Hard rock, heavy metal, psychedelic with a touch of blues.

11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Hard Rock, ROCK: American Underground



Details:
PARAFFIN was formed in the basement of the Salevsky-brothers parentsâ house. The band had its core together when Ralph Jain joined them. Musically and philosophically Ralph was a perfect fit. The band never had a singer that "had it all" which resulted in a few years of stagnation. After some time, Ralph parted from the Salevsky brothers on amicable terms. Both sides agreed that re-uniting at some point was desired and inevitable.

A few years passed and Ralph was back in the fold. At this point, the trio had a clear vision and goal; their first album was to be written, recorded and published. In the early days of the band, the band's goal was to do the "cover-band" bit in order to finance studio time. This proved to be a disastrous strategy. Now, with the band re-united, a clear goal, a clear strategy and capital to invest. The only thing standing in their way was the lack of a quality vocalist.

As previously mentioned, the band never had a proper singer until Kevin Leamer answered Mike's advertisement on a classified site for musicians. When they heard Kevin's voice the three were giddier than fat children at a candy shop. Fortunately, Kevin showed the same enthusiasm for the band's music and, more importantly, the band's philosophy.

Walt and Mike envisioned the band based on two main criteria: things they like about bands they are fond of and things they do not like about the bands those bands or influences. The two, who believed a philosophy was essential, took an unusual path.

Musically deciding what was going to happen was the easy part. Basically, there is no âoneâ writer or âleaderâ of the band. The band was to be run as a partnership. Everybody gets a say. If band member âAâ has a concept for the song, he is the âbossâ of that song and can veto ideas from band member âBâ if he chooses. In other words, the song is his baby. Fortunately, all members get a say in each song because they respect each otherâs work and believe it. As a rule, they generally let each other write his respective part, often with minimal âdirectionâ given. Additionally, every band member will have songs as long as they come up with them. No oneâs work is excluded. However, every PARAFFIN song has to stay within the ârules,â which will be mentioned shortly. The song-writing is described by Mike as "...it's like monkeys throwing feces at a clean, white canvas...whatever sticks, stays."

The next part came more from the dislikes. Walt and Mike were watching a famous 90âs band on TV when the singer decided to spout off some political rant. The brothers found it irritating and thought about what they saw. They saw a man who dropped out of high-school standing in front of a paying audience and telling them what they should think, what they should do and who they should vote for. This immediately clarified something in their minds. The band they create, will NEVER get involved with politics. They reasons were numerous but it all boiled down to how annoying and divisive the two viewed it to be.

They came up with the rules of PARAFFIN: there shall be no partisan political stance by the band by way of stage, lyrics or otherwise; there is no pro-religious or anti-religious commentary by way of stage, lyrics or otherwise: there is to be no preaching of any kind. In short, PARAFFIN believes in respecting the diverse opinions, or lack thereof, of anyone who listens to them. When you listen to PARAFFIN or see them live, you will never be told what to think, believe, eat or who to vote for. Mike and Walt like to see shows and leave the real world, good or bad, behind for a while. Fortunately, Ralph and Kevin believe the same thing.

The philosophy is summed up in the song âThem,â which is track two on the debut album âimperfections.â