Formed in mid-June 2024, The Paradox wasted no time breaking out of Atlanta’s underground and into the wider pop-punk spotlight. Fronted by Eric Dangerfield (vocals, rhythm guitar), Donald Bryant (bass), Xelan Bernard (lead guitar, backing vocals), and Percy Crews (drums), The Paradox aren’t just another crew of scene kids with power chords. They’re young, Black musicians reshaping a genre that’s too often lacked their voices. That identity, paired with undeniable energy, earned an endorsement from the likes of Jack White and Travis Barker, as well as scored them an early dream gig opening for Green Day.
From their very first show, The Paradox turned heads online, dropping a debut video that went viral and pulling in an audience every new band dreams of.
Within a month of launching their socials, they’d already amassed more than 730k followers. But the hype isn’t the endgame. For The Paradox, the mission is bigger: to be the band kids look up to when they don’t see themselves anywhere else in the scene.
Right after their infectious set at the Roots Stage on Day 3 of Riot Fest 2025, I caught up with Eric, Xelan, Donald, and Percy to discuss everything from industry plants to dipped Italian beefs.
Coop: Alright, so, being that you guys are pretty new at this, what’s the question that you hate that everyone seems to be asking you already?
Eric Dangerfield: Oh, either asking us what was the tour like with All Time Low when we haven’t done it yet. Or asking us what the tour is going to be like with the All-American Rejects when we are not touring with the All-American Rejects.
Donald Bryant: Mine is, when we post content, and they be like, ‘how come your instruments are not plugged in’?
Coop: Like they’ve never heard of wireless rigs before.
Donald: Right? It’s ridiculous.
Xelan Bernard: The thing that pisses me off the most is when they say, ‘Oh, you’ve been for many years. And like we’ve only been out for a year.
Percy Crews: I second that one.When they say, yeah, so you guys have been out for a little while, or a long time, and it’s like, we have not.
Eric: They’re like Nah, like three years, man, I’ve been watching you guys for three years! (laughs)
Percy: Hmm….Really? (laughs)
Coop: Well, this is going to be another annoying question that you probably get asked a billion times…
Eric: Of course. (laughs)
Coop: But I guess if I acknowledge the question as annoying, then self-awareness means it’s going to be less annoying.
Eric: Oh, yeah, oh yeah, good point!
Coop: What are some of your favorite bands? What do The Paradox listen to?
Eric: Oooh.. uh…The Beatles and Blink-182 for me.
Percy: The Paradox! (laughs)
Coop: Well, obviously. Mine too.
Donald: Blink-182, Good Charlotte, I could go on.
Xelan: Gorillaz, even though they’re not a real band, and Green Day.
Coop: Yeah? What do you guys feel about the whole festival thing? Are you guys gonna get to hang around when you’re not talking to dopes like me?
Eric: (laughs) We have a lot of interviews today, so probably not. No, no, wait. But actually, that’s a lie, because I’m going to see Screeching Weasel. I did make sure to chop out time to see them. But yeah, I love festivals, personally. It’s awesome. Such a vibe.
Percy: Such a buzz. I want to check out Screeching Weasel with you. But we do have a lot to do today.
Donald: I’m ready to see Green Day. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Xelan: Cobra Starhsip. We got to see them too.
Coop: During your set, I heard you’re repping the food here in Chicago.
Donald: Oh yeah!! (laughs)
Coop: I live here, and as you could probably tell, we eat pretty good around these parts. What’s been the favorite food of The Paradox since you’ve been in Chicago?
Percy: It’s definitely been the Italian beef sandwich.
Eric: Yeah, yeah!
Coop: Dipped!
Xelan: Yeah, you gotta get a dipped! You need a little sauce on it.
Eric: You know, there’s a spot called JJ’s Fish. We have it in Atlanta, but we’ve never tried it.I had it out here and it was really good. I liked it.
Coop: Hey, it’s all right.
Donald: Pizza for me
Eric: Ooh, yeah!
