Paper Tigers - Blue Light Trails (radio edit)

New single released October 21st

Blue Light Trails is story of a million different people all over the world, running towards the weekend, towards the inebriated escapism that removes them from themselves and the monotony of the working week spent in servitude to someone else’s needs. Its your favourite song in the club, the 3am party, dancing in the living room of someone you don’t know, making best friends with a stranger in a bathroom that you won’t remember their name in the morning, its the sun coming up and splitting the blinds while you smile from ear to ear. Its escapism. In that escapism there's a quiet desperation filling a void with the false happiness of alcohol and whatever else they can get their hands on. Its a coping mechanism, fleeing from something inside yourself, lying to yourself that this is all fine and waking up the next day, every week, with the bitter realisation that its not ok, that its making everything worse, its about wanting more and stretching for it but not quite reaching it. It's about how it makes you feel graceless.

'Blue Light Trails' is the lead single from the forthcoming EP 'Graceless'.

'Blue Light Trails' was recorded at Start Together and produced, engineered and mixed by Ryan McGroarty. 
https://www.starttogetherstudio.com
https://www.ryanmcgroarty.com

Mastered by Robin Schmidt 
https://www.24-96.com/

Paper Tigers ©2020

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Blue Light Trails

Left my haze in the ash tray
Audio, let it resonate
Blue lights trail
On top of the ceiling
Got my haze from the ash tray

And I can’t get up
I’ve had enough
I'm sick and tired of feeling so goddamn rough

The sun comes up
And were having a good time
The sun comes up and we were feeling so fine

Burnt out from the night before
Face against the cold tile floor
Resurrection in the afterglow
I don’t want it anymore

Blue Light Trails (radio edit)

Ahead of their debut EP 'Graceless', Alt-rock quartet Paper Tigers release their final single. 'Moloko' tackles the intoxicating nature of the things we know are bad for us. Set against a bed of heady guitar riffs and confrontational vocals on an anthemic, heart-on-your-sleeve track, 'Moloko' sees Paper Tigers live up to the hype, whilst keeping things intimate, wiry and angular. Singer Hayley Norton is in a spirited rush throughout, providing the track with an essential driving rhythm. With their debut EP set for a late April launch, this is the essential track to get you in the mood for heavy grooves.
"Moloko is a reference to The Clockwork Orange, its a drink served in the Korova Milk Bar. Moloko Plus (milk plus), a heady cocktail of milk and intoxicants. A chance to lose yourself, step outside of your normal character and give yourself over to what flows in your blood. The song itself is about losing yourself to someone else in a relationship. They vampire your personality, they make themselves seem so vital to your continued existence and value as a person, systematically breaking you down while building themselves up, making you believe the worst about yourself concocting half-truths and outright fabrications and turning those into gospel. It's the clarity that allows you to see through these veiled deceptions and step away from the situation. It's about someone else making you feel graceless." - Paper Tigers

Lyrics:
I seek you out so I can disappear
To feel your golden arms, so insincere
A vision through a lens, 10,000 poison pens
Wont give anything of myself no more, no more

I can feel it
Feel it running through my blood
Once you see it
You’ll never have enough 
Can you feel it?
Feel it running through your blood?

I watch the sun, I watch it drown
Outside a golden ocean I found
A simple trail of dreams, that pulled me at the seams
Wont give anything of myself no more, no more


About Paper Tigers:

Paper Tigers are an alt-rock band based in Belfast. Formed in 2018 by Michael Smyth with Hayley Norton on vocals, Emma Rose on bass and joined by Matt Milner on drums. 2019 saw Paper Tigers come out swinging, gigging incessantly and releasing debut single ‘Gucci Smiles’ which earned them a nomination for Best Single at the NI Music Prize. This was followed by the sophomore single ‘Flames’, released at the very beginning of the global pandemic. 'No Ghosts Walk' was released in October 2020 and became the bands most successful single to date. The track will see a vinyl release as part of a compilation on Blow Torch Records.

To date the band have had plays on iHeartRadio, John Bakers Totally Irish show on 98fm, Dan Hegarty on RTE2fm, BBC Radio Ulster Across the Line as well as a number of other local and international radio stations. The band have had premieres on Chordblossom and Rock N Load magazine as well as reviews or interviews in YMX Your Music Experience, Chordblossom, Rock N Load, Yeo Magazine, Messed Up Magazine, The Otherside Reviews. They were included at number 18 in Rigsys Top 50 Irish tracks of 2020 in the Daily Mirror. Playlisted by The Golden Plec, Lucy McCourt, She Makes Music and Gig Radar amongst others.
The three singles now have over 40,000 streams on Spotify and 10,000 views on YouTube.

Paper Tigers have supported Life and Hundredth on their Irish tour dates.

The band recently received Arts Council NI funding which allowed them to record their debut EP with Ryan McGroarty from Beauty Sleep at the prestigious Start Together Studios in Belfast. The EP will be mastered by Robin Schmidt who has worked with the likes of The 1975, Wolf Alice and Placebo. The first single from this will be released in October 2021 with an accompanying UK and Scottish tour in November.

