INTERVIEW: Paratopia

 Paratopia is a jazz fusion band at Temple, featuring Louis Golding (bass), Laurans Trinh (tenor saxophone), Nora Lowther (keyboard), Gabe Fuentes (drums), Akash Singh (alto saxophone), Darius Buckwalter (trombone), Ethan Jacobson (trumpet), and Michael Meyers (guitar).  

Known for the time and effort they put into rehearsing and building their sound, Paratopia brings loads of energy to their live performances through the way they interact with their audience.  

Keyboardist Nora Lowther says rehearsals are just as important as gigs, and that the extra time they spend together is a big part of what makes the group shine. 

For bassist Louis Golding, Paratopia’s sound comes from the individuality of its members, each contributing their own style: “We add so much of ourselves to our music through the lens of a fully arranged, 10-minute-long progressive rock-jazz fusion style. Then we just blow over it and we Paratopia all over the place.”  

Let’s dive into more of the history, dynamics, influences, and favorite memories of Paratopia.  

Kelsea: What is your favorite piece to perform and why?  

Nora: I’ve been liking “Black Rock Palintir” because the melody’s really fun. It just feels nice to play. There’s a section in the middle that’s totally a different vibe, I can switch up my patches and everything.  

Gabe: Right now, “Tunnel” because before we play, I can tap off the tempo and I can look around and see the terror in everyone’s eyes. I can look at Michael and see him going, “No, man, no, no, no.”  

Akash: I would definitely say “Paratopia.” It’s a pure statement piece of how this group is. It goes through every musical style we like to play in. It starts with a high energy melody, then it goes into a hard breakdown section, then a chill grooving section into this crazy out section. Then the reprise just gets everybody every time.  

Darius: I think it would be “Out of Time,” purely for the switch up in the second half of the song. I think it really catches everybody off guard. I really love the out of time feel of the song.  

Ethan: My favorite song to play is also my favorite song that I’ve composed for the band, “Droplets.” We always end off every show with it pretty much. It’s definitely our most through-composed, longest, section wise.  

Michael: “Tunnel” is great. There’s this awesome guitar intro which is super fun to play every time. Then these great strumming and energetic solos. I get to go really hard at the end which is so much fun.  

Louis: My favorite song to play is definitely “Paratopia.” It summarizes our sound. It starts with a very iconic groove that me and Gabe get to play together, then the whole band slowly comes in. I always get a chill down my spine when we play it. It’s how we start every single show. I always feel like unexpected things happen in that song.                              

Laurans: Currently, my favorite song to perform is “Tunnel” because every time we end that song everyone in the crowd goes crazy. Everyone loves that song. Michael is incredible on that song.  

Kelsea: What drew you to the jazz fusion genre and how did you choose this genre for the band? 

Ethan: It all started just because me and Louis were in an orientation group together. I remember introducing myself to everyone. I think I kept saying that ‘“I really like Sungazer.’” That was my thing at that time. They’re a jazz fusion band.  

Ethan explains that their shared appreciation for jazz fusion soon developed into a creative partnership, moving from a joke band to writing original work together once school started. They initially tried to do covers, but then Ethan started to share some of his own music with Louis. He showed him an old version of “Paratopia” before it had that name, and that ended up becoming the sound of the now eight-piece group.  

Louis: I love this music. I love this sound. I feel like it’s one of those genres in music that people don’t know it, but it really brings people together. It really makes people want to get up and dance and have a good time. Most people don’t know that until they see it happen. I think it’s just one of those things that the second you experience it, you just get it. I think that’s true of Paratopia and our sound.  

Kelsea: When you’re performing, how do you create an energetic atmosphere for the audience, and how do you stay connected as a band to keep that momentum going? 

Laurans: A basic thing that we all do to make the audience more excited about our playing is make sure they can see who’s playing what. When Michael is soloing, we have him step out and play into the crowd. If Akash is soloing, the audience should see him and they should see him get into it. Just genuinely look like you’re having fun, because if you’re having fun, they’re having fun.  

