The beginning. The members of Paris had been in different bands for as long as they could remember, before that day in 2001. The day when Paris really became Paris. At the end of the 90’s, Annika and Mattias lived together in a small apartment in Söder, in Stockholm. Half of the bedroom concisted. of an 8-channel analogue port studio. They recorded songs and ideas and sketches of songs,. Mattias was responsible for the machine. Often he also played the bass. Sometime in 1998, they hooked up with Emma through a friend. The reason? Annika was looking for a new member for her band “Smiling Politely”. The girls hit it off. And after various sessions with singing, screaming and nice harmonies, they decided to start a little project on the side. Just for fun. They recorded some songs, in the bedroom of course, with Mattias on bass and with programmed drums from their synthesizer, rather than real drums. Which pleased the neighbors as well. A demo was put together, during the simplest forms. One chance, one take. Whatever stuck on tape became the song. They realized the needed a name, too. And they wanted it to be simple and short. They decided on Paris! The first demos The first demos, fully equipped with ambitious album covers of fluffy animals, were handed out to friends and friends of friends. To the bands surprise, the songs were appreciated in a much larger group than just proud mothers and kind friends. They made more copies. Over and over again. And the CD-burner was seriously put to the test. The band figured that they should focus on handing out their music at clubs. And so they always had a demo or two in their pocket when they went out. Sending the music to record labels didn’t appeal to them. So they didn’t. After the third demo they gathered their songs on a collection. Simply named ”Greatest hits vol. 1”. They started sending the demo to clubs and venues, hoping for gigs. And as faith would have it, one demo found its way all the way down to Rockparty in Hultsfred. The band was offered a gig and they accepted gladly. Although soon, they started worrying, as they realized that they had never played their songs live. This however was a small problem compared to the fact that they had never rehearsed. Time to call Johan Efraimsson With their very first and upcoming gig in mind, Paris realized that they needed someone on drums. They called Johan Efraimsson from Annikas old band ”Smiling Politely”. Convincing him wasn’t that hard. They asked, “hey, you wanna play at Hultsfred?”. He answered “Hell yes” and Paris now had a drummer. Three weeks later, after borrowing every rehearsal space they could find, they were ready to go on stage. Live! June 16th 2001 Paris played live on Hultsfreds demo stage. After four days of partying and living the festival life (oh yes, tent and all), the band were likely candidates for the title “Most run down band at Hultsfred.” But when they got on stage they were boosted by the audience and had a great gig. Also, Paris were voted best demo band of the festival. Suddenly, Paris was a band that had a real audience. And that loved to play live. So they decided to do more of that. Lots more. Best sellers! Three more demos were recorded. One in Thomas Troelsens studio ”Delta Lab” i Köpenhamn. Once again they gathered their material, now on the demo ”Greatest Hits vol. 2”. And that’s when things really started to happen. ”Greatest Hits vol.2” sold 1500 copies and the songs “Tonight” and “Disco Fever” both got heavy rotation on the radio. The demo sold especially well at Pet Sounds, a small record shop in Stockholm. Peter Ejheden, not only a employee but also known as the man who discovered Swedish rock band Kent, liked the songs a lot. And so he put together a plan to release the material on his label “Look Left Recordings”. The band was approached by several large record companies as well. But since they wanted to do their own thing, they decided to sign with Ejhedens “Look Left Recordings”. Early in 2003 the 6-track EP ”Les amis de Paris” was in stores. The big wide world. Before signing their record deal, the band had played close to 100 gigs in Sweden. And with the EP out they kept going strong. They played clubs, festivals, and even toured Germany. During the tour they also finished their first full-length record ”Yellow Eden”. Yellow Eden was released in October 2003 and got great reviews in Sweden and Germany. Secrets On Tape Annika och Emma stayed productive. By summer 2004, they had a new bunch of songs. And as tradition had it, they went into Mattias apartment to record (but the studio had now moved from the bedroom to the living room and the analogue port had already on “Les amis de Paris” been replaced by a computer). One year later ”Secrets on tape” was finished. The first song on the album “Millions of tears” fulfilled an old dream: it had strings on it. The record was received well by critics. Paris seemed to overcome the “tricky second record” with applause. Germany here we come! Again! The release of ”Secrets on tape” was followed by a series of tours. Mostly in Sweden and Germany. In Germany, fans followed the band from gig to gig. Paris felt more at home than ever. In the fall of 2006, the drummer Johan decided to move to the US. A farewell gig was held at Debaser in Stockholm. Paris as a band, however, had no intentions of taking a break. Between the tours they had been working on new material. So to keep up the pace, a new drummer was brought in. Oskar Kvant joined Paris and together they began recording album nr3. Parismusic As the new material started to take form, their previous contract ran out. Instead of signing with a new label Paris decided to release their third album on their own lable Paris Music. ”The Landlord is kind enough to let us have our little sessions…” The first single off the new record was ”When I laid my eyes on you”. The band also decided to bring in a guest artist Nicklas Stenemo from The Mo lends his vocals on ”Take a chance on romance”. Needless to say, Paris is very proud of this collaboration. The strings are given more space this time around. Arranged again by Nille Fornelius and performed by Stockholm Strings. “The Landlord is kind enough to let us have our little session” was released on 27 September 2007. Paris are currently working on their 4:th album. Stay updated at www.myspace.com/parissthlm.