Music and Lyrics by Mike Marsh

Heart of ours

This is the sound 
Of this heart of ours
Everyone hears it
But they can't decide which way to go
To find the love they want.
Go... May the vain take hand me downs
They're crying out!
This is the sound
Of this heart of ours.

You've told me your secret
Now lend me your ears
I wanna tell you mine
I've built these walls around me
And I helped you with yours
Can you help me through mine this time?

If we're safe now...
Safe now...
Will you stay now?
Stay now.

If we stand our ground and face it
No one alive can change it
If we are one.

Chorus
Go... May your faith be patient now.

It feels like we are speeding towards the ground
And we won't brace for impact
As the air in our lungs
Force the words from our tongues
"I wanna live while I'm alive!"
Alive
Alive 
Alive


Heart Of Ours

Music and Lyrics by Mike MarshRegardCome on my courageous onesDon't give up nowEven though you're out of loveYou can't forget howYou're never too old or too youngTo hold it inThey're gonna lift you upKnock you downWarm you upIt's cold again!I can't keep upMy beautiful oneWhere are you going?Even when your full of Sh--You know I let you win(you always win)You're never too old or too youngTo be a fool againAre you gonna build me upOr tear me downThrow me outOr let me in?Why must I hurry up and wait?I always find myself aloneFor far too longIf you were meWould you hesitate leaving?You're fading outWhile I am moving inThere's no replyTo my regardCome on my courageous onesDon't forget nowIt ain't easy to find yourselfSo don't lose itYou're never too old or too youngTo be out of placeSo, are you gonnaBuild me upOr tear me down?Another one's gone without a traceChorusCome onWhen you take that road nowDo you realize the thingsWe've overcome?I hope you've made your choices count They were yours from the start.

Regard

Music and Lyrics by Mike Marsh

Counting sheep 

I count sheep
Until finally sleeping
I wanna wake up next to you
After all my dreaming
Another 50 story fall
And you caught me

So when you find someone
In your sleepy Little town
Who talks you up 
And brings you around
The goings good
The nights are long
And the search is over
The search is over

Everything I want 
Lays right down here

She makes all the love I let go
Come back and see her

Light from all our windows and doors
It belongs to you

Making it's way down every curve
Until there's nothing left of prove.

So lead and I'll follow
I'll beg and I'll borrow
To keep you holding on
Holding on
Holding on
Just keep me as your own
Even when I leave home
Keep on holding on
Holding on
Holding on
This is how to start it.

When faith was all that could save me
I was bound to lose
If you take away what lyes here beside me
There'd be nothing left to use
Nothing left to lose

You are entitled
But don't count me out 
when my heads in the clouds
You are entitled
Entitled


Counting Sheep

Music and Lyrics by Mike Marsh

Reach the End

There were flashing lights
And screaming sirens
On quiet, well lit streets
Alcohol and Medicine were all
Just common, old routines
For judging eyes in every window 
Everything will change
Because perfect people think 
Average should stay
Quietly restrained.

Well their checking his pulse
And calling it quits
Will there be someone there 
Who just witnessed it
He was strong but he's dumb
"Do you know where's he from?"

So you shouldnt take that train 
To California
You're prettier than they could ever be
So you hold on tight just as long as you
Can manage
When you've made here 
You'll know you've
Reached the end

I better stretch this Nickle
And tighten my tie
Tonites the night I'm gonna get it right
So hold on for it and hold on to it 
I never use to lose
Does anyone listen to a word they say?
Talk is cheap when you pay your way
Through everything
Is anything you say ever really true?

When they're checking your pulse
And calling it quits
Will there be someone there
To just witness it?
She was strong 
But she's dumb
What's her family become?

Chorus

You know... To see your garden grow
You must let some more skin show
While your still young
Whoa... You picked the wrong one.

There's no dearly beloved 
We are gathered here today... 
So paint the rest of us blue
Cause it's easy for you
But you'll have to carry the weight
Before it's to late 


Reach The End

Music & lyrics by Mike Marsh

"Everybody Talks"

If you tell me what you want
I promise I'll give it a try
Cause I believe I'm headed for something good
I don't need fame or money
What I need is a brand new start
She said, "I believe I'm headed the same place too, with you."

