Brandon Paris

Brandon Paris (born Richard Lee, legally changed his name in 1998) was born on November 11, 1971 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and is the lead singer and front man for Brandon Paris Band. After graduating high school in 1989, he went to Red River College to study Criminology in hopes of joining the Winnipeg Police Service, but that same year dropped out. At the age of 18, Brandon started making T-shirts under a brand name he called "Express Clothing". He started selling T-shirts out of the trunk of his car; eventually, his clothing line was carried at two of the largest clothing chains in Canada (at the time), Bootlegger, and Below the Belt. The company dissolved after 3 years because of poor business decisions based on little experience.

A three-year relationship ended with his girlfriend during the same week of the official dissolve of his business, which led to Brandon's attempted suicide in 1993. Brandon was admitted in St. Boniface hospital where he had his stomach pumped. One month later, his father talked him into moving to Surrey, BC to work for his multimedia company. Paris worked for 7 years as a digital video editing/3D animator helping build his fathers home based business into one of the most recognized video production/duplication companies in British Columbia]]. By 1998, Brandon became addicted to drugs which led him into a deep depression. This depression helped him find a new love for music, that he claims, helped him find his way out of his 2 year drug addiction.

In 1999 Paris left his fathers business to pursue a career in Music. He sold all of his belongings within 2 weeks, and moved to Long Beach, California with $7,000 cash in hopes of putting together a band. While eating only oatmeal everyday and living in cockroach infested apartments, Brandon immediately took vocal lessons and went to the library each day educating himself with books on song writing and the music business. After running out of money within 1 year, Brandon became desperate for money, and attained an illegal green card and visa papers. Only 2 weeks later he was soon caught and deported back to Canada.

Brandon started writing and performing his own songs as a solo artist locally from 2001 to 2002. He independently financed the recording of his solo album which took 2 years to complete but released songs to radio with no success. With what took over 3 years, Brandon Paris's newly formed Band was completed. Brandon re-recorded half the album with Troy Samson of Hipjoint Productions (Moka Only, Kreesha Turner, Snoop Dogg) and Jeff Dawson (State of Shock, Kelly Rowland, Daniel Powter, Marcy Playground), Paris officially changed the name from "Brandon Paris" to "Brandon Paris Band" in 2006 and decided they were finally ready to shop their debut album now titled On My Own.

in January 2006, Brandon Paris Band signed a deal with Koch Entertainment literally overnight just days after sending out their album to record labels across Canada, with many offers following. Their debut albums' first single, "Rewind and Start Again", was a huge success on commercial radio after being released on March 13, 2006. The song climbed up to top 20 on the Canadian CHR charts (tracked by Radio & Records (Billboard Information Group)). The second and third singles, "Somebody to Hold" and "Give Me a Reason", were also well received in many cities but not enough to reach top 40 status in Canada. Topping off an already exceptional year, Brandon Paris Band was nominated for Best New Group or Solo Artist (CHR) by the Canadian Radio Music Awards in spring of 2007.