If you spend any time in Deep Ellum, the odds you’ve seen, heard or crossed paths with these guys are super high. Cameron McCloud, Jay Analog, Tomahawk Jonez and Stanley Francisko make up hip-hop tribe, Cure for Paranoia.

The four had known each other for years before they started making music together. Until the end was nigh… so to speak. The guys caravanned out west – Mad-Max style – to avoid a comet that was suspected to collide with Earth. “I had just lost my job when they asked me to take a trip with them out of town before the comet was supposed to strike. So I took it as a sign, “says McCloud. “I didn’t really believe anything major was going down. Otherwise I would’ve brought my mom, but I also didn’t feel like I was a member of the team yet and figured this was my chance – like a bonding experience or whatever.”

On the doomsday trip, McCloud had recently been medicated for bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia, but he manifested solace on the open road. “We wrote a considerable amount of songs, and smoked an equal amount of weed. Which was incredibly out of the norm for me because it makes me anxious. So out of the norm, in fact, that Tomahawk made it a point to ask me what was going on, and after looking around at the open road, cloudy skies and mountains on all sides of us, I turned to him and simply replied, this is the cure for paranoia.”

The group returned to Dallas in one piece and as the newly formed musical group, Cure for Paranoia. They began transforming the Deep Ellum music scene with tunes that McCloud deems “honest and therapeutic.”

Cure for Paranoia on PHOBIAS: “What we represent is overcoming phobias and using your fears to fuel you to achieve what you want instead of hindering you from it.”

 The boys of Deep Ellum are currently in the middle of writing their second full-length album and working toward the official release of their eponymous project, Cure for Paranoia. Check out the band on Facebook, and visit their website to learn more.

Don’t miss Cure for Paranoia at Art Con: PHOBIAS at Life in Deep Ellum, Saturday, June 3.

Written by: Christin Taylor Workman