Music Producer/Singer Songwriter/Lover/Creator/Entrepreneur 

The Paper Jets play indie rock that won’t sit still. Driving punk tunes crash into horn-inflected beach parties, breezy guitar-pop tracks take hard left turns into synth-rock jams, and insular ballads slow-burn into full-throated rock anthems. It’s the kind of music that should give listeners whiplash but doesn’t. And that’s because, at the heart of it all, The Paper Jets write sturdy pop songs. They just put them through the ringer afterward to see how strong they really are.

That approach — inspired by the philosophy of Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy in the film "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" — has led the Asbury Park, NJ-based band to a career peak with their second full-length album, "Everyday Forever," out December 7, 2018. Written, produced, recorded, and mixed by the band themselves with mastering by Rodney Mills (Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Beastie Boys), the album combines the punkish alt-rock of early Weezer with the anthemic power and ambitious songwriting of The Who, the pop sensibility and giant hooks of The Beach Boys, and the hard-rock guitar heroics of Van Halen.

Since the release of their 2014 album "We Are All Strange Friends" and 2015 EP "Almost Nine," The Paper Jets’ founding members Brian Erickson (lead vocals/guitar) and Frank Lettieri Jr. (drums) have perfected their musical alchemy with new additions Michael James Virok (lead guitar) and Scott Austin Miller (bass/vocals), resulting in songs that push the group’s early powerpop sound in exciting new directions. Lead single “Charlie It Can’t Be Done” — inspired by legendary comedian Bill Hicks’ riff on Elvis Presley’s “scarves and water” guy, Charlie Hodge — is an epic rocker that gradually builds over three distinct sections. “C.C. It’s Not Me” and “Say I Can” both plow forward with vocal and lead-guitar hooks battling each other for supremacy, and “My Gemini Heart” ends the record with a poignant slow-burn that calls back to the album’s highest moments.

With songs like these, it’s no wonder The Paper Jets have become a fixture of the Asbury Park music scene. Their music has been featured on local compilations such as the "Asbury Park Summer Sampler," "24 Hour Songwriting Challenge," and "My Hometown: A Tribute to NJ," while their powerful live shows have netted them three straight Asbury Music Awards nominations for Best Alternative Rock Band. In addition, lead singer Brian Erickson co-hosts the popular music podcast The Great Albums — which has been downloaded over 3 million times and reached #1 on iTunes’ Top Music Podcasts chart — and the live YouTube TV show One More with Brian Erickson, featuring interviews with local musicians and live performances. Erickson also hosts and curates the monthly New Hope Takeover live concert series at historic venue John & Peter’s in New Hope, PA.

POWERS is Mike Del Rio & Crista Ru.

CONTACT:
General: Ian@rebel-one.net
Bookings: DavidGalea@theagencygroup.com
Press: paul@whiteboardproject.co.uk

Here’s a partial list of things that have inspired L.A.-based alternative duo POWERS in recent months: found recordings of ancient Peruvian tribal music, a centuries-old Swedish hymn, a PBS retrospective on the making of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and a 1993 Baywatch episode titled “Island of Romance.” “Songs can spark from anything,” says Crista Ru, who co-founded POWERS with co-vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Mike Del Rio in 2014. “It’s just like love — it hits you out of nowhere, you can’t ever predict it. But when you feel it, you need to do whatever you can to hold onto that feeling and follow through and bring something good to life.”

For POWERS, bringing songs to life means tapping into their own eclectic backgrounds from playing in underground punk bands in New York City to co-writing for the likes of Kylie Minogue and Selena Gomez.  Citing the cut-and-paste art of Robert Rauschenberg and Terry Gilliam among their longtime influences, they’ve taken a collage-like approach to constructing crystalline pop. Working to achieve this vision, POWERS has been praised by LA Weekly for creating a sound “as classic as it is cutting-edge,” matching their expansive musicality with genre-blurring ingenuity. As heard on their debut album Alpha, the result is an endlessly shapeshifting breed of pop that’s both intricately composed and graced with timeless simplicity.

In creating songs for their forthcoming album, POWERS continue to embrace their oddball inclinations and exercise their pop instincts while shaping a more lavishly arranged sound. Along with working from a musical palette now filled with world-music-inspired rhythms and tones and textures, the duo have achieved that bigger sound in part by building off their recent experiences touring with bands like DNCE and X Ambassadors. From the brilliantly warped vocals and gospel-like harmonies of “Sunshine”, to the late 70's New York bass line of "Heavy", and the life-affirming, anthemic gospel of “Real” (featuring Sam Harris of X Ambassadors), the new songs match POWERS’ natural magnetism with an arena-ready grandeur. “Whenever we have an idea, we always ask ourselves, ‘How would this feel for a live audience?’” Crista says. “If something feels really good to us and we’re excited and it’s all flowing, it usually translates that way to people’s ears and turns out to be something special.”

Partly recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound studios with mixer/producers Rich Costey (Vampire Weekend, Chvrches, Bastille) and Mark Rankin (Iggy Pop, Florence + the Machine, Santigold), Alpha is an emotionally ambitious look at "the process of growing up in your twenties.” According to Del Rio the album embodies, “those characters you meet and the characters you become, the left turns and right turns all while learning how to celebrate the full color spectrum of your individual story.”  Lead single “Dance” is a gloriously bombastic and frenzied defiant anthem described by Crista as “our way of coping with the social and political environment of the world right now. It is our state of the union”. With “Man on the Moon” — a song about “the paradox of being simultaneously connected to everyone and everything via the internet, but still in complete solitude of real contact" as Del Rio explains — soulful grooves and spacey psychedelia both warp and heighten that sense of euphoric isolation. Meanwhile, on the disco tinged “Georgie,” POWERS animate classic lovesickness from a more carefree perspective. “‘Georgie’ is a fictional character inspired by real friends of ours going through the motions of love and rebound ,” says Crista. “The idea behind the song is to get out of your own way and enjoy life, know that something good can come from all the heartbreak even if it is just for one night”.

Julie Kathryn, also known as I Am Snow Angel, is a songwriter, producer, sound designer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist. She crafts sonic worlds — emotionally resonant soundscapes that evoke, in turn: alien landings, surrealistic dream sequences, nostalgic synthpop gems, and spiritual oases. She has been featured in TapeOp, Under the Radar, Wonderland, American Songwriter, MusicTech Magazine and many more for her “soulful narration” and “dedication to craft.” Julie has released several self-produced EPs and albums, including 2022’s dystopian sci-fi journey Lost World. 

A prolific sound designer, Julie has been commissioned to create ethereal samples packs for content libraries such as Bandlab and Splice, as well as loop material for Output’s Arcade sample engine. She regularly designs signature I Am Snow Angel synth patches for leading software companies including Ableton and Cherry Audio.  A sought-after collaborator, she has produced tracks for a variety of artists across an array of genres.

Julie is on faculty at Berklee NYC, where she teaches master’s level courses in music production and songwriting.

Music for ice skating.

Remix requests and any inquiries:
fineanimalmusic@gmail.com


Thanks for listening.

Fine Animal is:
Kelan Gilbert-circuit bender. string winder. 
Lucy Oaks-key pusher. female.

Kate Copeland is following