How Paris Youth Foundation stepped straight onto the stage at Reading Festival after just one song

It’s great times for Paris Youth Foundation, who released new single Home Is Where The Heart Is this month ahead of a seven-date headlining tour next month and a return to festival stages throughout 2020.

Paris Youth Foundation are first to admit their story is a rare but definitely one worth telling.

Their first song ‘If You Wanna’ was picked up on SoundCloud by presenter Dave Monks on BBC Introducing in Merseyside who then put the band forward for Reading and Leeds.

A week later, Paris Youth Foundation were being played next to Rihanna on daytime Radio 1 before being invited to gig on the NME Tour supporting Blaenavon.

“You hear these kinds of stories when you’re growing up like, ‘Oh, we wrote one song and then we played Glastonbury.’” laughs Paris Youth Foundation frontman, Kevin Potter. “And then it happens to you and in the space of two weeks you go from playing guitar in your bedroom to playing Reading and you’re like man, it does actually happen!”

“In the space of about two weeks we went from having a song on Soundcloud – one song, no fans, no followers – to getting a play on BBC Merseyside, to getting an email saying they’d like us to play Reading and Leeds, and the week after that being told that we’re going to be the BBC Introducing act on the Radio 1 playlist,” Kevin recalls. “So in the space of two weeks, one song changed it all for us.”

The illusive label signing was just around the corner and for Modern Sky UK, signing Paris Youth Foundation was a no-brainer after they heard the band’s The Nights Are For Thinking About You EP in April. Fans of the band’s melodious and evocative themes of youthful heartbreak, they knew this Liverpool band had something we can all relate to. Inspired his own experiences, singer-songwriter, Kevin admits this is a common theme in his lyrics:

“Home Is Where The Heart Is is very much a love song at its core,’ he says. ‘It’s about that rare time in a breakup, where you kind of don’t want to be sad or argue anymore. You just want to appreciate the time and memories for what they were. It’s about that person being home for the weekend and how a place and a person can take you back in time, and maybe just for one night you pretend you’re still the same kids who fell in love all that time ago.”

Frontman Kevin, guitarist Tom, and drummer John have been friends since they met at school 10 years ago, playing in bands around Liverpool, last summer they decided to start something new, bringing in bassist Paul and guitarist from performing arts school LIPA. Kevin says:

“Liverpool’s so small, but it consistently knocks out these great bands. With LIPA too, it’s like Hogwarts. You’ve got all these wizards who are just great at music at your disposal. We wouldn’t have Paul and we wouldn’t have Jay without Hogwarts.”

Currently recording their as yet untitled debut album with Rich Turvey (Courteeners, Blossoms, Vistas) at legendary Parr Street Studios, they’ve been described as, “Fast on their way to joining that crop of young musicians ready to spearhead the British wave,” by NME, and from the way things are shaping, we’d have to agree.

Paris Youth Foundation play Liverpool’s Zanibar on Thursday 27th February. Listen to their new single Home Is Where The Heart Is here

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