In the Studio with PærishThe Members: Mathias Court, vocals, guitar; Frédéric Wah, guitar; Martin Dupraz, bass; Loïc Fouquet, drums

Producer: Will YipAdditional Production and Engineering: Justin BartlettStudio: Memory Music Studios

The Origin: Operating entirely on intuition, Parisian alternative rock outfit Pærish developed their alt-emo sound by surrendering to an internal infrasonic frequency — those comforting, heavy vibrations pulsing deep within, becoming the baseline of a soundtrack destined to be pushed outward. This interior wall of fuzz-buzz soaked guitars and celestial indie rock melodies became their purest musical currency — a profound wealth of sound that demanded to be heard beyond the borders of France.Bypassing the localized currents of L'Hexagone, where Chanson Française and musique urbaine tend to rule the sonic terrain, Pærish refused to remain confined by scenes at odds with their alt-rock artistic vision. Instead, they chose to loosen the tourniquet of their musical surroundings by ensuring their more visceral melodies bled outward — a pursuit that initially pulled them away from the heart of Paris. Guided by an autonomous, unwavering conviction and devotion to shoegaze-rock, the band crossed the English Channel to Glasgow, Scotland, to record their 2016 debut, Semi Finalists, alongside producer Bruce Rintoul, known for his work with VUKOVI and Twin Atlantic. The move marked their first real leap of faith into what often felt like a series of impossible artistic challenges.

It was a trajectory driven entirely by a persistent inner voice that refused to quiet down, a pestering whisper that resurfaced during the final stages of the record’s production. Acting on that instinct, the band reached out on a whim to Will Yip — a producer they had been following from across the Atlantic — to master their inaugural effort. Yip, a Grammy-nominated (and now Grammy-winning) producer known for his genre-defining work with bands like Turnstile and Code Orange unexpectedly replied. What followed was a transatlantic creative connection: a rare working relationship that quickly evolved into a strong artistic friendship. Over the course of their subsequent albums, 2021’s Fixed It All and 2023’s You're in both dreams (and you're scared), the shorthand between the band and Yip deepened, with Yip gradually becoming an invisible fifth member of Pærish.

The Production: For their forthcoming album, Rita, that partnership entered its most mature phase yet. Before reuniting with Yip, the band took time between albums to step back, returning home to France to find the physical and mental space needed to elevate their songwriting and pre-production workflow. Spending long hours at guitarist Freddie Wah’s home studio setup, Pærish systematically unpacked the urgent, heavier guitar tones pulsating within them. In doing so, they uncovered an innate call to build a louder, more aggressive sonic palette packed with infectious, crowd-surfing energy. This revitalized direction brought forth a pit-ready drive that harkened back to the denser, classic foundations of alt-rock — capturing the high-velocity sonic sensations that collide simultaneously across a full live crowd, a feeling they had discovered and craved while touring. This process helped the band reconnect to the raw wonder of what made them fall in love with rock music in the first place: a pure, alt-emo fury.Armed with this augmented direction, Pærish arrived at Will Yip’s Memory Music Studios in Philadelphia—his brand-new recording facility following his multi-year tenure at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA. Here, Pærish walked through the doors with a meticulous set of well-structured songs, prepared to sit down with a powerhouse producer celebrated for his relentless energy, collaborative songwriting spirit, and legendary ability to bring the absolute best out of artists. Yip’s hyper-focused "song is king" philosophy perfectly complemented the band’s amplified, heavier-hitting energy, ensuring that every high-efficiency session locked into the core emotional message of Pærish’s music. Together, they sculpted solid, custom-built tones that gave Rita its definitive edge, proving that the pairing’s transatlantic signature still held its undeniable creative magic.Paradoxically, while the resulting soundscape felt denser, faster, and more aggressive, the music was born from a noticeably lighter, more stabilized headspace. Lead singer Mathias Court rejects the tired cliché that an artist must be deeply depressed to create their best work, noting that being utterly overwhelmed only serves to freeze creativity. In a modern musical landscape that can often feel like a dead end, choosing to unapologetically be an indie rock band became an anchor of sanity—a declaration that fighting for a seemingly impossible cause was worth the struggle. Through this process, the band realized there is a fine line between destructive misery and what they discovered on this record: productive gravity, "a good darkness.""This new record is very spontaneous, even though it's so heavy and so raw and in-your-face," Court reflects. "I was in a very dark place during the last album. This time, I wanted to go rough, but sometimes you feel like you can  only go ‘rough’ because you're in a better state of mind. It has an aggressiveness to it, but it also has a spontaneity to it… a kind of good darkness if that makes sense."

