We sit down with London Based Singer Paris Paloma as we discuss her journey as a promising upcoming artist
Paris Paloma is a London based singer I discovered on social media within the Coronavirus Lockdown. Throughout the past year her career has starting gaining momentum as she has released some beautiful songs, her most recent being ‘Tell It To My Heart‘, a Hozier cover that was actually shared to his 1.8 million followers.
We met for the first time in person at the end of last year and I had the opportunity to interview her about her life as a musician, the inspirations behind her songs and the importance of visibility and empowerment for women in a male dominated industry.
ELI: I’m here with Paris Paloma and we’re currently in this amazing venue at The Fiddler! We’ve known each other for a year and a half now, back in my production days, and I believe it was in the first lockdown we met?
Paris Paloma: It was when everyone was on Instagram ’cause no one could go to live gigs. So, everyone was discovering music on social media and so our paths were thrown together.
ELI: Yeah, I remember your first single and it was amazing. I Loved it, especially the sound design. What inspired you to start creating, releasing and performing music?
Paris Paloma: I’ve written music for a long time. I went to like a large all-girls boarding school and I would perform there so I got used to performing in front of really large Crowds of 800 to 1000 people. We had this huge hall and a stage and that’s where I started performing music that I was writing, original songs and stuff. I have been writing steadily ever since I left school, but not really putting it out and then I met my first producer, Harry, in March of 2020. Harry Charlton. We’re not working together anymore ’cause he’s now gone down a route of being a sound designer so that’s funny you said sound design. He produced ‘Narcissist’ and you can really hear his signature with being a sound designer.
ELI: Oh, definitely. If you listen to the song, you can hear the intricacy in it. It’s so interesting.
 Paris Paloma: watching him work is mesmerising. So, he did ‘Narcissist’, ‘Ocean Baby’ and ‘Cradle’ and we sort of Co-produced ‘Echo’, and he played guitar on ‘The Underneath’. We worked on a good few songs together. In lockdown, I got taken up by this mentoring programme for women in music by a brand called Hybrid Tribe and that’s what taught me about the music industry and enabled me to start putting my music out there. If you don’t know about them, please look them up because they’re great for giving agency to young artists in particular young women insight.Â
ELI: I think that’s important as well. Especially female empowerment as there’s a lot of misogyny still in the music industry.
 Paris Paloma: You don’t realise how little space women in music take up in the industry and it was that sort of thing that we were educated on. In the in-mentoring programme, I was mentored by this great singer called Chloe Diana. She taught me how to navigate in the industry and how to do things yourself, so you don’t need to end up paying people to do stuff like social media, branding, marketing, all that sort of stuff. I’m so grateful for that. It’s so Awesome, I’m so much less likely to be exploited now that I know those little things about the industry.Â
“You don’t realise how little space women in music take up in the industry“
Paris Paloma
ELI: You were talking about all your independent work. What made you want to sign to your label High Plateau Records and how does independent artistry compare to that?Â
Paris Paloma: So High Plateau Productions isn’t a label. it does the work of a label but It’s a management company run by David Fernandez who is my manager. David and I are working towards me being signed to an actual label in 2022 whilst under the management of High Plateau Productions. So it’s just a management company that’s just really hands on and provides a lot of support and allows me to be creatively free.Â
ELI: When you create your music, who would you say your biggest inspirations? Who do you think about when you make your music?
Paris Paloma: I have many influences for my writing and the sounds of my music, I adore people like Hozier who are just so incredible at storytelling. I was in his top 0.5 on Spotify. In terms of like worldbuilding, I really love Grimes. Always without fail, I’m told that my work really reminds people of either Bon Iver or Billie Eilish, and that’s what Harry, my producer, said to me when we first met. At the time I didn’t know him, but he’s obsessed with Bon Iver and now I know how big of a compliment that was. Those are some of my artists that I really, really respect. I’ve recently been listening to a lot more like folk punk. I’ve been really enjoying the Mountain Goats recently you should check them out to.
ELI: Your first release was narcissist, which we have spoken about, but more recent to that, a song which has stuck in my mind… it’s a long title! The last beautiful thing I saw is the thing that blinded me. Its Stunning and I did a review on that I loved it so much. It really got me through my dissertation, and I loved the intimate feeling around it. How did you go about creating that and how has your music evolved from your first single to this recent release?
 Paris Paloma: I feel like ‘Narcissist’ was very produced and I don’t mean in terms of production. I mean, in terms of the lyrics. I was really trying to write poetry when I wrote Narcissist, like everything is a metaphor. I was writing poetry about this narrative of me when I wrote it. I go to Nunhead Cemetery a lot. I live in Peckham, and I got caught in a hailstorm in Nunhead Cemetery and I don’t go into Nunhead empty but it’s so beautiful it’s like this really forested area, it’s like woodland and stuff. Their was the biggest hailstorm I’ve ever witnessed, and I saw it. It was a real sort of spiritual experience and I wrote last week thinking about. That happening and the state of mind that I was in when that happened to me is about like my struggle with depression with sort of like mental health and like self-identity and stuff through this tiny little looking glass of that one afternoon I spent. In London Cemetery in the Hale sheltering under the cathedral doorway. Which is this old burnt-out cathedral with no windows but just the skeletons in there. that’s what I use a lot of. That’s what The last Beautiful thing I Saw Was The Thing That Blinded Me was about. I’ve become a lot more confident within my own songwriting capabilities and I don’t feel that I need to try so hard to sound like something now so yeah, I’m more confident.Â
ELI: It’s been a pleasure talking to you and I look forward to all your future work and can’t wait to see you blossom into the fully fledged star you deserve to be!Â
You must be logged in to post a comment.