by Lexi Bissonnette
Take a girl and three boys from Tennessee, toss in some rock ‘n’ roll and killer vocals and you’re listening to pop/rock group, Darling Parade.
“We’re actually the winners of the Let’s Make a Band Famous award,” says Kristin Kearns, vocalist for the band. The award is from MTV and VH1’s O Music Awards. The band was live on MTV’s artist to watch and released their latest music video in late December, ending the 2013 year on a strong note.
Darling Parade got their start in early 2007 and have been climbing the charts and making themselves bigger and better every year since. Kearns thinks their biggest growth has actually been their song writing and their ability to sacrifice to get their band where they want it to be.
“We’ve gotten a lot more serious about things. We’ve made a lot more sacrifices and it seems like every year we do – we just get more and more serious every year and I think we realize it’s what we need to do as a band.”
Darling Parade had the release of their first full EP, Battle Scars & Broken Hearts in April 2013. The pop/rock album did so well that this fall they released a full acoustic version. It took the album to a different level and got fans outside the rock genre possibly interested in their stuff.
“I think it made our songs more personable,” says Kearns. Plus, she also had a lot of fun recording it – especially ‘Crash and Burn’. “We incorporated different percussion. We used a chain on a trash can for one of the sounds. We just really had more fun with it.”
Playing with some acoustic sounds and their newest title with MTV are only a small slice of what the band has been doing this past year. They’ve also been adding soundtracks to their list of things done. Their songs have also been a part of many television shows including “The Lying Game”, “Stargate Universe” and “Shameless”.
“Knowing that we can get on XM and different radio stations is cool, but being about to reach out to different markets like TV is great,” says Kearns. “It’s pretty cool to have a rock band on shows like that because it’s not as heard of with all the indie music these days.”
While the band is definitely known for their pop/rock, Kearns and her bandmates really aren’t writing off another acoustic album later on, or even trying other genres. It will all boil down to what their fans enjoy. “We really like doing what our fans love.”
All things aside, it is certainly something Kearns would like to do. “I’ve always wanted to do a full acoustic CD but it’s a group decision. I don’t think we’d be opposed to it in the future.”
While a lot of 2013 was spent in the studio with both versions of Battle Scars & Broken Hearts, Kearns says much of 2014 is going to be for the fans. “We plan on getting out as much as possible and getting out in front of our fans.”
