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Good morning! Death to pop! (long live pop) Just a reminder about this, our latest pride and joy being officially birthed at LEES PALACE on Saturday Night (April 14) with some of Toronto's finest: @themooksto , @fadeawaays , @listentobamboo , @jacktheladsband . #newmusicfriday, #newmusicfridays

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It's been a while...

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Just released as a single today ... 

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Time to share, share, share our latest video directly.  So here it is.

Directed by Daniel Ehrenworth, here is a hidden narrative woven into juxtaposed scenes comprised of found footage, symbolic objects and meticulously constructed scenes involving two actresses interspersed with circuit-bent VHS footage of the lead vocalist (i.e. me). Enjoy mentally dissecting this!

Kudos to Timur Musabay for his analogue circuit bending skills.

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What we've been up to lately:

A new album called, Darker Lights (released October 8, 2013).

A Canadian Tour with a stop at NYC's CMJ Music Marathon ... A few new music videos... The Blog ....

A Holiday Hiatus...

Sorry we've been away from here for a while...it was nice catching up.

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Tales From a Dog-Eared Notebook Pt.3

  So it’s official. The Canadian street date for Darker Lights (cat. no. SK2050) is Tuesday October 8, 2013.  On Tuesday October 8 Darker Lights will be released by Sparks Music and will be distributed both physically and digitally by Universal Music Canada – that’s within Canada.  There will be international distribution as well  (more on that in later posts) but people outside of Canada will be able to get the album in digital or physical form from theSparks Music Store and bandcamp. Of course you will be able to stream Darker Lightson Rdio and other similar services.

It will be a great relief to finally get this baby out there for you to hear. Until then, here’s another page from the lyric notebook:

-d

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Tales From a Dog-Eared Notebook Pt.1

It’s July 30 and we’ve been sitting on the final mastered and sequenced sounds of our latest album, Darker Lights since July 5th!!! Needless to say we’re itching to share or at least do something over here but there’s a bit process still going on.  Some of that process is too boring to mention here (i.e. talk of “focus tracks,” exact release dates, mail out times and long leads, etc. etc.,) but some of it is freaking cool. For instance we are collaborating with one of the most exciting young visual artists (and talented musicians) in Canada, David Kleiser to design and illustrate our album cover.   Those of you who may have ordered our limited edition vinyl for Inferior Ghost probably received, as a bonus insert,  a print of his excellent poster for our August 28, 2012 appearance at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.

All these meetings over copious amounts of coffee in the well-lit offices at Sparks have been fruitful. Soon we will announce a release date (we’ve narrowed it down to 2 possibles) and other exciting news.

Also coming soon will be some Fall season tour dates.

Meanwhile, we’ll be making a hometown appearance at the Rivoli, Saturday August 10with friends Duck Duck Goose Goose and Wild Domestic. But you know this already, don’t you?  Here’s the FB event. Please join!

https://www.facebook.com/events/202725856557587

Cheers,

-dean

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Echoes From a Dimly Lit Studio Pt. 1

Hello,

This is the first of what I hope to be a series of blog posts documenting the making of our forthcoming album. This week we recorded some bed tracks for three songs. We did this in our new studio, Echo Valley. Here’s the photographic proof:

  I went into the studio on  my own for a few hours last Wednesday to lay down some guide tracks (voice, guitar and metronome) for Bobby and Betty to play along to. On Monday night we all got together, along with engineer Nathan Vanderweilen, and discovered that I got the tempos all wrong –  so we ditched those guide tracks and the three of us ended up just playing together which worked out splendidly. We worked until around midnight, about 7 hours, and got the drums and baritone guitar tracked for three songs. We are hoping to have this new album finished in time for a late Summer or  early Autumn release. The working titles of these three songs are “Shadow Theatre,” “Edge of Chinatown” and “The Hedonist (Feels Right).” Those of you who came out to our last show at the Horseshoe Tavern got to hear all three songs. We’ll be sure to play them again at our next show.

Cheers,

-dean

PS Here’s more photographic evidence from Bobby’s phone:

Bobby's drums are mic'ed and ready...

More drum set-up photos…This is as much a reference for us than it is entertainment for you… The Drummer’s Perspective …

One last ingredient to a good bed-tracks session is the ever-watching eye who tells you when you’ve screwed up …

Thanks for tuning in!

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A Place Called Echo Valley and Our Next Record...

Hi, Some of you may have already noticed – we are not that band any more.  In my opinion, this is a good thing. Bobby, Betty and myself have been working on new material as a three-piece for a few months now. It’s been a slow, and at times awkward, but very rewarding process.   I know this sounds funny coming from the main songwriter but I finally feel like we are making the music I’ve always wanted to make –  it’s just much more focused.  That doesn’t mean we won’t be expanding our ranks  - in fact we have plans to add a new member very soon but meanwhile we have established a great vibe that we want to continue nurturing.

