Paris Youth Foundation: Momentum
For Paris Youth Foundation, starting a band was a nought to sixty ascent they can still hardly believe. Uploading first song If You Wanna to Soundcloud, a fortnight later the band found themselves playing their first show at Reading Festival.
From Liverpool, Paris Youth Foundation is singer and guitarist Kevin Potter, guitarist Tom Morris Jones, and drummer Jonny Alderton. With a friendship that’s lasted nearly a decade, the trio met in school, bonding over music and the usual lads holiday to Greece at sixteen. Having played in bands around Liverpool, last summer they decided to start something new, bringing in bassist Paul Bates and guitarist Jamie Hives through friends in the city’s vibrant music scene and from the performing arts school LIPA.
They recorded debut track If You Wanna, a rush of melodic guitar, propeller drums and hook fuelled chorus, and posted it to Soundcloud where it was picked up by BBC Introducing in Merseyside presenter Dave Monks who put the band forward for Reading and Leeds. A week later Paris Youth Foundation were being played next to Rihanna on daytime Radio 1.
Driven to make the most of their break, they took time to build the right team around themselves whilst gigging on the NME Tour and supporting Blaenavon. But when it comes to the songs, there’s a greater drive powering songwriter Potter – heartbreak.