F  L  A  U  N  T

The Paranoyds are a straight forward sleek bunch, so it’s no surprise you dive ‘Face First’ into Carnage Bargain. The album opens with the perfectly intergalactic guitar play you hear in a distant desert daydream, or somewhere West of the 405 and out on the edges of the continent. Self-aware and confident, ‘Carnage Bargain’ gets to the point. The Paranoyds quickly let you in on some real talk with their title track off the album. Lexi Funston delivers strong-willed statements intermingled with the distinct Noyds-ie haze stomp instrumentals that have you immediately tuned in. What stands out most is the raw emphasis on a reality that seems political by necessity, a responsible feeling that is vocalized in a fashion that captivates instead of intimidates. The Paranoyds don’t shy away, they seem to be embracing all the good anddealing with the evil too. They even go so far as to provide the people with the perfect sound to dance it all off to.

I remember when Staz and I used to get dropped off by our moms or take the Big Blue Bus to the Kutting Room, a hair salon by day and the local teenage underground venue by night. Growing up in Los Angeles gave us access to musical enrichment that is also just rooted in the history of the place. I may be bias, but I feel like West LA often gets a suburban rep when in fact it’s a place of constant revolution and discovery. Ironically enough, Myspace — which so many of us were the first adapters of, was headquartered just a few doors down from the Kutting Room. Perhaps that random fact was a foreshadowing of what the area is known as to some now, “Silicon Beach” – home of tech money, Birds, and a worse homeless crisis than before. Back then, it was just Santa Monica and the Promenade, our little nook of the woods where we would loiter and live free of a teenage experience dominated by our devices. Little did we know 2019 would bring us “orange clowns,” fences keeping “cool shit away” and a million addictive ways to keep your eyes down on your devices.

But a beach folk rule you learn is that there’s no better cure for society-induced paranoia and stress than hanging out with your friends and listening to, or in this case – making music. Lucky for us, Staz Lindes, Laila Hashemi, Lexi Funston, and David Ruiz founded The Paranoyds to give us the content we should be consuming, the dance we’ve been craving to have, and the missing compassion we’ve been desperately wanting to bring back. Carnage Bargain is the radical soundtrack to propel you closer towards a freer and a better willed place. Get your dancing shoes on and dive on in.

Nikoo: First off, congratulations on your debut album, you’re making west LA real proud. Howdoes being from LA impact your sounds?

Staz: We all met at SAMO actually. We were in tap dance at SMC.

Nikoo: Do you guys still do that?

Laila: We break it out once in a while.

Staz: Umm so yeah, we all met in school, Laila and Lexi went to preschool through high school together and then we met at SAMO and I guess because we are so blessed with a music scene in LA, we were enriched with a great music scene. We all started going to shows in high school.

Nikoo: Yes, omg do you remember the Kutting Room?

Lexi: Right?!

Laila: That was crucial.

Staz: Yeah, definitely got shut down. I think it’s also the fact that there were some great female acts growing up, but it’s also definitely been a male dominated scene the whole time. I feel like I was always going to guy bands and like there weren’t that many female fronted and if they were, they were a little bit sweet. There are bands like Mika Miko which were super groundbreaking.

Lexi: Everyone is super supportive. Just because everyone is somehow involved in the music scene, everyone is really supportive which is nice.

Staz: What I was trying to say about it being male dominated is that I always wanted a have a band but was always kind of like being taught by guys or over shadowed by them and it took a while but then once we got together, we got confident enough to do it without that. And now,it’s nice. We were inspired to be friends first and then kind of create something cool to sharewith everybody.

Nikoo: I feel like that definitely comes across in “Girlfriend Degree” too, that whipped creamscene in the video is so good. And then all your dreams are so comedic too, but it hits pretty hard. Did that experience the influence for writing that song?

Lexi: Yeah, definitely. It was cool to have a video that was able to reflect what the song was about but also not be heavy handed.

Nikoo: While I was watching all your videos and listening to the lyrics, I kept bursting into laughter. Like a release of relief because I was seeing raw and uninhibited self-dependency inmusic, it’s what we all grew up admiring. As you are about to debut your album and go on tour, how do you keep what you have created safe?

Laila: It’s to be continued...

Staz: The biggest thing is like you can really admire a pop song or a song we can tell has a strong hook, well it’ll be great to write a song like that but let’s make it in minor or like do something freaky with it. The whole thing is that we like to create stuff that’s fun to play, therefore it is fun to watch and probably fun to listen to and maybe you want to learn it too. You know? That’ theway that we keep the integrity.

Lexi: Hopefully, it’s nice that we have been friends before the music. Just because it keeps us in check where we can switch between talking about music and then talking about real life. It’s easier to switch between the two and hopefully the authenticity of that is that we are open about every aspect of our lives with each other. And then there’s music.

Laila: At the end of the day, it’s as if we are still just sitting in Lexi’s bedroom like as cheesy as it sounds but learning the songs for the first time. It’s still very much like we’re doing this funthing together and I think that keeps us grounded.

Staz: We were always filming skits, Lexi and Laila had skits. We had skits. We’re very comedic, we’re just like really silly.

Nikoo: It’s funny, it’s funny but it actually makes you think. Like woah they’re telling mesomething, but I am allowed to laugh and have fun.

Laila: Laughing? Haha yeah.

Nikoo: The night of the Vans Black Rainbows event in Venice, you ladies opened for X. How did that feel? That night was epic to witness.