Count it off!!

Moloko

Paper Tigers - Graceless

Graceless deals with the internal struggle of self-doubt and through self-doubt then self-sabotage. It's about being trapped in your own head, searching for the place you used to go to for comfort and sanctuary but finding only the feelings and emotions you were running from. The horror associated with knowing the sanctity of your refuge has been tarnished. It's the vicious circle of overthinking, tearing yourself apart, over analysing every little thing until you make yourself feel graceless. It’s trying to find answers and make sense of what happened in the past, still not being able to make sense of things, not being able to reconcile events and the person you were then with the person you are now.

Graceless' is the title track from the the bands forthcoming debut EP due for release Spring 2022.

'Graceless' was recorded at Start Together and produced, engineered and mixed by Ryan McGroarty. 
https://www.starttogetherstudio.com
https://www.ryanmcgroarty.com

Mastered by Robin Schmidt 
https://www.24-96.com/

Paper Tigers ©2020

https://www.facebook.com/PaperTigersNI
https://www.instagram.com/papertigersni
https://www.twitter.com/papertigersni
https://www.youtube.com/papertigersni
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2NOjq...

Graceless

Swimming in my brain storm
Can't get out
Spinning round in circles
Won't slow down

These waves of fear won’t break me
Tsunami crashing in my memory 
These words just won’t come out
I drown myself in doubt

Picking up the pieces of my mind
I don’t want another sleepless night
Looking through my mind and I can’t find
Where I used to go to spend my time

Graceless

The new single from Paper Tigers, ‘Speechless’ is a defiant affirmation, the refrain of 'You won't break me' is left ringing in your head long after the song ends. Standing up to an unknown oppressor, this rallying cry fills the lungs and explodes out of the speakers. The first release with new drummer James Foy, ‘Speechless’ marks a change in direction and sound for the band; still with the same passion, emotion and energy on previous releases but harnessed and delivered in a new way. The band worked with Jonny Woods (Wynona Bleach) for the release with Jonny bringing a pop sensibility to the track.

“A must hear, Paper Tigers live up to the hype.”
Hot Press

Speechless

A fuzzed out angry hornet riff cuts out of the speakers and leaves its trail throughout the song, giving way to acid washed lyrics and a guargantuan rhtyhm section. Gloria wasnt wrong when she said rhtyhm was going to get ya, Mickey T and Stevey create a drive and pulse throughout the song as it moves into a chorus that stomps harder than Godzilla tearing through downtown Tokyo. Hayleys vocals drip effortless cool while Michaels guitar moves between scuzzy fuzz and overdriven stabs that would have even the most Beavis of Buttheaded metalheads nodding along in agreement.

GUCCI SMILES

'Flames' is due out March 27th showcasing another side of the bands songwriting, an incendiary riff drives the song forward demanding attention before exploding into a stadium sized chorus. Melodies are backed by a snarling punk rock attitude, boundless energy while creating tension. The verses feel like a snarling tiger on a chain that finally breaks loose during the chorus, wild eyed and gnashed teeth. Already a live favourite 'Flames' shows the band hitting their stride. Lyrically the song deals with infatuation and lust, an introduction to an all consuming seduction like a flaming succubus Hayleys vocals lure you into the song and trap the melody inside your head.

PAPER TIGERS - Flames

‘No Ghosts Walk’, the third single from Paper Tigers finds the band pushing the boundaries of their alt rock sound, exploring new sonic territory and is the most personal song the band have released to date.

Formed in 2018 by Michael Smyth with Hayley Norton on vocals and Stevey Henry on bass. 2019 saw Paper Tigers come out swinging, gigging incessantly and releasing debut single ‘Gucci Smiles’ which was followed by sophomore single ‘Flames’, released at the very beginning of the global pandemic. The two songs have over 20,000 streams with accompanying videos hitting over 10,000 views. These releases earned them tours with Life and Hundredth as well as accolades from press with Chordblossom declaring ‘This is rock and roll’.

‘No Ghosts Walk’ opens with a thunderous drum intro that gives way to a chaotic soundscape, a cacophony of sound that serves as the entry point to the song. Driven by a hypnotic rhythm, lyrically the song deals with grief and loss. Trying to retain what tenuous links we can here amongst the living to our loved ones that have left our mortal coil, as Hayley sings in a pained reprise ‘It burns it stings, to watch you leave, not hold you every day’. The song is written to reflect the stages of grief, with the swathes of pedal sounds at the beginning representative of the confusion upon hearing of loss. Hayley guiding the listener through the void left and yearning felt with Michael’s vocals embodying anger and depression. The song builds to an explosive crescendo, a release of bottled up emotion. This single is the last of the initial three songs the band recorded and are available on CD from their online store. It acts as a bookend to the initial period of Paper Tigers as they prepare to move forward.

FFO: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Royal Blood, Wolf Alice, Pretty Girls Makes Graves, Paramore, Marmozets