Way back in June 2012, while I was finishing up the final mixes for Inferior Ghost, we moved all our stuff out of what was once Chemical Sound and into a new space. At first the space was an empty white-washed shell with no electrical outlets, harsh lighting and a big chaotic mountain of gear in the centre – a quite daunting scene actually – but eventually with the help of some friends (namely Cameron Harding and Owen Norquay of Mesa Mesa, Jay Sad and Nathan Vanderwielen) we began building our new headquarters and named the studio/workspace, Echo Valley. Unlike Chemical Sound, Echo Valley is not a commercial studio but rather a shared facility where cool producers work and cool bands rehearse and record. Now that the studio is fully functional I am cheerfully looking forward to committing our new songs and vibe to tape.  I intend to document the process here at papermaps.net, so look for more updates about the new album – things like pictures, video clips, lyric scans, etc.

The upcoming show at the Horseshoe Tavern (Thursday Feb 7) will be the three of us  and we are going to play at least three (maybe four) new songs that we plan to record shortly after that show. The rest of the set will be comprised of back catalogue songs that we still enjoy playing and work best in our new configuration.  One song we will not play is “Reunion.”

What else??? Oh, we’ve moved our mailing list to a new mail service.  If you want to subscribe to our mailing list just look at our previous post here on tumblr.

I want to thank everyone who supported these past 3 years, especially those who continue to support us – and all you newcomers!

cheers,

-dean

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We Have a Mailing List...

It's on mailchimp now. You can subscribe by clicking this link below. We send out newsletters about shows, releases and videos every 2 months or so. Subscribe to our newsletter

Thanks,

-dean

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We will be making some noise on Thursday February 7 at the Horseshoe Tavern (Toronto ON).

FB Event:  http://www.facebook.com/events/547064551972239/ The AMAZING Showgopher:  http://showgopher.com/#!Toronto/2013-02-07/HorseshoeTavern

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Holiday Sabbatical and Dean’s Year End List

Hi,

It’s the Holiday Season and while most bands work feverishly during these weeks, we here in PAPERMAPS have decided to take a 3-week sabbatical. We’ll be reconvening in January and plan to play our hometown  February 7 at one of our favorite venues in town (hint, it has the word “shoe” in its name – more details and to come).  Since distilling the lineup down to Betty, Bobby and myself, we’ve been working on new material with hopes of a summertime 2013 release and tour(s). Our secondary hope is to preview much of that new material at our February 7 show. Let’s keep the fingers crossed…

Every year I do a little “year end” list of vinyl albums that I purchased that year – not counting records from previous years, oldies or classic albums, etc., which I shamefully buy a lot of…As always, some of these records were the soundtrack of my year, while others collected dust…but something convinced me to buy them…Here they are in no particular order:

Tender New Signs – Tamaryn

Crayon Wars – Wendy Versus (ok, I played on this album, but it did come out on vinyl)

Self-Titled – Paper Beat Scissors

Clear Moon – Mount Eerie

Lowbanks – From East to Exit (ok, I produced this…but it came out on vinyl)

The Only Place – Best Coast

Worship - A Place to Bury Strangers

Wild Peace – Echo Lake

Self-Titled – Metz

And there you have it…the 4th annual “Dean’s Year End List.”

Not counted here, but given honorable mention is the seminal post-rock/neo-jazz band, Talk Talk and their 2012 reissued/remastered Spirit of Eden.

Cheers and Happy Holidays,

-dean

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A new video for you, Tumblr-rs...

Directed by Kerry Shaw and edited by Chris Minns.

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CHANGES // GREAT HALL NOVEMBER 29

Hello,

There really is no “best” way to say this, so here goes: as of September 30, 2012 Todd Harrison and Wendy Leung will no longer be making music in PAPERMAPS. That doesn’t mean that we won’t be making music together in the future, it just won’t be in the context of PAPERMAPS. Todd and Wendy’s reasons for leaving the group are their own and so I won’t discuss them here (or anywhere) but I want everyone to know that it’s been great making records and playing live shows with them. Both Todd and Wendy’s contribution to the self-titled album (2011) and especially our latest, Inferior Ghost (2012) were great in all respects  (Inferior Ghost being our most collaborative work). That music has taken on a life of it’s own and will always exist with or without the five of us playing it live.  That doesn’t mean I won’t play some of those songs anymore – but I am forced, by circumstance, to look forward now and not back.

The next step (for me and PAPERMAPS) is to continue writing new songs – songs that are (hopefully) just as exciting or better than our previous material and to develop a new, more concrete and minimalist sound. It’s a tall order to fill, but I’m up for the challenge.  I’m quite excited by it, actually. Even in the EX~PO days (when it was just me and the studio) I was keen on “layering up” my songs with oodles of parts/instrumentation.  The subsequent formation of the 4 piece (and then 5-piece) band was in reaction to the fact that the previous records were so sonically complex. It was natural to continue in that vein on subsequent records having access to such great players and ideas but now I’m excited by the idea of working within the context of a 3-piece, just Bobby Lee, Betty Dimo and myself.

On Thursday November 29 at The Great Hall we will debut the 3-person version of PAPERMAPS as part of a great Rockin’ Stache Movember event sponsored by Top Shelf.  We hope to see you there.

Tickets are available here: http://www.ticketbreak.com/event_details/5541

Facebook it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/212606552203732/

Cheers,

-dean

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Happy Times! The limited edition vinyl are here!  http://papermaps.bandcamp.com/album/inferior-ghost-limited-edition-vinyl