Laila: It was craaaazzzzzy.

Lexi: I’ll let Staz talk about it because she loved it.

Nikoo: It honestly felt like a good passing of the torch. It was like woah, where else do you get this?

Staz: I mean like WTF, yeah!

Nikoo: It made me realize you guys are the only band from LA doing what you’re doing that isaccessible and generates interest.

Staz: I kept talking about all these scenarios like well maybe there will be a panel and it’ll be like “this is how this band rips off X” or like “why did they choose us?” I remember being the fan in front of X shows thinking “please look at me, please notice me” to “oh my god I am interacting with X and they know my name, they know my band”. It was like so much for me, I had adrenaline running for a few days after that. And I mean it was crazy for you to be there. There was a lot of kids from samo or Venice that I grew up with there. Having someone like you that I looked up to so much growing up when I was younger and when you had your project with BJ (Panda Bear). Then my friend Mikki Itzigsohn was there, she was in a bunch of punk bands. Just all these figures from throughout my life were watching us and Excene was watching us, it was just like too much.

Lexi: I didn’t even think of that but it’s true, there were people in the crowd that I haven’t seensince like 8th grade and I was like “woah, it’s crazy that you are here right now”.

Staz: It was really crazy.

Nikoo: That is intense. It was such a good night for all of that to go down. I didn’t realize somany reunions, so sorts were happening. It captures the magic of west LA or Venice, but when things come full circle like that.

Lexi: Yeah.

Nikoo: Your outfits always impress. Do you guys pick themes for shows to dress up to?

Staz: It’s random. It depends if we all recently shopped something we’re excited about. Like “I just got this cute red thing, do you guys have something all red?”. It’s not every show, it’s hard to commit to a look because it is so much fun to play dress up all the time.

Nikoo: You guys go against that, you’re about being able to change your look.

Staz: Sometimes we’re ultra-feminine and sometimes we’re pretty boyish. It’s whatever. That’swhat I want for our band too. Like look there’s no set mold for anything. Just be whatever youwant, and watch people react to the science of it.

Nikoo: When you guys are writing out the tracks, is it a collaborative environment?

Staz: Collaborative pretty much. The songs wouldn’t end up where they are without all of us doing them.

Nikoo: Carnage Bargain is such an incarnate song. It’s political even in the title.

Staz: It was just another one of those days that I read another shitty headline about immigration. I just can’t read the news anymore, it’s too awful.

Laila: It’s too much for me.

Staz: The news is so rating based. We don’t know, it changes so often and in that first year that Trump was elected, I was just a mess reading the news. I was breaking down crying all the time, I couldn’t sleep. The Nuclear stuff going on with in North Korea should we text everybody that we love them because it sounds like we’re going to blow up tomorrow. Once a year later, they were shaking hands, I was like I need to stop reading the news. It’s all scripted and dramatized. It’s so nasty, obviously there is true news, but it does not come from mainstream news sources most of the time. The thing with Carnage Bargain is the whole crisis with what is happening at the border is so disturbing. It’s just the whole world that we don’t know what is really going on, they’re making deals, making drone deals to wipe out – whatever carnage bargain while we just want to be good people. It’s weird, it’s weird being a person with empathy. It’s just not a time of empathy. They’re going more the direction of just be on your phone and shut up.

Laila: Couldn’t have said it better, that’s it.

Nikoo: Your videos are creating this content that is a contrast to what a young girl sees in mainstream media, it feels artistic in the delivery and highlights girl power that is awesome to see. Are there young female fans that come to your shows that you identify with?

Lexi: There is some young girls that come up to us and it’s always just a highlight of the show for me.

Staz: When we are on tour, we get to meet interact with young girls who are going to their first show. Sometimes it’s their first show or their first album they’ve bought. We were all that girl. That is also a full circle thing that is really so beautiful to do. We get gross dudes that talk to us at the merch table, but we get actual young women that need us or female fronted bands to come into down and tell them you’re not weird for disliking mainstream music, we are that niche they have been looking for. There have been amazing moments like that. There are girls that started playing because of us, and they’ve been honest about that. I get DMs sometimes that’s like can you send me the bass track for this and I’m like fuck that song is like 6 minutes long. That’s what makes it worth it in the end. Anyone who is inspired to create art after seeing us, whether that is making art better than them or I can do it too – or whatever, I don’t care as long as you do something about it either way.

Nikoo: Embracing DIY IRL. You’re promoting that for everyone. What’s next for you?

Staz: I want to have a bunch of different, we’re going to be like Ween and just have a bunch of genres going.

Lexi: I feel like that is our style, it’s the thing that is our band. A lot of the songs on Carnage Bargain are completely different. It’s all over the place which will hopefully be shown on thenext album as well.

Nikoo: I really loved Ratboy, the lyrics are pretty romantic “the hollow street calls out to me, howls my name constantly”. I couldn’t decipher is it a romantic song or is it something withinyourself despite romance?

Staz: It’s just about a crush to be honest. The early dating stages where it’s like come on and kiss me! This is a real thing and we gotta do something about it.

Laila: Dramatic.

Staz: It’s playful.

Nikoo: It’s where you got your research for Girlfriend Degree.

Staz: Yeah something like that.

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Photographed by: Derek Perlman

Styled by: Ally Nikoltchev

Produced by: BJ Panda Bear