The Cape Breton-rooted, Ottawa-based electro-rock duo of Jay Bonaparte and Michelle Opthof, AKA Paragon Cause, continue their work with producer Sune Rose Wagner (The Raveonettes) but, in the context of our new reality, they’ve shifted away from their traditional melancholic sound in favour of something more optimistic. “Making Up For Lost Time,” their latest single, sounds like a backhanded compliment; it’s optimistic, but the last year has brought the bar so low that accomplishing anything at all sounds like a win.
According to the band, the single is about taking chances, making mistakes, acknowledging those missteps… in general, all the things we used to do when we were still safely allowed to go outside. As Paragon Cause’s Jay Bonaparte points out, the song doesn’t come without a sense of longing.
“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,” says Bonaparte.
“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.”
The accompanying self-produced video for “Making Up For Lost Time” captures the energy of that last year we’ve collectively spent alone, summarized largely through the glow of a screen – the DIY aesthetic leaning further into the 2020 modus operandi.
“The idea for the video is that there is a person who is giving her past self advice, while her past self is giving her future self more advice. It’s the idea of a cycle of missteps that occur, regardless of the point in our life,” says Bonaparte. “As the song progresses and speeds up, the protagonist is trying to make up for lost time, walking forward but no matter how fast she walks, time is always going to move quicker than we can. It’s not something to dwell on, we need to accept it and move on.”
Despite these troubling times, Paragon Cause are moving forward with a planned album release; even tapping Liam Howe (Sneaker Pimps) and Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction) to further round out their sound. Their upcoming album, Autopilot, is expected to be released early next year.