Photo courtesy of Michelle Shiers

While Paradise Vultures has existed in multiple iterations, it was when bassist/vocalist Tommy Senter met drummer Matty Barreca in a North Hollywood tiki bar that sealed the deal. Their mutual love of certain styles of music instantly bonded them, creating a dynamic that no one else could penetrate.

They’ve spent the better part of this year releasing singles as a lead up to a bigger project. “Catacombs”, “Love is a Cancer” and “Bad Decisions” are complex tales of grief, joy and anything in between. Their latest single, “Sister Kennedy”, shares a deeper insight into what listeners can expect from the rest of their upcoming debut album.

“‘Sister Kennedy’ exemplifies and encapsulates many elements of the upcoming record, both lyrically and musically,” Senter said. “This is a record about the destruction of one view of the self and the discovery of a new one. The upcoming album, Born to Lose, is, at its core, an existentialist album, and ‘Sister Kennedy’ is a prime example of that. ‘Sister Kennedy’ is as candid and engaging as it is chaotic and unpredictable; a microcosm of the full-length record.”

The album was produced and mixed by Phil English, who has worked on numerous Grammy-nominated projects in the last several years. There is a great history of collaboration among the three of them, and working together has tested their strengths in the studio.

“[English] is someone who isn’t afraid to try new things and is always game to try approaches that are a bit off the beaten path,” Senter said.

Experimenting instrumentation and arrangement became the most rewarding part of the album’s creation. For “Sister Kennedy” specifically, Senter describes the song as one about the madness and self-loathing that comes with addiction. When it came to the musical aspects, he wanted it to portray the same emotions.

“Layering calliope and theremin into a rock song was not my first instinct, but once the idea popped into my head, it made perfect sense,” he said. “It’s theatrical and melodramatic and really satisfies my inner musical theater nerd.”

The band has dealt with plenty of setbacks and external issues, but the duo continues on. They have managed to learn a lot about resilience during the making of Born to Lose and are looking forward to the reward that comes with its release.

“It’s a really beautiful thing when you see your unwillingness to quit start to pay off in real time,” Senter said. “The process of writing, recording, playing live and releasing this record has been as arduous as it has been beautiful.”

When asked what they hope listeners take away from Born to Lose, Senter went the philosophical route. At the end of the day, they just want their music to resonate with their audience. How they choose to interpret it is up to them.

“There is no intrinsic meaning to anything,” he said. “No one asked to be born. Who would read the user reviews of life and say to themselves, ‘All that pain sounds great!’ We are born, we live, we die. But, if nothing means anything, then we are free to make anything mean everything. It’s easy to find beauty in pleasure; finding beauty in pain and anguish is the really tricky part. But once you get the hang of it, you can find beauty in the most unexpected places, and that’s what we try to encourage. Be candid, be real, be raw; be yourself. Be whatever you want to be. Create. Live.”