This summer, unwind, take a sip from your lemonade and get ready to shout “Tonight Alright” with Paramount. Businessmen by day and rock stars by night, these guys know how to work hard and play harder.
Paramount was created by three UCLA students in spring of 2002. At the peak of their first year, Daniel Miller, Anthony DeFrenza and Nate Thompson united to form a band centered on the idea of fun.
Lead singer and bassist Thompson dug up an unforgettable memory from Spring Sing 2003.
“We were very green as a band. It was in the pouring rain that day in that big stadium ““ we were the first act. We opened the whole show. When we started playing, just the roar of the whole crowd was something none of us had ever experienced,” Thompson said.
Remembering how the band came together in college, Miller, guitarist and backup vocalist, feels lucky to have thrived in support from the UCLA community. The future of Paramount as a band took off quickly as they performed twice at Spring Sing, several at Ackerman Student Union and were also featured on UCLAradio.com.
“I don’t think we had any expectations other than that we were having a lot of fun. I don’t think we had any idea of how serious it might become later,” Miller said.
Since 2002, Paramount has performed more than 100 live shows. The college band had barely any time to hit the pause button while jumping from one world-famous venue to another.
Before they knew it, the fun that originated from an impromptu garage was inching toward a profession.
“There was a time in our career when we played in England in front of a bunch of record executives. At that time, that was still the dream to get a big record deal and make this a full-time job. Now we all have pretty serious careers. We still have plenty of goals. We love to get our music out there to a wider audience,” Miller said.
During the day, Miller is a commercial real estate journalist for the Los Angeles Business Journal. From thriving as a reporter and columnist for the Daily Bruin while attending UCLA, he was encouraged to pursue journalism after graduation.
Thompson, who majored in history and minored in French at UCLA, is now working in movie and television marketing as a tagline writer.
“We all have full-time jobs. We’re not trying to be full-time rock stars,” Thompson said.
DeFrenza was a history and political science student and is now working as a civil engineer. In his field, he has noticed the wide variety of interest regarding the band.
“Some people are surprised, and some are curious. It’s one thing that other people can relate to that’s not work-related,” DeFrenza said.
Paramount’s songwriting process reflects each member’s emotions separately rather than communally like their melodies.
Thompson’s lyrics reveal a trail of spontaneous inspirations since college.
“The song “˜Drama Queen’ is really old. I wrote that in sophomore year while I lived in Hitch (Suites). It had an inspiration. It was about another girl that lived in Hitch. She shall remain nameless, I guess. As you can imagine, the whole situation didn’t work out,” Thompson said.
When it comes to creating the music itself, the members collaborate together tightly.
“We’re at the stage where it’s really natural. It’s one of those things we’re really lucky to have. It’s not like a gift from God. We don’t think we’re hot stuff. But we’re lucky that when we get into the room, the three of us, we can just start playing music, and people think it sounds all right,” Miller said.
Paramount never seems to age. But if they do, they might even try to defeat time itself.
“We’ve talked about whether we would be playing a reunion show when we get old. Whether we’ll be touring each other’s retirement homes. I think it would be way more exciting if we had some sort of feud for like 40 years, and we got reunited. I could see it happening at some remote hunting lodge,” Miller said.