You're a hard one to find
I can't lose now what everybody wants
You look only at me
In this crowded room
While everybody watched

Fools play their hand
In a players only game
I do believe I'm playing something new
With you

You're a hard one to find
I can't lose now what everybody wants
It is only you and me
In this crowded room
While everybody talks

When they talk
I can't hear the sounds they're making
But when you look at me
I know what you're saying

Heart, Head and my feet...
Don't let me down. 

Everybody Talks

Music & Lyrics by Mike Marsh

"Son"(home demo)
A boy waits impatiently
Staring outside a window
Waiting for a light or a mast to show
His fathers direction
The sea only knows
A man steers
As a daydream runs off with his confidence
A distance to great without reverence
A stubborn man still has his faith for relief
Someday my son you'll become a man
And the trade I leave behind
Will be placed in your hand
If you find what you love is in someone else's arms
Don't drink yourself numb
On the ocean that yields to no one
But it takes you away
From a seasons distractions
And no one, nothing can find you
There a ships on the ocean
Planes in the sky
Who are making their way back home
To the ones who are waiting
Someday my son you'll become a man
And the trade I leave behind
Will be placed in your hands
If you find what you love is in someone else's arms
Don't drink yourself numb
On the ocean that yields to no one
The Ocean yields to no one


Son (home demo)

Lyrics and Music by Peter Gabriel

Klaus Ketelhohn, Guitar, Bass
Mike Marsh, Vocals, Keyboard, Drums and Percussion

Solsbury Hill (Home Recording)

Music and Lyrics by Mike Marsh

Golden                       

I'm living with a girl who has a smile that gets the best of me
If you've seen us then you know

She's Laying in the sun beside me 
singing songs that all remind me 
of when our hearts were young

As Spring shows our eyes a new beginning
We finally see with all these new things
We never really grew

She is confident and I'm strange
But we have it all arranged
And we have been the same
And played these games for some time.

She sees clear 
And I draw blanks
But she is lost the same
And we both know the road we pave
Isn't always Golden
But it leads us home

I'm coming home 

She's got Blue Green eyes
And long brown hair
And the way she looks now 
Is the way she looked then
And it buried me
Tonite my dear won't you carry me home. 



Golden

Music and Lyrics by Mike Marsh

Sunbeam

A little love 
Steps out on my sunbeam
Yeah, the rain is gone
Can you stay a little longer now?
Between you and I and the sun
We rely on too much to hold in our hands 
There's a pill for this 
And there's a book for that
Will the heart of this 
Broken plan be Patient now!
Be patient now (repeat)

The manic mind
That controls this retired smile
Sees your hand in mine
And it seems to be working now
Behind most eyes 
There's a real fine line
Between the promise 
And the fool
Are you a cure for this?
Is there hope for me?
You know the waiting 
Can be so cruel

Be patient now

All you need is a little sun
I think the same goes for everyone
When all you have will never change 
It needs to shine 
Or be rearranged

Come on!

Be patient now!


