Lights Over Paris

Lights Over Paris was an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California. Ranked #6 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums in August 2010,[1] the band's music video for the song "Turn Off the Lights" was featured on Yahoo! Music, MTV, VH1 and received over 1 million views on YouTube.[2] [3] The band also hired artists such as singer Dev and hip-hop artist Game to record on its songs.[4] The band is now on an indefinite hiatus due to Robert Mawhinney's conviction and imprisonment for fraudulently obtaining four bank loans in October 2013.[5]

History

Beginnings

On April 13, 2010, Lights Over Paris released its first EP, Turn Off the Lights, on Digital Records/Type One Records. The EPs 3 songs, "Melody", "Lime Light Girl" and "Rescue Me" were mixed by noted engineers Tom Lord-Alge and Chris Lord-Alge

The music video for "Turn Off the Lights" was shot at various locations in Los Angeles. The video was premiered on Yahoo! Music MTV, VH1 and received over 1 million views on YouTube.[2][3]

On May 10, 2011, Lights Over Paris released their second single, "I'm Not a Gangsta", on Digital Records/Type One Records. The single featured the highly-touted rapper, The Game (rapper). The single was the first off their never-to-be released album. On August 16, 2011, a remix to the single was released titled "I'm Not a Gangsta (I'm a Gangsta Remix)". The remix featured The Game, YG (rapper), Ty Dolla Sign and DJ Mustard.

Fraud conviction and sentence

In January 2013, Mawhinney was arrested and charged with fraudulently obtaining four bank loans and money laundering totaling over $11 million.[6][7]

Mawhinney was convicted in October 2013 and sentenced to 7 years in prison.[8] In a phone interview with 20/20 Mawhinney gave from prison, he stated he was sorry for the deception and was attempting to learn guitar during his incarceration.

In media

Rob Mawhinney was profiled on the U.S. television show 20/20's "The Big Lie". The show stated Mawhinney had portrayed the band as successful by spending money obtained through bank loans which he had no intention or ability to pay back. In an interview with a photo-journalist who had covered the band, the photographer stated that a club date for the band he had attended had "almost more people on stage than in the crowd". Another scheduled appearance for the "band" had a DJ on stage in place of Mawhinney.[9]

References
  1. http://www.billboard.com/charts/2010-08-28/heatseekers-albums
  2. http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/lights_over_paris/artist.jhtml
  3. http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/lights_over_paris/artist.jhtml#biographyEnd
  4. http://mvremix.com/rock_blogs/2011/03/01/lights-over-paris-to-release-new-single-%E2%80%98i%E2%80%99m-not-a-gangsta%E2%80%99-this-spring-planning-release-of-new-album-in-spring-of-2011/
  5. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lights-over-paris-frontman-prison-fraud--20131021,0,6222186.story#axzz2if0a9w2D
  6. https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1532252/lights-over-paris-frontman-charged-with-6m-loan-fraud
  7. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/25/showbiz/band-fraud-accusations
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2013-10-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. Man Scammed Banks Out of $11M to Fund Rock Star Fantasy Alexa Valiente, Chris Connelly and Harry Phillips, 20/20, ABC television, January 3, 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.