Lights Over Paris was an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band formed in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Ranked #6 on ''Billboard'''s

Heatseekers Albums Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

in August 2010, the band's music video for the song "Turn Off the Lights" was featured on

Yahoo! Music Yahoo! Music was a brand under which Yahoo! provided a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Previously, users with Yahoo! accounts could gain access to hundreds of ...

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

and received over 1 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

.
The band also hired artists such as singer Dev (singer), Dev and hip-hop artist

Game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

to record on its songs. 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.

History

Beginnings

On April 13, 2010, Lights Over Paris released its first EP, ''Turn Off the Lights'', on Digital Records/Type One Records. Three of the EPs' songs, "Melody", "Lime Light Girl" and "Rescue Me", were mixed by noted engineers

Tom Lord-Alge Tom Lord-Alge (born January 17, 1963) is an American music engineer and mixer. He began his career at The Hit Factory in New York. Subsequently, he was the resident mixer at what used to be known as "South Beach Studios", located on the ground f ...

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

and received over one million views on

. On May 10, 2011, Lights Over Paris released their second single, "I'm Not a Gangsta", on Digital Records/Type One Records featuring highly touted rapper, The Game, and was the first single off their unreleased 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, Ty Dolla Sign and DJ Mustard.

Fraud conviction and sentence

In January 2013, Mawhinney was arrested in Miami and charged with fraudulently obtaining four bank loans and money laundering totaling over $11 million. Mawhinney pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2013 and was sentenced to seven years in prison. In a phone interview with ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...

'' 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 he had obtained through bank loans using forged or altered documentation, which he had no intention or ability to pay back. A photo-journalist who had covered the band stated that one club date he attended, being reported as a sellout, had almost more people on stage than in the crowd: Mawhinney had purchased all the tickets in advance. Another scheduled appearance for the band at the Roxy in Los Angeles had a DJ on stage in place of Mawhinney, who was at his high school reunion that night, and saw the DJ being served with legal papers intended for Mawhinney during the show.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.

References

External links

Official website
'' ead-link' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lights Over Paris Alternative rock groups from California Musical groups from Los Angeles Avex Trax artists