2020 has certainly been a difficult year for the music industry, with the COVID-19 pandemic effectively shutting down nearly all tours and live events throughout the year and delaying countless album releases, but LA-based alternative-pop band, Paper Jackets have managed to keep themselves busy over the past four months. On top of their recently released album, Souvenirs Volume One, the band has been consistently releasing new video content on their YouTube channel, including music videos, covers, song play-throughs and more. In addition to the release of the album last week, they dropped the music video for their track, “Miss You,” and released their cover of Oasis’ smash hit, “Wonderwall.”
Today, we’re excited to bring you the band’s latest cover – their take on Stevie Nicks’ “Stand Back.” The soulful, emotionally powerful cover was recorded when the band came together virtually while quarantining apart. Listen to to the cover, and read what the band had to say about the song and their new album below.
Get to Souvenirs Volume One HERE.
Prelude Press: 2020 has been a strange year for music, with the pandemic putting everything on hold for the foreseeable future, but you guys have been keeping busy by releasing new music over the past few months and released Souvenirs Volume One this month! What are you excited for fans to hear on the upcoming release?
Paper Jackets: They say you spend your whole life writing your first LP so for us it’s been no different. We feel like this is a culmination of every session, show, past relationship good or bad it’s all made for this moment and we want people to have fun and enjoy listening. It’s been a joy for us making this record and we are thrilled to share it with everyone!
Did you have any major goals in mind when you began working on this collection of songs?
We’ve always had the goal of bringing the music to more and more listeners and finding space to grow as musicians. We have seen large transformations since we set out to make this record both musically and structurally. Just living out the teenage fantasies we had growing up just six feet apart.
How do you feel you’ve grown as a band with the writing and recording of Souvenirs Volume One?
Noticeably since it began. We’ve added a completely new dynamic with the corresponding male and female lead vocals in songs like “Miss You”. We’ve also had time to dial in our own sound instead of just relying on the current trends over the years. There’s a definitive sense of ownership over these songs and how they fit in the alt-pop genre.
On top of the album, you also recorded a couple of covers while you all were quarantining apart from one another. What was this process like compared to your usual songwriting process? Did you come across any challenges?
The biggest challenge was being separated and having to record ourselves. I know for a lot of bands some members double as producers , in our case we had to learn to record and sync these parts correctly so it didn’t sound like every other zoom session where none of the audio lines up and the feed becomes a giant cluster. We did meet up in smaller writing groups once the infection rates dipped but now looking back on that it might have been premature.
One of the songs you chose to cover was “Stand Back” by Stevie Nicks – what drew you to this song in particular? What significance does it have to you as a band?
A lot of people don’t know that Prince wrote this song with Stevie Nicks which is a cool part of the story. We just thought it was a great song and wanted to put our spin on it. We draw influences from a handful of 70’s & 80’s artists.
Could fans expect to hear more cover songs soon?
We certainly hope so! Aimee and I started tinkering with “Love Fool” by The Cardigans. We’ll keep you updated on that but no immediate plans.
With Souvenirs Volume One out now, do you guys have any other big plans or goals for the rest of 2020?
Just the same upward push to reach new listeners and circle back with old friends! Many of our original plans are on hold until further notice but we are beyond excited to share our new record and get back to performing!
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