As we celebrate UCB Radio’s 10^th anniversary of being national on DAB, we decided to find out more about some of the artists whose music is played on air. We chatted to Paradise Now (formerly known as Written In Kings) to get to know more about them and their music.

When did you first feel called to form a band together?

We’ve all felt a strong call to do something out of the ‘norm’ with our lives. We started Paradise Now as a brand new project after playing music together for a number of years. 

What part has UCB played in your journey as musicians?

Growing up we would listen to bands like Needtobreathe and Hillsong on UCB and it’s amazing to now be a part of the station and have our music played on air.

Personally, it gave me a station that could pour positivity into my life when I was on the road – Nathan/Drums. 

How have your lives changed since your music became more well-known?

We’re a brand new artist but we’re overwhelmed by the support we’re getting. We don’t want our lives to change at all. We want to stay humble, work hard and build a community of people who believe in hope in even the most desolate of situations. 

What prompted the decision to change the name of the band to Paradise Now?

We’ve been on such a musical rollercoaster as a group of friends. Our older music under a previous project just wasn’t an accurate representation of who we are today. With signing a record deal, we wanted a clean slate and a fresh opportunity to make music. We chose the name while on the road in Germany. We sat down and threw out a bunch of ideas but landed on Paradise Now. The backstory of the name comes from the story of Jesus on the cross – He turns to the criminal next to Him and says that he will see Him in paradise today. It’s a reminder to us that in all situations, even nailed to a cross, you can find paradise. There is always hope. 

Can you give us a hint of what we can expect to hear on your new album?

Our EP is all about getting ourselves out there and letting people hear the new sound. It’s daunting, exhilarating, scary and exciting to be working on an album. We don’t know what to expect ourselves yet, as we are working on over 20 demo tracks which we will whittle down to around 10 for the record. One thing’s for sure, we are going to put our heart and soul into the record and may even trial some of our new tracks live in late 2019/early 2020, so, come check us out on the road! 

What has God been guiding you to write about recently? How has he been inspiring you recently?

We feel like our EP stems from a desire to want more out of life. It’s almost a rally cry for young people to be wild and to take risks. Some of our tracks speak about being sick of going round in circles, making the same mistakes and wanting to step out and be courageous. We feel like the focus is shifting from looking at ourselves and trying to fix our problems to realising that we have a responsibility to speak life and hope into our listeners. We want to stay vulnerable and talk about real-life issues that affect us, but we want to use our testimonies to positively impact the lives of others. The messages we want to get across also ties into our name – we want our listeners to experience paradise right now, in every situation, whether it’s listening to our music on Spotify alone or at a show with us. If people come away from listening to us with a hope that they have a future, then that would be unreal for us.

Find out more about Paradise Now at paradisenowofficial.com or search for @paradisenowofficial on social media.

Hear the latest music from Christian artists on UCB 1. Listen on DAB, UCB Player, online or via smart speaker