The Neon Poppin' Paradise Crew

Asian pop culture explodes to life at Bris-Asia: Neon Pop 2016, a festival celebrating Brisbane's artistic ties to the greater Asian region through a shared love of Cosplay, music and dance.

Paradise Crew are a Brisbane-based dance troupe supported by the Council's Visible Ink Youth Program. Next year they'll be showing off their passion for all things J- and K-pop when they bust a move at Neon Pop.

Who are the members of Paradise Crew?
Serena: Paradise Crew consists of cutie-patootie Anita, tall maknae Sarah, swagalicious ab-visual Tahnee, and myself, Serena, the bird-leader who makes up all the lame names that no one else agreed to haha!

© James Niland

How did the group come together?
Serena: I approached Utopia Entertainment directly, introduced myself and pitched the idea of starting up a dance crew. I’m so grateful to them for helping me find these beautiful girls.

When did you all become fans of J-pop and K-pop?
Serena: I really got into J-pop and K-pop during high school. My first proper taste of J-pop was Utada Hikaru’s 'Traveling' music video, which I thought was SO COOL. I got into a lot of J-pop to begin with, and then my best friend spread the BoA virus to me, which bridged me over to K-pop.
Sarah: Around 2013 after discovering PopAsia at midnight on New Year’s Day.
Tahnee: Eight years ago, although I became a fan through watching anime and J-dramas / K-dramas since my early teens.
Anita: My first Asian pop interest was actually J-pop! I had a... let’s call it a slightly obsessive phase with the male idol group Arashi. I fell in love when I saw one of their concert performances and how they danced and sung with so much passion and charisma as a group.

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Who are some of your favourite artists in those genres?
Sarah: In J-pop: Perfume, Baby Metal and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. In K-pop I like: VIXX, f(x), Spica, BTS, Big Bang, EXID, Super Junior, 2NE1, really just too many haha. 
Serena: I love Kyary’s crazy fashions hehe. I don’t actually follow J-pop as fanatically as I used to, but one artist that stands out to me is Flower, their songs are really lovely. I usually prefer female artists, so in K-pop my favourites are: Sistar, miss A, AOA, KARA… I have my eyes on some rookie girl groups too!
Anita: For J-pop I love artists such as: Utada Hikaru and BoA. For K-pop I like a lot of groups but bias would be miss A and BTS or 100%.
Tahnee: I love Gackt and J-rock more so than J-pop. For K-pop I really love Zico at the moment, but basically any group/ artist with a hip-hop vibe or who can dance incredibly well.

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For people new to K-pop etc., can you suggest some bands/ artists to help introduce them to the music?
Sarah: The big groups, like Girls Generation or Big Bang would be good to start with.
Tahnee: Big Bang got me into the K-pop scene, so I would suggest them as a good segue from Western pop to K-pop.
Anita: I would say anything YG is a great place to start – they’re like one of the main flagships of K-pop. 2NE1, Big Bang, and Psy have all made it internationally and a lot of the choreography is so amazing. I also like Lee Hi, even though she’s been quiet recently.
Serena: Big Bang is universally amazing so they would also be my pick to convert the non-believers. :3 Although, SM groups like EXO and Girls Generation also seem to be very representative of K-pop - even though I personally prefer JYP artists like miss A, Wonder Girls… Sunmi!

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Are these musical styles as popular as they could be in Brisbane, considering the size of the city's Asian population?
Tahnee: The Asian-pop loving community in Brisbane is quite small, so it could definitely be more popular. I’ve found that a lot of my Korean friends don’t enjoy K-pop.
Sarah: They probably aren't as popular as they could be, but there are many events that are bringing these genres to light which is great!
Serena: Yeah I think Asian pop music is definitely getting more popular in Brisbane, and not just among the Asian population. We performed at Neko Nation in Brisbane recently and there are heaps of awesome people in Brisbane who are into Asian pop culture.
Anita: I actually reckon Brisbane’s got a pretty strong K-pop community, but especially recently there’s a lot of strong emerging dance groups besides ourselves, like Pepero, NDC, and KDR, and even AO Crew from Melbourne comes up for workshops. I feel like it’s on the path of snowballing and hopefully we’ll be like Melbourne one day where all the K-pop groups come to Brisbane for concerts!

