SEARCH PARTY PARADISE (EPK)

RELEASE DATE: March 8th, 2024

“Paradise is a track we wrote during rehearsals for our last tour. At the time we were all busy with work, gigs with our other bands, trying to get our heads around the admin involved in organising the tour and worrying if anyone would show up. The song is about being able to park those worries at the door and come home to your own slice of paradise with the person you love”

We recorded this track with Neal Calderwood in Manor Park Studios on a frosty morning. We almost died trying to drive up the icy lane towards the studio because the roads were so slippery, Gareth’s car completely spun round onto the other side of the road and was inches from falling in a ditch. Luckily, we came out unscathed and made this song and another called ‘Cave’ which will be coming out later this year. Neal is a very meticulous engineer with a real keen-professional eye for detail, making sure our harmonies weren’t too close in pitch, ensuring doubles synced up and checking the intonation of our guitars throughout the session. We have never attempted to achieve perfection in this way before and let me tell you, it was tough. However, Neal’s studio is the perfect environment for this level of effort. spacious recording areas, a cosy living space to play pool in between takes and Neal’s calm presence all make the experience a joy.

When crafting the sound for Paradise we definitely wanted to have this element of nostalgia in there. We made sure Chris picked out the cheesiest 80s sound on his synth and drenched the guitars in chorus and reverb, a change of pace to our regular tone but the track feels a bit like a ballad so we had to go all in with the emotional and grandeur of it all.

The main riff sort of came to us by mistake, the 4 chords of the riff are played as open chords with the bottom 2 strings ringing out like 2 pedal notes. Sean (our singer) was struggling to transition from the last chord of the progression back to the open D flat chord when the phrase repeats. This meant that he kept missing the first beat of the riff during the writing sessions because he couldn’t move his finger into position quick enough. Our drummer Dee was hearing this brief pause on the first beat and, believing it was intentional, started shifting the accent of the riff to the second beat of the bar, making for this jilted rhythm at the start of each phrase that actually makes the riff a bit more interesting, so we kept it in and it has became the focal point of the track.

Search Party

HI RES PHOTOS

Search Party are an indie rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since they became a 5-piece in 2021 Seán McD, Chris Anderson, Ryan Pendleton, Gareth Hill and Dee Malone have tried to combine driving rhythms with melodic riffs to achieve an energetic, electric sound. Since then they have toured across the UK & Ireland packing out some of the most prestigious venues and playing some fabulous festivals from Stendhal to Spectrum. They released their debut full-length album ‘Too Much Red Tape’ and follow-up Indie-pop EP ‘Liminality’ to much acclaim.

This will be the first of 3 singles we’re putting out in the first half of this year, which will be followed by a new EP later in the year and a headline show in The Empire (our biggest yet) on the 15th of November (being announced February 1st). In 2023 we completed a 10 date tour of the UK & Ireland and Sold out The Ulster Sports club and now we want to build on that momentum.

What are the band’s main influences?

Sam Fender, Catfish & The Bottlemen, The Smiths, The War On Drugs, The Cranberries, Cage The Elephant, General Fiasco, Two Door Cinema Club

“In a world where ‘mediocre’ has become the new ‘great’, Search Party are sonically waging a one-band war against the idealess”
Benji Connell, Chordblossom