Making Up for Lost Time
written and performed by Jay Bonaparte, Michelle Opthof and Sune Rose Wagner
Produced by Sune Rose Wagner
Lyrics and Voice by Michelle Opthof
Guitars - Jay Bonaparte
Drums and Bass - Sune Rose Wagner
Paragon Cause, the ethereal electro-rock duo from Ottawa, did not let 2020 slow them down. Fresh off the successful release of their prior two albums, the duo is set to release a collection of singles, an EP (Crazy Over You, 2021) and a new album (Autopilot!) that further highlights their desire to create music that is both compelling and artistically fulfilling. The due further expanded their palate by bring some iconic and surprising collaborators on board, Liam Howe (Sneaker Pimps) and Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction). Although the duo is known to lean towards the darker side of music, this collection of songs provides a welcome sense of optimism.
With a style that combines a warm, enveloping electronic sound that at times borders on post-punk and shoegaze, Paragon Cause bring melody and excitement to the forefront, defying labels. Combine that with Indie influenced vocals that stand up to the best you can think of, Autopilot feels that creatively the gloves are finally off.
Though written and recorded before the world went into lockdown, this new album has been cast in a new light due to the pandemic and the combination of longing and optimism in each song feeling more acute.
Autopilot also represents two musicians—Michelle Opthof and Jay Bonaparte—continuing to make the most of their time, and because of that, taking chances they might not have otherwise. It’s that embrace of risk that brought them to their most trusted collaborators, Sune Rose Wagner, leader of the Raveonettes.
With Wagner collaborating on every step of the process, Paragon Cause banged out all the songs for Autopilot in 10 days—a spontaneous outpouring of creativity where the music and melody would spark lyrical ideas and vice versa. While they came into the initial sessions with dozens of small ideas for potential songs, the duo estimates that those resulted in minor elements for two tracks. The rest came via flashes of inspiration.
Paragon Cause are making the most of their time this year in advance of Autopilot’s release, with plans to drop seven singles from the record over the course of 2021, leading to the full album unveiling in early 2022. Kicking things off is the appropriately named lead single “Making Up For Lost Time,” a track that Bonaparte says was an attempt to combine the feeling of a Jesus and Mary Chain tune with the structure of an Everly Brothers song. And it was this song that Wagner helped bring across the finish line by encouraging to spend an evening listening to Bananarama. After that, the song wrote itself, with lyrics of taking chances, making mistakes, and acknowledging those same missteps.
“It’s happy, but there is a sense of longing,” Bonaparte says about “Making Up For Lost Time.” “It was initially meant to be about friends but after the last year with COVID, I think it can be applied to our current life in general. We want people to either sit in their car or put on some headphones and close their eyes. We want people to hear the song and remember what it was like living the last year and then feel the sense of optimism as life will start to come back to us. By the end of the song, we want people excited to begin the next chapter in their lives. It is meant to be a glimmer of hope through the long fog of isolation, whether it be from a past relationship or life.”
Paragon Cause certainly have a lot to be excited about. On top of this new album and the many singles that are to come this year, the duo will have the distinct honor of remixing a new track from classic new wave band Berlin (“No More Words,” “Take My Breath Away”), and will surely be working on more new music along the way. There’s no time to waste.
