NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Paper Route ’s debut record Absence was mostly word of mouth from the band’s existing fan base and getting on major tours with Paramore , Mutemath , and others, despite the band being on a division of a major label. The band’s established fan base, curated through touring and social media, had already been introduced to the band’s evolving sound on the Are We All Forgotten EP released on 2008 from the folk-electronic sound of their early efforts. Absence though was full electronic progressive pop, but one that started with a hypnotic acoustic piano loop. HE STOLE AS BEST HE COULD. The disorienting intro to the song " Enemy Among Us " is a reverberated piano. In the living-room-filmed album promotional performance video (see below) shows a drum set a top the electric piano as Chad Howat plays the song. I have no idea how the band recorded the song, but Absence is an album that I would like to know more technical specifics about how they captured certain sounds. Besides w

I have many fond memories of my first Cornerstone in 2007, seeing a lot of the bands that I loved for the first and only time. There was a lot of effort to see as much as possible--looking at the pamphlets mailed when you purchased your tickets, trying to synchronize them with friends, and inevitably being unable to see everyone you wanted to see because of scheduling conflicts. But there was one stage that took the least effort--The Gallery.  SCATTERED IN AMERICAN CROWDS.  In the back of The Gallery stage was the coffee shop, or I should say the coffee canteen. Depending on the year, it was hot and dusty or wet and buggy, but cheap refills if you bought that year's mug early in the festival before it sold out and the music in the mornings just quiet enough to have a conversation made the stage my favorite. The evenings got a little crowded with some of the mellower hippy crowd or sometimes a CCM band that wasn't quite big enough for the main stage. But in the morning, crowds w

In April 2012, five months before they released their second album,  The Peace of Wild Things ,  Paper Route  performed a concert in an art studio, which was filmed and aired as the third episode of Brigham Young University Television's music show,  Audio Files .  The show only lasted for two seasons, but the first episode featured then up-and-coming band  Imagine Dragons .  Paper Route performed songs from their first album  Absence ,  but also indulged listeners' expectation by performing several songs from their upcoming album and shared stories about the songs and the recording process. WE WELCOME YOU THIS EVENING.   The entire performance used to be up on the show's now defunct website, but now we can only watch " Wish " and " Tamed ," on YouTube, the latter being a short eerie duet with singer-songwriter  Cacie Dalager , lead singer of the indie band  Now, Now , and harpist  Timbre . I don't remember all of the songs Paper Route performed on th

When Paper Route announced that they would be releasing their debut LP Absence on Universal Motown, a now defunct subsidiary of Universal Republic R ecords , I thought that it was an interesting, if not somewhat strange choice of a label. But Paper Route is a band that aimed to challenge musical genre. Absence moves away from the band's Americana roots and into an electronic sound. But it's tracks in the center of the record like " Be Healed, " " Good Intentions " and even the New-Wave inspired " Tiger Teeth " that contain the soul of the record. Perhaps the band isn't  Motown, but their sound certainly expanded on Absence.  I WANNA BE YOUR TV SET. The airy pop tune "Good Intentions" shifts the album from rock to pop, following " Wish " and " Carousel ." By the middle of the album it seems clear that Paper Route is a better pop group than rock band. Paper Route's bassist and keyboardist Chad Howat talked abo

You never know what to expect when you get a new Paper Route album. The protean band has evolved from a quartet of multi-instrumentalists playing indie rock Americana to a pop group with a fetish for synthesizers by the EP Are We All Forgotten , which proceeded their major label debut, Absence . The band's sophomore record, The Peace of Wild Things , the band became even more of a pop group. So when listeners heard the choral " Intro " on the band's third record, Real Emotion , immediately followed by the dirty, distorted guitars of " Writing on the Wall ," we wondered, are we getting a rock Paper Route record?   I FORGAVE YOU ONCE/ THEN AT TWICE/ I TOOK CONTROL.   But Real Emotion was Paper Route's most diverse record. "Writing on the Wall" is arguably the closest to a straightforward rock song that Paper Route has ever performed. Much of the record reverts back to the solid pop tracks on The Peace of Wild Things. But Real Emotion 's sixt

In April 2012, five months before they released their second album, The Peace of Wild Things , Paper Route performed a concert in an art studio, which was filmed and aired as the third episode of Brigham Young University Television's music show, Audio Files . The show only lasted for two seasons, but the first episode featured then up-and-coming band Imagine Dragons .  Paper Route performed songs from their first album Absence , but also indulged listeners' expectation by performing several songs from their upcoming album and shared stories about the songs and the recording process. WE WELCOME YOU THIS EVENING.  The entire performance used to be up on the show's now defunct website, but now we can only watch " Wish " and " Tamed ," on YouTube, the latter being a short eerie duet with singer-songwriter Cacie Dalager , lead singer of the indie band Now, Now , and harpist Timbre . I don't remember all of the songs Paper Route performed on the show; how