Paragon Cause - Biography

Media Inquiries or Booking - jay <at> ParagonCause <dot> com
Remixes/Recording - music <at> ParagonCause <dot> com

About Paragon Cause

While the term ‘autopilot’ has connotations of surrendering one’s freedom to a machine or going through the motions, this is far from the truth when it comes to the energy, emotion and stylized excellence of composition put forth by Paragon Cause’s creative core – Jay Bonaparte and Michelle Opthof. 

The Ottawa group’s ECMA winning third album, Autopilot (2022) is an affirming and resolute benchmark in their career, signalling a profound elevation in their commitment to superlative song writing, masterful arrangements as well as their commitment to compelling and memorable production.  

Although personally fulfilling, Autopilot was notable among critics and the music press as well as it was nominated for three and received two East Coast Music Awards (ECMA): Rising Star Award and Electronic Album of the Year.

Autopilot continues the musical evolution from their previous albums, What We Started (2020) and 2019’s Lies Between Us.  The experience gained with each project, as well as the deepening of their comradeship with frequent producer/collaborator Sune Rose Wagner (The Raveonettes), Paragon Cause continue their unparalleled sense of adventure, experimentation, and the solidity of the compositions.  

Jay, originally from Sydney moved to Halifax to study and formed several bands with Maritime artist including Rose Cousins, Servo, Caledonia and Ashley Moffit. He has played with members of The Superfriendz, Thrush Hermit and Matt Mays.  Michelle, originally from Beamsville, Ontario, performed musical theatre. Prior to forming Paragon Cause, she was primarily a vocalist in theatre productions.  

The duos contrasting origins and influences provide Paragon Cause with an opportunity explore the length and breadth of their musical inspirations, creating a sound that is as memorable as it is unique and original. It features moodiness and an atmospheric nature that comes from the best of the 1990s and early 2000s Brit Pop, Shoegaze and Goth scenes, melded with lush guitar sounds and song writing that would not be out of place in the 1970s or 1980s, all enveloped in a 21st century production sensibility that makes each song sound timeless and yet very much of the moment.  

In addition to frequent collaborator Sune Rose Wagner, the duo further expanded their palate by bringing some iconic and surprising collaborators on board. Liam Howe (Sneaker Pimps, FKA Twiggs, Lana Del Ray) and indie rock legend Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Garbage) have provided both production and performances to the new music. 

In addition to their own song writing, the duo has produced tracks for Berlin for their re-release of the single, Take My Breath Away as well as remixing music for the iconic 80’s band, A Flock Of Seagulls.  They have also produced music and sound design for the award-winning Short Film, Last Fish First Boat, a story about the Newfoundland Cod Collapse. The duo also produces music for Nova Scotia’s hit podcast, Nightime Podcast.  

The success and talent have planted Paragon Cause deeply and firmly into the bedrock of Canadian alternative-rock/electronic music, and which welcomes the listener to take a journey that is fascinating, intriguing, and endlessly thought-provoking. 

History and Production of Autopilot

Michelle, Jay and Sune Rose got togheter for a third recording session. They set a goal to record music that moves the band forward.

And what the three created with Autopilot is a swirling, buzzing, deeply felt collection that is a perfect evolutionary step for Paragon Cause. Tracks like “Disconnected” and “Two To Play” draw from the primary colors and clean angles of classic New Wave and shoegaze, while “Denied” and “Play Me” have the seamy feel and fuzzy grit of jukebox favorites from Twin Peaks’ Roadhouse. And through it all Opthof sings of wasting and taking advantage of time—trying to get back to doing the things you love amid a world of distractions, wasting time fretting over negative situations without doing anything to change them, realizing that time is going to move on without you, unless you act now.

“In my spare time, I write a lot of my feelings down and I write a lot of poems,” Ophtof says. “I probably have 15 different journals and notebooks around the house and in the car and at work. Then when I hear Jamie write a riff or he and Sune put something together, all of a sudden that feeling and that emotion appears in my head, and I rifle through all my papers to find it. Sometimes it’s piecing together two different ideas, but then, boom, it’s there.”

Paragon Cause took some even bigger leaps of faith in the making of Autopilot, cold calling Liam Howe, one-half of cult ‘90s trip-hop group Sneaker Pimps and a current collaborator with FKA Twigs, Jessie Ware, and Lana Del Rey. Initially, the duo contacted Howe with the idea of him remixing one of the tracks from Autopilot, but he was so excited and inspired by what he heard that he wanted to make some new music instead. Howe produced two unique visions of the track “Think I’m Going Crazy Over You.” Although the songs share the same lyrics, the represent very different visions of an idea.

“We actually produced five different versions of this song. The idea is that the lyrics and meaning of the song change dramatically with the emotion of the music. I doesn’t even feel like the same song. One version is about Lust, another about retribution while another is about loss. It was a fun experiment and we think people will be impressed and intrigued” Howe’s vision and guidance provided the opportunity for Paragon Cause to be pushed out of their comfort zone and produce music that feels at home at a club or relaxing at home.

“We sent him some songs and he loved them,” Bonaparte says. “Then we talked over Zoom and our personalities just gelled. He gave me some ideas and said he wanted to do two new songs. So we sent him some stems and he spent some time with them and we did these songs across the ocean on social media during COVID!”

Another call Paragon Cause made during the making of Autopilot was to Eric Avery, the musician best known for his tenure in legendary alt-rock group, Jane’s Addiction. A longtime fan of Avery’s former band, Bonaparte reached out to him to see if he’d have any interest in working together. As everyone does when they hear Paragon Cause’s music, Avery was an instant convert, adding bass parts and, with the help of other Los Angeles musicians, drums to music on Autopilot.

Paragon Cause are making the most of their time this year in advance of Autopilot’s release, with plans to drop seven singles from the record over the course of 2021, leading to the full album unveiling in early 2022. Kicking things off is the appropriately named lead single “Making Up For Lost Time,” a track that Bonaparte says was an attempt to combine the feeling of a Jesus and Mary Chain tune with the structure of an Everly Brothers song. And it was this song that Wagner helped bring across the finish line by encouraging to spend an evening listening to Bananarama. After that, the song wrote itself, with lyrics of taking chances, making mistakes, and acknowledging those same missteps.

“It’s happy, but there is a sense of longing,” Bonaparte says about “Making Up For Lost Time.” “It was initially meant to be about friends but after the last year with COVID, I think it can be applied to our current life in general. We want people to either sit in their car or put on some headphones and close their eyes. We want people to hear the song and remember what it was like living the last year and then feel the sense of optimism as life will start to come back to us. By the end of the song, we want people excited to begin the next chapter in their lives. It is meant to be a glimmer of hope through the long fog of isolation, whether it be from a past relationship or life.”

Paragon Cause certainly have a lot to be excited about. On top of this new album and the many singles that are to come this year, the duo will have the distinct honor of remixing a new track from classic new wave band Berlin (“No More Words,” “Take My Breath Away”), and will surely be working on more new music along the way. There’s no time to waste.y with – exactly the purpose of good art.