A ten-foot flame cacklesjustinches away. The temperature reaches over 1,000°F. Smoke chokes outthe remaining oxygen. Naturallife withers and burns as the earth scorches.

Paris Shadows breathes in these memories as inspiration and exhales a hypnotic hybrid of gothic alternative hip-hop cast in cavernous beats and guitar awash in reverb. Long before amassing nearly 100 million streams in just a year’s time, touring alongside Post Malone, and earning acclaim from the likes of No Jumper, an unbelievable life shaped this sonic maverick—carrying him from childhood turbulence and two years on a hotshot crew as a wildland firefighter to launching his musical career during 2018.

“I’ve never been scared of death,” he exclaims. “Whenever the time comes, it will be for the right reason. This knowledge makes me approach life with twenty times more intensity. The fire relates to the music. Lyrically, so many songs are inspired by memoriesof being out in the middle of nowhere in these beautiful vast areas for 16 hours a day right next to a flame, sleeping for three hours, and doing itoveragainwhen I woke up. It made me ‘all or nothing.’ If I’m going to fuck up, I’m going to fuck up 100%. If I’m going to succeed, I’m going to succeed 100%.”

He embraced a level of “all or nothing” intensity as a child in Redding, CA. Born to a Mexican father and American mother, chaos surrounded his upbringing. As if predisposing a love for art within her son, mom named Paris after The Cure’s 1992 live album, Paris. Dad left early, and mom struggled on disability. The family would be supported by government assistance and food stamps.

Paris never quite fit in at school, opting to wear girls’ jeans “because they were tighter” and convincing mom to “shave the middle of [his] head and spike the hair into two Mohawks like [the late] Keith Flint of The Prodigy” in third grade. Around the same time, he picked up cello and fell in love with the instrument in between immersing himself in punk and industrial music.

“Things were so chaotic cellowas a nice way for me to escape and be a part of something more structured,” he says. “I was always the kid who wore headphoneseverywhere. My mom turned me on to Radiohead, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, and, of course, The Cure. My sister got me into blink-182, Hawthorne Heights, and Underoath. I got myself into Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. I ingested all of it. It’s where my sound eventually came from.”

He split his college years between painting and trying his hand at fashion design before joining a hotshot crew to fight wildland fires in 2016. Along the way, he quietly started producing under the name Prodbyparis for friends such as Machai. 2017 saw him pick up the microphone on a whim, cutting a demo for “Po’ed Up” and posting it on Soundcloud. A$AP Mob affiliate Tyler Gro$$o passed it on to Post Malone who invited Paris on tour.

Prior to hitting the road, hecaught the attention of300 Entertainment who promptly signed him and unveiled the official versionof “Po’ed Up”featuring multiplatinum star Gunna. Within six months, it cracked 19.3 million Spotify streams. He joined forces with producer Taz Taylor [Juice WRLD, XXXTentacion] and legendary drummer Travis Barker [blink-182] to record his debut One Night In ParisEPin just two days. Its lead single “GONE” [feat. Trippie Redd] notched 27.8 million Spotify streams with “ANGEL” eclipsing the 9 million-mark.It also set the stage for his 2019 full-length, Shadows.

Joining forces with producer Keith Varon [Zara Larsson, Lindsey Stirling], he introduces the project with the catchy and cathartic first single “No Choice.” Chorus-drenched distorted guitars offset a steady beat and admissions like, “What am I living for? Don’t know anymore.”On the hook, he chants, “I lost myself and I’m starting to break. You leave me no choice.”

“I’ve been going through a lot of self and personal struggles,” he admits. “Once I started working on myself, I was moving towards a positive place, but I still had to get over this dark thought process. It takes time to heal. You have no choice though.”

Meanwhile, the follow-up “Let Me Go” hinges on another singablerefrain amplified by his deep delivery as it details “a toxic relationship youjustneed to move on fromin order to really love yourself.”

In many ways, the album title and his chosen surname, Shadows, crystallizes his vision.

“Through facing pain, suffering, and these negative experiences referred toas Shadows, I’m able to tell a story,” he states. “I’m using light, positivity, and self-love to cast a story about my dark times and make it a bonding and learning experience for my listener.”

In the end, Paris Shadows connects by holding nothing back.“

The intensity allowed me to embrace self-love,” he leaves off. “If you’re able to take care of yourself, you can add something to the world. That’s what I want to do with my music. I want to give people something to connect to the way I did with my favorite artists.”