Before celebrating the launch of their second album White Elephants tomorrow night, indie pop band Paper Airplane will surely take a moment to pause and reflect. Their record label folded and personal tragedies abounded throughout the past year but they sallied forth to self-release 16 tracks of rock smorgasbord greatness.
Paper Airplane formed in 2005 with Ryan Horns on lead vocals and guitar, Antonio Garza on drums, Caleb Bandy on bass, and Teresa Kent on keys. In 2007 they released their debut album Middlemarch on All Hail Records. This time around the band sought to build as pure of a recording process as possible and enlisted Heartless Bastards engineer Brian Niesz to help capture their live sound. While creating the album they performed together in the same room and recorded to tape.
With heavy themes like healthcare and politics White Elephants is driven by impassioned vocals and chameleon-like techniques. “This album is a good example of every idea we’ve tried to get across since we started,” Ryan said. Songs like “Spitting In The Lake” and “Time Is Full Of Photographs” move through sweeping chord changes, varied tempos, and candid lyrics. “I don’t like when you buy a CD and every song sounds the same,” he added. The epically melodic title track was written for Ryan’s uncle who died from cancer while they were recording.
This is a band of weathered musicians who thrive on metamorphosis. “We’ve all been playing music for so long and have tried so many sounds that we subconsciously mix them together,” Ryan said. He cites Columbus’ experimental music scene as a strong influence and has changed his opinion about the importance of musical trends. “I used to think that I needed to avoid all trends but realized that I’m actually absorbing them and trying to come up with something different.” The band has begun recording songs for their third album with Columbus Discount Recording and will focus more on songwriting than playing live shows. “It’s all about the songs right now,” Ryan said. “It’ll be nice to get back to the basics.”
Paper Airplane will host a CD release show for White Elephants on August 21 at Ruby Tuesday with Super Desserts and Winter Makes Sailors.
Visit myspace.com/therealpaperairplane for more information.
Alexandra Kelley writes about music for Columbus Underground and can be reached at alexandra477.com.