If you could be a Pokémon, which one would you be?
Sarah: Either Charmander or Squirtle, they are just both so cute haha!
Anita: I would choose Lugia!
Serena: I want to be Sylveon. I like all the Eevees, but I’m obviously a fairy type... Though the girls always say I’m part-bird, so maybe I’ll be Altaria instead, the cotton-fluff bird… THAT’S ACTUALLY A COTTON-FLUFF DRAGON. >:D
Tahnee: Moltres.
Serena: You are definitely Moltres, Tahnee. Good pick.

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What does a Paradise Crew performance look and sound like?
Serena: A rainbow? An awesome, exciting and POWERFUL rainbow, haha! I hope that over time, people will be able to see all the different colours of Paradise Crew – see what I did there? We all have different dance experience and distinctive style preferences, so when we bring that altogether as a crew, I hope that we can showcase a wide variety of artistic colours in our own unique way.

Has the band had any embarrassing moments onstage?
Sarah: I don't think we have, have we?
Tahnee: Our music track stopping half-way through my solo at the Gold Coast Multicultural Festival.
Anita: I wouldn’t say embarrassing, but that was probably the most awkward moment. It was during our performance at a non-K-pop community event and they couldn’t get the CD to work. Sooo lucky that our ever-prepared leader Serena had a backup USB. We had to start the whole performance again and ended up dancing for about 15 minutes straight, but the crowd handled it really well.
Serena: Yeah that was super awkies haha. I nearly had an incident at our debut performance for the Lunafly Showcase. I was wearing a pair of denim overalls with one strap down – trying to look cool lol. The remaining strap fell down mid-performance and I was just going to carry on like a pro… But for a split second I imagined the pants falling down too LOL so I quickly readjusted myself on stage. I didn’t want to make the crew famous at our very first performance for the wrong reason!

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What about your proudest achievement to date as Paradise Crew?
Sarah: Our debut performance at Lunafly just recently.
Tahnee: I think Neko Nation, as we had less time to prepare and still pulled it together for a great performance.
Anita: I’d probably have to say Neko Nation too. We chose some fairly difficult routines and it took many hours to drill, learn, and get everyone in sync, but we got there in the end.
Serena: Same here. In the seven days prior to Neko Nation, we were practising every second night after work and it was really encouraging to see the drastic improvement between each rehearsal. That level of dedication is tough to come by and I’m so grateful for everyone in the crew. We’re only six months young so if we keep working hard, who knows what’s in store for us in the future?

What is the long-term plan for Paradise Crew heading into 2016?
Serena: Oh, there are so many projects pencilled in for 2016 I don’t even know where to begin! It’s all very exciting, but right now we are focusing most of our efforts towards Neon Pop. Like I said earlier, I hope we can continue to expand our horizons as a crew, and you’ve already seen Paradise Crew do K-pop and J-pop… come along to Neon Pop on 5 February to see what we’ve been cooking up!



Any advice for budding J-pop and K-pop performers?
Anita: My advice would be to get started, regardless of how confident or shy you are. If you don’t get moving, you won’t get moving. I wish I started earlier but I’m glad I started when I did. Also for those who are looking to cover dances, it’s always good to film your practises because a lot of mistakes can be ones you’re not even aware you’re making unless you watch yourself.
Tahnee: Just be yourself and be confident. If you have fun with your performance then that will shine through and the people watching will feel your happiness and excitement.
Sarah: To practise and do songs you love. If it's something you want to do, it's good to just practise and make sure you're having fun while doing so, whether it's in a group or by yourself.
Serena: Well-meaning people will insinuate that you don’t deserve to stand on stage unless you’re going to be the next biggest thing in the industry. They think that’s the only appropriate purpose for a performer. But the reality is you don’t need to prove anything to anyone, if you’re doing it because you love it, then you’ve already reached the end goal by getting up on that stage. You don’t need a trophy, a medal, or a recording contract to justify your enjoyment, right? Don’t overthink and wait around for something to happen for you, just get out there and do it yourself. No regrets.

Paradise Crew perform at Neon Pop at Reddacliff Place 5 February as part of BrisAsia which runs 5-28 February.