Full Album show of December 15, 2019
Album: Lies Between Us

Paragon Cause is an indie-electronica band based in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, with a penchant for making music that is enigmatic, darkly mysterious, but also wondrously compelling.
Bringing together a lush electronic, almost industrial sound with indie vocals and strong melodic compositional sensibilities, Paragon Cause has crafted a collection of songs that are infused with the lo-f intensity and rawness of a garage band, embellished with superior vocal and musical hooks that pull the listener in to each one of the band’s compositions.
Comprised of guitarist/songwriter Jay Bonaparte and vocalist /keyboardist Michelle Opthof, the duo is set to release their latest EP, Lies Between Us in September 2019. It is the frst of what will be a series of releases leading up to a fulllength album, expected in 2020.
Lies Between Us - 2019
Produced by Sune Rose Wagner (The Raveonettes)
Mastered by Joe LaPorta
Debuted at #15 on FMQB Sudmodern Albums in the US
Top 10 in over 15 US College Radio
Top 20 in 15 Canadian Radio
*Recommended 1st Listen - Separate Lives, Someone Else, Save Me Lies Between Us, the second release by Ottawa's Paragon Cause, feels deeper and more emotionally complex with each listen, which is how it’s been designed.
Bonaparte and Opthof have brought together a mix of music styles that would seem congicting and dissonant, but they make it work. Incorporating 1980s synth sounds with jangly 1950s guitar runs, laced with jazz piano chords, hip hop backbeat, the EP is as atmospheric as it is interesting.
The EP, and the the forthcoming album, were produced by one of their musical heroes - Sune Rose Wagner of Danish pop/alternative sensations, The Raveonettes.
And it happened in the craziest way. Jay sent Wagner a tweet mentioning he would love to work with him on their next project. He never imagined Wagner would actually reply – but he did, and the two soon began a correspondence which led to Wagner traveling up from New York City to Ottawa to work alongside Paragon Cause.
“We didn’t know what we were getting into and we just went with the gow. We spent 10 days recording 8 songs in my basement studio. Two weeks later he called saying ‘what are you doing for New Years?’ and he drove back from New York to Ottawa and we spent another week recording another seven songs. It was all very, very spontaneous” Jay said.
“He did all the drum programming and added some synthesizer on a number of the tracks. But his role as producer was integral to the fnal product. We all worked so well together. There really wasn’t much that we had to do as everything happened so naturally. It was very strange in a good way, and we all had an amazing time.”
Although they have only collaborated musically for a couple of years, Jay and Michelle have developed a powerful symbiotic connection, feeding oc one another’s ideas to create original songs of remarkable uniqueness and depth of meaning.
“Sometimes I will come up with a guitar idea or Michelle will come up with a vocal idea or a lyric and we will sit down at the piano and jam it out. It’s very organic. It’s pretty amazing how connected we are when we’re writing music together,” said Jay. This is evidenced by the music being created alongside Sune Rose Wagner for ‘Lies Between Us’.