do back then. It was really us exploring where we could take the videos and everything. It’s also a subtle commentary, a satirical commentary, I guess.
How did Para Fiction come to be?
We met at a drum and bass gig, then we walked back to my mate’s house and a week later we met up and made TIME DEBT. TIME DEBT was the first song we ever wrote, and we were like ‘well this is interesting’. The original TIME DEBT sounds completely different, it’s quite interesting because it’s evolved over four years. The whole sound is evolving. We’re planning to expand with everything we’re doing. Before, it was very simple, like we were just making tunes in our bedroom and now obviously, we’re meeting new people and having more flexibility with everything.
We grew up in a predominantly UK hip hop, rap scene. No one really does punk music. There were hardcore kids, but we’re not really like that. Because of that we’ve kind of stayed in the hip-hop scene and combined them. So, we’re like a punk band in the hip-hop scene.
Everything we do can be compared to parasites – we absorb everything we see and regurgitate it with our own style. With Para Fiction being an internet band, our music taste resonates with our generation and is very diverse, purely because of how the internet has influenced us.
Describe your guys sound in 5 words or less?
Wonky, abrasive, fucking ignorance, surfey (like surf music), and evolving.
What type of impact do you guys want your music to have?
With us we’ve always had mad ambitions in terms of going further than music. We want to create our own world and expand Para Fiction to become more than just the music. In terms of an impact, we just wanna help people – help ourselves so that we can help people. Help young musicians, homeless people – there are loads of homeless people in Brighton. We don’t like the world we see so we wanna change it, but you can’t do that if you’re broke. We’re not here to be the best or anything like that, we just like music. If people like it, they like it.
People see us as quite quiet or lazy people but really the music speaks for us, which is funny. We feel like in rap it’s all about ego but we’re more about writing music that we wanna hear that doesn’t exist and adding to culture. Expanding on stuff, like there’s always something that responds to something else.
Where do you pull inspiration from when you are creating music?
It goes back to the internet thing; we pull from all corners of our tastes. With Para Fiction we just wanted to expand and create new things, a lot of that comes down to listening to a lot of old and new music. We listen to a lot of 70s punk and are inspired by the ethos and the weirdness in the way that it is written. We get inspiration from reading books, watching cartoons, loads of different things. I also have a lot of admiration for bands and people who are doing similar stuff and doing well. Like Death Grips – when I see all of those people it makes you want to work really hard.
Most of our inspiration is just from our music taste. We listen to a lot of genres, a lot of jazz, a lot of hip hop, a lot of trap, a lot of punk, a lot of reggae. A lot of different genres, but I think everyone does now. It’s just a reflection of shit, you know.
When did you realize you wanted to pursue music?
I don’t even know! How old are you in year 6? Like 12? My dad was a music journalist and he wanted to play the guitar, but he never played so he wanted me to get into it. I then started playing guitar and other stuff later on. He hated Jazz, Punk and Rap though. It’s really funny.
Do you two have any plans on releasing an EP or album soon?
Yeah, we’ve got two EPs coming by the end of the year. This summer we’ve just been doing a lot of festivals and we’ve got a lot on the way, 2020 is the year to look out for.
So, we’re gonna drop this trilogy of EPs and then we’re gonna be a lot busier in terms of content and everything. There might be an album in the works but who knows, we don’t even know yet.
Make sure to check out Para Fiction newly released EP Episode II: Epidemic below!
