Paper Space, a DIY surf rock extravaganza from Waterford, California, just released their newest EP, Fireboy on October 21st through our friends at Ronald Records. They’ve already built quite the local fan base, so we thought we’d bring some web attention to the band.
Paper Space frontman Max Basso (vox, guitars) was happy to write us a track-by-track of Fireboy, which is now downloadable on Paper Space’s Bandcamp, as well as streaming below, and are available on cassette through Ronald Records now. Enjoy!
Livid:
Believe it or not, “Livid” is actually one of Paper Space’s first songs. There’s a demo of it we recorded in our garage back in 2014 using one microphone placed in the middle of the room. Pretty soon after that we just kinda ditched the song for a while, but I feel that was mostly because we didn’t have the right sound for it yet. Because of this song’s age I find it difficult to pinpoint exactly what I was thinking when I wrote it, I think this song is about the raising feeling of disappointment (anger depending on who you are) in a situation where you ultimately want things to work out but know in the back of your mind that they probably won’t.
Summer:
“Summer” is one of our more punk sounding songs, and it’s probably the whole reason why we are self-proclaimed as “surf punk”. This was a pretty big shift from the songs we had previously been playing. It was grittier, we were experimenting with more sounds, and I think most of all it had more energy than our other songs at the time. This one, like “Livid”, also existed for a while before being recorded, though we did make a demo of it before Fireboy. “Summer” wasn’t really written for any reason, but after some time I found that It was actually very relatable to certain events that, at that time, had recently occurred. I equate “Summer” the most to the rough time I had during my last summer as a “minor” where in which I questioned the validity of my closest friendships.
Things I’ve Done:
I used to have a solo acoustic project where I played folk songs pretty much. “Things I’ve Done” is a callback to those times in my honest opinion, only instead of being solo, I’ve got a wonderful band to go along with it. I did, however, keep this one locked away for a while. I’m pretty proud of how this song came out on Fireboy. Miles (Ishmael, bass), Kurt (Wars, drums) and I experimented with 3 part harmonies on this one, which I think sound pretty good. This song is pretty much about wanting to convince an old friend of mine to stop putting themselves in situations where they’re gonna get hurt.
Toad:
“Toad” is the song that’s closest to the heart for me… Or at least it was when I wrote it. This is one of those songs that didn’t take us long to get out there, mainly because it’s so simple, but its simplicity holds a much more complex meaning. This song is about two (at the time) close friends. It’s about a situation where a person I had feelings for was being taken advantage of by someone I considered my best friend, who knew exactly how I felt about this other person. It left me wondering if I could ever actually trust someone in the same way ever again, it left me wondering if the things I say held any weight to any of my friends. “Toad”, I believe encapsulates all these feelings into one, perhaps too lengthy, song.
Breathe:
“Breathe” is a solo song that I ultimately decided to keep solo, mainly because I think it fits the song perfectly. There’s an early recording on Paper Space’s Soundcloud. The early recording has more effects and extra instrumentation, but the recording on Fireboy isn’t much different from the iphone recording I did when I wrote it. Simple, one mic, lo-fi, just how I wanted it. This song is pretty close to me as it comes from a time where a lot of changes were coming my way and they were shaping me into someone different. These circumstances made me wonder if I could still be thought of in the same light. Things got better as they usually do, but I got a song out of it so I guess there’s that.