It does. It is the kind of darkness artists can finally thrive in, rather than drown. This newfound mental clarity extended directly into how the music was built at the source during the songwriting and demo process. When starting a track, Court operates entirely out of a pure player's mindset. "I always think as a guitar player in my head," he notes. "I will always be just a guitar player who tries to write songs."His writing process begins with rhythm rather than a pen—layering guitar, bass, or drums while humming nonsensical, mumbled melodies over the top to capture the initial vocal pocket. For Court, constructing melody lines alongside lyrics is an intricate puzzle and a long, patient evolution. To keep from forcing a track or burning out on frustration, he prefers to let the demos breathe. It is a patient, old-school methodology he proudly shares with his ultimate inspiration, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins. "Lyrics and the songs are very different things," Court reflects. "But it's very beautiful when you manage to glue them together and make them something unique."

Because of this puzzle-like quality and patient waiting game, the metamorphosis of a song is often beautiful but entirely random. For the sweeping track "Heal," Court presented a highly detailed demo where he had programmed every single layer on a smartphone app, down to a prominently featured flute melody. Conversely, one of the album’s centerpieces, "Prince of Darkness," arrived at the studio as nothing more than a solitary, stripped-back guitar and vocal sketch. Court notes it was the technical prowess of drummer "Lolo" that saved the track, introducing an intricate time signature that pulled the arrangement into its crushing final form. Court summarizes: "There’s no proper way of doing it [writing songs]. You just have to do it every day."This fluid, unpredictable workflow made stepping out of their isolated home setups and into Will Yip’s new, state-of-the-art facility feel like an immense culture shock. For a band accustomed to home studio, small-scale setups, entering those highly specialized tracking rooms was a profound luxury. It presented an elite sonic playground where they could explore how to translate lo-fi, radio-fuzz styled vocals using a wide range of rare analog outboard gear, top-shelf preamps and legendary consoles. Rather than being intimidated, they fully leaned into its sonic possibilities and, more importantly, the luxury of time.The gift of extra time gave them an entire, uninterrupted week dedicated solely to collaborative pre-production with Yip—a rare privilege in high-end studio tracking. For Court, this initial stretch is always the creative peak of the record, stripped of high-stakes pressure and reduced to just the five of them jamming in the live room. They spent those first seven days completely geeking out over sonics. Sessions became methodical experiments on how to build walls of atmospheric sounds. It was this dedication to scrupulous exploration that perfectly interlocked with their shift toward a more aggressive direction.

"We wanted it to be noisier, to be more alive than the previous one," Court reflects. For this, the band leaned heavily into a fuzz-soaked production style, treating the distorted textures as a loud, living, breathing element of the mix. "We had all the time necessary to do everything we wanted... to really take the time to know what we were doing."

After settling on darker guitar tones and lush, layered arrangements, they focused on crafting heavier bridges and choruses, refining lyrics, and finalizing the track listing until the album’s overarching themes crystallized. When the time came to settle on a title, Court kept returning to a distinct childhood memory: a picturesque view of the clock tower of the Church of St. Rita (Église de l'Annonciation) from his family’s apartment in Nice, France. Thinking back to those days, looking out that window with his lucid dreams of being a rock star, he realized that while chasing that life can feel entirely impossible, the patron saint of impossible causes was looking out for this strange dream all along. In her mythos and patronage, the band found the ultimate wistful, melancholic sentiment: a symbolic protector of their own beautiful, seemingly desperate dream.

Court reflects on how that instinct carries them through the improbability of it all: "I think the title of Rita is a very emo message—her being a protector over people dealing with impossible, desperate causes… but also full of hope, and being together all these years. She protects this whole idea of being in a band."

Photo Courtesy of Big Picture MediaThe post In the Studio with Pærish first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.