Briston Maroney - Paradise

After spending his early years in Florida and Tennessee, recording artist Briston Maroney, 23, moved to Nashville, Tennessee. There, he honed a DIY house party vibe that was infused with perspiration and scrappy noises, gaining listeners one living room at a time. He gained notoriety at the age of fifteen, he auditioned for the thirteenth season of American Idol. Despite his youth, he had a mature voice.

Maroney learnt to play guitar on an ancient Gibson acoustic that belonged to his musician great-grandfather and wrote songs on it while being influenced by the music of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and John Prine. In 2013, when he was 15 years old, he applied to be an American Idol contestant and made it to the Top 30 semifinals before being eliminated. This was his first experience with stardom. After spending two years performing and singing with the bluegrass group Subtle Clutch, he independently released his debut solo EP, Reason to Shake, in 2015.

“I loved the DIY scene early on because I didn’t always feel like I fit into it. I wasn’t as hardcore or as cool as these other people we were playing with, and I always felt a little like I didn’t belong there, and I think that helped me figure out who I really was,” Maroney said.

“I definitely keep in mind with every decision that I make that, at one point, this was who I was and where I was. I think about those voices of friends at house shows.”

Maroney acquired a contract with Atlantic Records subsidiary Canvasback Music in 2018, and the label put out his well-received EP Carnival.

He received plaudits from numerous journalists and musicians, including Taylor Swift, for the Carnival song "Freakin' out on the Interstate," which went viral in 2018. With Grammy-winning songwriter Dan Wilson, he co-wrote his single "Deep Sea Diver" (Adele, Semisonic, The Chicks). Songs like "Bottom of the Ocean" and "Rollercoaster" are examples of how Briston's career consistently builds tension before releasing it.

Briston Maroney - Bottom of the Ocean

Since 2018, his meticulously crafted sound has served as a somber anthem, but as he develops as an artist, the music becomes more sinuous in its projection. "Paradise" is a song about paradise with rainy day lyrics. Nothing is as easy as it sounds, and if it is, you're doing it incorrectly, says Maroney in his insightful meditation of a summer hit's lessons for the murky mid-20s pathways. In between the lines covered in conventional expectations lies the paradise we all wish would exist.

Briston Maroney - Paradise

Lyrics From Mixmatch

Ain't getting younger, there's no time to waste in conversation

Kings and queens of a sun tan generation

Generally working hard and needing a p-paid vacation

Around the sun one hundred times and they want explanation

Sun-soaked sinners trying not to get caught

What's the use in being what I'm not?

Well, let me tell you somethin', when you get to my age

Love is all you got, so I mean it when I say that

Honestly, I wanna give you every little

Part of me and if the tide comes back

And takes me with it, I hope you know

It's not love if you can't let go

And I know I, I'm never gonna give you

Only part of my ever-lovin' laughin'

If the stars don't fade over Paradise Island

It's never gonna die if we do or die tryin'

How easy would it be to put the nine-to-five behind

A sandcastle royalty and seven seas of heaven shinin'?

Don't you find a calming, world a little scared to dive in?

Might sink, but imagine if we end up swimmin'

The sun-soaked sinners tryin' not to lose touch

Relax, rewind, no rush, but

Let me tell you somethin', when you get to my age

Lovin' is the only thing that's never gonna change, oh

'Cause honestly, I wanna give you every little

Part of me and if the tide comes back

And takes me with it, I hope you know

It's not love if you can't let go

And I know I, I'm never gonna give you

Only part of my ever-lovin' laughin'

If the stars don't fade over Paradise Island

It's never gonna die if we do or die tryin'

Oh, oh-woah, oh, oh

Oh, woah-oh, oh, oh

Honestly, I wanna give you every little

Part of me and if the tide comes back

And takes me with it, I hope you know

It's not love if you can't let go

And I know I, I'm never gonna give you

Only part of my ever-lovin' laughin'

If the stars don't fade over Paradise Island

It's never gonna die if we do or die tryin

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