Akash: We are very tight knit as a group of musicians. There’s a really great community that Parotopia has. I think all that commitment that we have off stage shows on stage as well. There have been times where we’ve had members come to gigs sick, we’ve had times where we’ve had members who have broken their horn five minutes before we started playing. But that kind of adversity really doesn’t matter when we’re just trying to go out there and play our souls out. I think that is just contagious for an audience.   

Michael: The way that our music is written, it goes through so many different vibes. We have so many cool moments that the audience really feels. There’s many songs where we break it down and it gets real quiet and you know, Gabe’s laying down a rhythm, Louis gets everybody clapping. That’s cool stuff. Whenever the band comes back in, everybody goes nuts. The way our music is laid out just gets everyone really into it.   

Kelsea: Are there any musicians that you want to channel or take inspiration from when you perform? If so, who? 

Nora: I love Hiromi Uehara. She’s a jazz fusion pianist and she’s my idol. That’s kind of how I got into the genre. I love her because she moves around so much when she plays. The energy she has is off the charts and I just want to be like her.  

Ethan: From the composer’s point of view, I take inspiration from Masayoshi Takanaka and Casiopea first and foremost. Then, as of recently, an amazing band by the name of GPS. They’re a Philly band. Their sound is definitely cool. Someone else that I take inspiration from is Sungazer because I liked them when we started out. 
 

Michael: In our performances I try to throw in a lot of Guthrie Govan and Allan Holdsworth stuff–a lot of the legato and shreddier playing. Most of the solos I get to play are in the rock sections of our music, but in “Black Rock,” I get to do really modal, fusiony, GPS style work.  

Gabe: I try to play like the technician sort of drummers, like Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta. They can lay down a groove that has all the syncopation and all this cool stuff. Maybe David Garibaldi too. I like how the groove is inspired by the song and the melody, and when they chop, they can really chop. I like the sound they get and how open they are. 

Kelsea: What was your favorite gig from this year and what made it memorable for you? 

Laurans: I have two. My all time favorite was the Point Pleasant gig. We went up to Point Pleasant to compete in a battle of the bands. We visited Ethan’s hometown. It was a new environment that we hadn’t played before. We always played for a lot of younger people, but this time we played for a lot of older people. We also won that battle of the bands. My second favorite might have been the Bohemia. People really enjoyed the energy that we were giving.  

Ethan: I have two favorites with one of them being Point Pleasant because that was like the beach episode for us. Point Pleasant’s a beach town, and our music’s very beachy. We also got to play for an older audience and they still really liked it. That was cool too. 

The other one, it’s gotta be Bohemia or the Coach room–any of the house shows we’ve been doing recently, where it’s super broken down. For the Coach Room, that one wasn’t even all Temple kids; it was mostly Drexel kids. None of the other bands sounded anything like us, and we thought everybody was leaving when they saw us setting up. But then when we started playing, the room filled back up and it was a totally nuts show. People who we didn’t expect to like jazz fusion loved it. 
 

Darius: I would have to say definitely Coach Room because everything went wrong, but it was still somehow our most energetic show. 

Louis: It was at Philly Style Pizza. It’s a really cool spot. It was really cool to me that’s there’s a spot on Temple’s campus where all these kids just go to a pizza place and play music. Ever since I started Paratopia, I really wanted to play there. Then finally, one day I was like, you know what ‘“I’m gonna go in, I’m just going to talk to the guy”’ and I made it happen. Then we played there. It felt like one of the first times where I got to see Temple people listening to our music because usually we’re just playing to friends and this time we were playing to random people. People who just walked in to hear some music came up afterward and said, “Man, that was amazing. Your band’s really good.” It felt really nice to hear that from people I’d never met before. 

Gabe: I really liked Bohemia because I feel like as we go on we’re getting to know each other better. I feel like we’re a more unified front and we can get more jazzy with it, like the call and response aspect. We feel more connected. Each gig we get tighter.