A Chat with My Side of Paradise (16.12.25)
My Side of Paradise is a high-energy pop-rock band formed by long-time friends who lived and loved emo in the 2000s. We chat with the band about all things music and their latest single, ‘All My Exes’, featuring Jaret Reddick of Bowling For Soup.
OSR: Can you tell us about the journey from Emo Kids to creating original music as My Side of Paradise?
MSOP: All of us were in emo or pop-punk bands growing up, and some even played Warped Tour. Four of us were in two separate bands that played together back in the day, and though many of our other band members moved on, we were the ones that kept doing music in some way. We pretty much started Emo Kids on a whim, which is another long story, but since a few of us now had a background in branding, we wanted to do it to the best of our ability. We saw the joy that the DJ emo nights brought people across the country, but always thought that this music was meant to be played live, so decided to bring a high-quality live show across the country. On our travels, we have met a lot of awesome people that have loved our show, and many times we would be asked if we had any originals. Inspired by all the awesome music we get to play and the fan’s passion, we decided to write originals. We soon realized that our writing was greatly inspired by all this classic emo music, so we are happy to share new music all inspired by our youth.
OSR: What inspired the concept behind your new single ‘All My Exes’?
MSOP: You hear people all the time go through breakups or talk about their exes, and they always blame them or call them crazy, but looking back on my relationships, I have been with a lot of great exes. In the end, it is me that has been the problem in all my relationships, and if many of us are honest with ourselves, maybe our exes weren’t the crazy ones.
OSR: How did the collaboration with Jaret Reddick come about?
MSOP: Emo Kids were invited to play a Wrestlemania after party, where Jaret was one of the performers. He came up and sang two songs with us, including his WWE-themed song, ‘Alexa Bliss’, and after the show, we just hit it off. We eventually asked him if he would be interested to sing on a song by our original music project, and he agreed! All he asked in return was a donation to Punk Rock Saves Lives. Super rad.
OSR: The song flips the typical breakup narrative. Was that always the idea, or did it evolve during the writing process?
MSOP: That was always the goal for me. I like to find interesting, unexplored angles in my songwriting, but it also happens to be a true life experience for me.
OSR: How do you balance the heavier, cinematic side of your music with the lighter, more playful moments like this single?
MSOP: We are at the stage right now where we are just writing what feels good. Sometimes that is poppy, sometimes it is heavy, sometimes it is more cinematic. Will that change? Who knows, but we hope it is connecting with people that love the same music we do and maybe some that are new to it too. We may eventually lean into one style over the others, but I think we do like to write catchy, but also hit hard, Our live show is extremely important to us, so we want to maintain high energy, fun tracks in our catalog.
OSR: Are there any personal experiences that shaped the lyrics of ‘All My Exes’?
MSOP: I have had a few relationships in my life that lasted for years, but in each case I could never fully commit, for various reasons. I touch on it in the lyrics, but at the end of the day, I was really lucky with the women in my life and blew it each time. Was it for the best? We will never know, but it is a reality that is probably more common than people admit.
OSR: What was the recording process like for this track compared to your previous releases?
MSOP: We actually tracked this song with the others, but the variable was working with Jaret. As you can imagine, Jaret is a very busy dude. After he agreed to be on the album, he had a personal issue, tour after tour, including Warped Tour and with Simple Plan, on top of dad duties with his kids. Even though we said repeatedly that he could bail if he wanted without hard feelings, he assured us he wanted to do it and was committed. He actually did track it initially, but we had changed the lyrics slightly after he agreed to be on it, so he sang the old version. It was our fault, I guess that we made it more confusing than it should have been, so SORRY JARET! Given the growing timeline, we actually decided to release a different song ahead of it called, Lost and Angelless, but Jaret finally freed up and was able to record it at his home studio.
OSR: The video is visually striking. How involved were you in its creative direction?
MSOP: First, thank you! I actually wrote, produced, directed, and edited the video. My background is video production and content, so it is a muscle I love to flex with this project. We worked with super talented DP Alejandro Herrera, who has now shot all our music videos. We have a great working relationship.
OSR: How do you feel your sound has evolved since the early days of the band?
MSOP: I feel like we still are in the early days! This is just our sixth song out, so we are still building our sound. I do feel like making these catchy songs are helpful, but we all really appreciate heavy music too, so we will see how we continue to evolve.
OSR: What do you hope listeners take away from ‘All My Exes’?
MSOP: I really hope it puts a smile on their faces and realize that it’s okay that relationships are tough. We maybe should take some ownership of failures and not just lash out at our exes because we are hurt. We are all (mostly) trying our best. Just continue to live and learn, and don’t be too hard on yourself for shortcomings.
Many thanks to My Side of Paradise for speaking with us. Find out more about My Side of Paradise on their Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Spotify.
