The Paradox are exploding right now. Having taken over TikTok after forming just over a year ago, they’ve already supported Green Day and are now best pals with Travis Barker. As the rocket strapped to their back gets even faster, the Atlanta pop-punks are proving that hustle and self-belief are sometimes all you need to realise your dreams…
Hanging out with The Paradox is like stepping into a time machine. Frontman Eric Dangerfield has a Game Boy Color in-hand, and drummer Percy ‘PC3’ Crews is excitedly telling us what it’s like to work with blink-182’s Travis Barker.
The Atlanta pop-punk crew – completed by Donald Bryant on bass and guitarist Christopher ‘Xelan’ Bernard – recently teamed up with Travis on sugar-rush party anthem, Bender. Practically dripping in ’00s pop-punk sunshine, it thunders with an attitude similar to prime Sum 41 or Simple Plan.
“You don’t even need to quantise Travis’ drums, he’s that good. His inner metronome is crazy. But he’s a humble guy,” says PC3, still in awe of playing with his idol.
“He has a drum pad and he brings it wherever he goes. Every single hour of the day he’s playing on that thing,” adds Donald.
But for all their old-school obsessions, there is one thing that brings The Paradox into the modern world: they’re legit viral sensations. Having only start out properly in June last year, they already have nearly a million followers on Instagram, over 800,000 on TikTok, and more than 600,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. On the surface, it might seem like these guys have just fallen on their feet and gotten lucky, but all four of them have been making music for as long as they can remember.
“There’s a lot of bands out there that try to capture that ’00s nostalgic sound, but they don’t have that recipe, if that makes sense,” explains Xelan. “I always had that [in me] – I just needed to find the people that understood.”
“[Back in the ’00s], there weren’t many Black pop-punk bands. The only one I can think of is Whole Wheat Bread,” Eric continues. “Where we’ve won is the timing of when we’ve come out. I feel like we fill a gap.”
But what do The Paradox have to say to the increased amount of social media snobbery out there?
“We opened for Green Day and you didn’t!” Eric laughs tauntingly in response.
It’s just a healthy bit of ragebait, of course, but the band did manage to bag that insane opportunity through a skill that anyone can develop: being incredibly ballsy. Their covers of Basket Case and 2000 Light Years Away caught Billie Joe Armstrong’s attention online, who got chatting to Eric over DM. Soon they bonded over guitars and The Beatles, before opportunity struck.
“A customer came into the vape shop I was working at and told me Green Day were [touring] and playing all of Dookie and American Idiot,” Eric recalls. “I knew the boys would want to see it. I asked Billie Joe, ‘I heard you’re gonna be in Atlanta… Could we get tickets? Even if it’s the cheapest seats, bro!’ The next day he texts [back], ‘How would you guys like to open the show?’ I didn’t believe it.
“It was huge. I love Green Day. They were part of the reason I got into pop-punk. The Dookie album changed my life, so that was so surreal. Smashing Pumpkins were there, Rancid were there, The Linda Lindas were there – all amazing. They gave us so much love.”
The Paradox’s days of winging it to hang with the big boys have certainly paid off. With a debut EP in the works and a tour supporting All Time Low this October – which later arrives in the UK in January – it truly feels like things are just getting started. Believe the hype and believe in pop-punk again.
Catch The Paradox live at Riot Fest, before heading out on the road to support All Time Low. This interview originally appeared in the autumn 2025 issue of the magazine.
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