Coop: Well, as a local, I will tell you that deep-dish pizza is delicious, but it is not Chicago pizza.
Percy: What?
Coop: Yep, that’s the tourist pizza.
Donald: You’re talking about the sauce on top?
Coop: Yes.
Percy: Ahhhhh
Donald: It’s still so good though!
Xelan: Hold up, though. So what’s the real Chicago pizza?
Coop: So deep dish is actually a casserole. The actual Chicago pizza is thin-crust tavern style. It’s cut into squares.
Xelan: Okay, okay.
Eric: Oh, I need that.
Xelan: Okay, we gotta check that out.
Eric: Yeah, I need that. We’re gonna get that before we leave.
Xelan: What spot do you recommend?
Coop: Vito and Nicks for the authentic tavern style. But seeing you’re in the city, my favorite is probably Lou Malnati’s. They have both authentic and casserole styles available.
Xelan: Okay.
Coop: Yeah, just say Lou’s and everyone will know what it is.
Eric: Bet.
Coop: However, I’m an equal opportunity eater of pizza, so I think any of the spots in the area will work.
Percy: Yeahhhh (laughs)
Eric: I need that.
Coop: Okay, so back to the music. When you guys start out with the songs, are you doing lyrics first and then going with the melody, or do you have a riff going on? How does it come together?
Eric: I can never do lyrics first, and I don’t know why. It’s always chords for me, or Xelan will be like, you know, come up with a riff and then I’ll come up with the chord progression and then, you know, structure it out, verse, chorus, bridge, whatever. Then come up with a melody and kinda put the words in like a puzzle piece, you know?
Donald: Yeah, that’s it.
Xelan: Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
Donald: I second that. You know, it usually starts with an idea, right? You can either start from scratch or you can start with an idea and go from there.
Coop: You guys are from Atlanta, right?
Eric: Yeah, based out!
Coop: I got family that lives in Atlanta.
Eric: Ah, Really? Nice! What part?
Coop: Like, actual Atlanta.
Eric: Ah, okay, that’s awesome!
Coop: What do you feel about the different music scenes in Atlanta? Seeing as The Paradox has blown up seemingly overnight, where does that leave you in the particular scene? Does the viral aspect make it bigger or smaller?
Eric: I was going to say, I definitely think it’s getting bigger because what you’ll have is like, you know, even if you’re the only person in your whole city that’s into like a certain niche or something, there’s probably like a whole community of like thousands of people around the world online that are into it. So I think it’s definitely growing.
Coop: Alright, so that leads me to the elephant in the room and the question I know you’re probably already tired of hearing. The topic of The Paradox being ‘industry plants’.
Percy: Yeah. (laughs)
Eric: I love this question! (laughs) I think they’re stupid. If you look back at like our first videos, we were using Line6 Amps and a Fender Rumble for our guitar. (4:50) We didn’t even have a drummer. (4:52) Like, I wonder where they get that from? But yeah, we are not industry plants. We’ve just gotten very lucky, man.
Xelan: All the industry plants right now are like, write that down, write that down.
Eric: Or is that something that an industry plant would say? (laughs)
Coop: Hey, that’s a good question. Well played!
Donald: What I say to that is I just think that they’re jealous, and Tom Delonge said it best: YOU CAN’T DO WHAT WE DO! (laughs)
Coop: Man, I wish someone would hire me to be an industry plant. Unfortunately, I don’t have the chops or good looks for them to work with.
Xelan: (laughs)
Percy: I like that jacket though, that’s dope!
Coop: Thanks! I made it myself!
Xelan: And you got that nice beard. That’s a fine beard!
Coop: Thanks! I grew it myself!
Eric: (laughs)
Coop: In all seriousness, I really dug your set. I feel like you guys represented what Riot Fest is about. Especially playing right next to The Effigies. Like the old guard passing down the torch.
Eric: Thank you, thank you so much! I appreciate that!
Coop: Here’s to looking forward to the future and seeing what you guys do next!
Eric: We’re looking forward to being back here, man. Thank you for having us!
All photography by Oscar De Leon