Sunbeam

Music in one form or another has been in my life, all my life. From my Mom spinning everything from Country to Hard Rock to my brother bowing the walls with everything from The Bealtles to Wasted Youth.  I was surely raised on an eclectic array of music. I'd been writing songs for years before "Paper" was even a thought. I started playing drums in 1988. Playing along to my mom's Billy Squire and Foreigner records and my brothers Led Zeppelin and Rush records. I knew from the moment I watched "The Song Remains The Same" a live Led Zeppelin concert filmed at Madison Square Garden that playing music was my destiny. The funny thing is, before I even got a drum kit. My Mom saved her pennies to get me a keyboard. An affordable but boring substitute. We lived in an Apartment and you can imagine how Drums and Apartments don't mix. I use to set the keyboard on the DRUM setting and play "When The Levee Breaks" with my fingers. I was pretty desperate to play drums. I eventually got a drumset... Bless my Moms heart. We we're evicted from that apartment complex less than a year later. In between School (which was always on the back burner for me) and Skateboarding, I was always thinking about and/or playing my drums. In High School I met Klaus Ketelhohn, a guitar player and Rush Fanatic much like myself. We were truly "music geeks" at heart. Our band "Abstract" was a cover or tribute band that consisted of us learning note for note covers of songs like "La Villa Strangiato" an elaborate fusion fused rock instrumental by Rush and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by The Police. I found in that experience what became another passion of mine... Singing. I've always had a high voice so naturally, I was chosen to sing Stings parts. We also got into other Rush obscurities like "Marathon" and I played drums and sang the lead vocals. It was a struggle and I'm sure there are some dusty boom-box tape recordings buried in Klaus' collection of random embarrassments. Klaus and I pushed each other as far as we could. We always have and still do. It wasn't too long after that that we started getting really heavy into Southern California Pop Punk. Klaus and I formed a band called The Agency in 1995 and wrote music together with our other counterpart Chris Drueke for many years on and off. We officially put out a 7 inch and 3 full length records. The Agency was a band that changed a lot from one record to another. Mostly because we all came from such different musical backgrounds. I was never a melodic musician in the Instrumental sense of the term. I used to write all my lyrics and melodic ideas on these giant pieces of Brown Paper. Since I didn't know how to write melodic notation, I'd draw these vertical lines under the words as to make pitch changes with every line drawn. Short lines were lower notes and tall lines were high notes. I needed someone like Klaus who actually new enough theory and had a good enough ear to bring my songs to life and it worked as long as I remembered the basic melody for the first few words. When you decide to play Punk and you've listened to Progressive rock and classic rock your whole life... interesting things can happen. In 1998 The Agency found our second guitar player Chris Carrabba now of "Dashboard Confessional" and "Further Seems Forever" fame. It was short lived due to seperate touring schedule conflicts. However, I was asked to join Dashboard Confessional in 1999. It wasn't until 2000 that I had my first rehearsal. At the time, I was interested in doing something new for "a while". A while turned into 10 years and counting. By the way, On December 8, 2006 Dashboard Confessional sold out Madison Square Garden. Believe me, I felt as close to being John Bonham than I will ever feel again in my life. It was glorious! So... where was I?... Oh yeah, Paper. I moved to Nashville in 2008 (after a horrible run in LA for a year) searching for a more peaceful and easy lifestyle.  I had started tinkering around on piano in about 2006 and wrote some truly embarrassing songs but it wasn't until Nashville that I started taking it a bit more seriously. I'm still no Pianist but I learned enough basic chords to get some ideas down. Eventually "ideas" turned into this project "Paper". Along the way I suffered through numbing blisters on my fingers trying to demo guitar and bass tracks for these ideas. I've got this old Piano that has never been in tune and I wrote my first three or four songs on it and recorded it. I was so anxious to just write something on my own, I didn't care about tuning. Who's got time to tune a piano when you can barely remember what you did 2 bars ago in the song your writing? So I slapped a mic on it and went to town. Eventually I bought a keyboard and things started sounding human. I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to do this for one reason or another... Paper that is. I needed the right guys to execute the parts that I had "Frankensteined togeher". Craig Schlesinger, a bass player I had known for years around the Miami music scene always got an ear full from me about how "I'm gonna write a record and it's gonna be different from anything I had done prior'... yadda, yadda, yadda.  He was always a kind of "cheerleader" if you will... for me and my attempts. It became pretty obvious that he'd be the guy to play Bass on this record when the time came. Of course Klaus was kind of a no brainer. He's always understood and been a good listener to what I'm trying to get out. Even when It was just written words and Vertical lines. I hope you enjoy listening to a bit of essentially what I've been working on my whole life... Paper. 

You can "like" Paper on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/paperband and follow @paper_music on Twitter! 

Website coming soon.

The Paper record is due to be released later this year. 

Enjoy and thanks for taking the time to listen.

Mike

Paper Music

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