Paper Thick Walls

"Kate Schell has voice that is both sweet, delicate, and feircly powerful. When combined with Eric Michaels their creates humble folk tunes through float though the imaginary fields and meadows of Chicago."
- What to Wear During an Orange Alert

"Paper Thick Walls are solid (get it?). More so Sigur Ros than The xx, they play complex indie folk, heavy in both sentiment and intricacy. Their music is as upbeat as it is dark, many times touching upon forlorn topics while gently running alongside melodies that easily upturn the corner of one’s lips." - VEOBA

"Paper Thick Walls are solid (get it?). More so Sigur Ros than The xx, they play complex indie folk, heavy in both sentiment and intricacy. Their music is as upbeat as it is dark, many times touching upon forlorn topics while gently running alongside melodies that easily upturn the corner of one’s lips." - VEOBA

"Their album is great, but it’s impossible not to appreciate their talent when viewing them live. They’re a well-oiled machine, and it’s in these performances that their love for the music and determination really comes out. This is a hard-working bunch of musicians, but they don’t forget to stop to enjoy what they’re doing." - Playground Misnomer

"My verdict, then, is that Paper Thick Walls’ “A Thousand Novels” is quite good. Not only are their compositions very nicely crafted, with the band displaying a penchant for a number of musical styles, their storytelling will keep you entertained and often contains elements of that darkness that lends a haunting quality to a song. Take a look." - Rock NYC

After a long night of drinking last fall, my buddy and I were partaking in fourth meal at 2am on my Humbolt Park apartment’s living room floor. Indian style on shag leather, drunk, and listening to records (I know, so incredibly banal); he later stumbled home while I passed the hell out. Heavy sleep filled with dreams of PBR and Big Mac attacks. Hangovers gone, a few weeks later he shot me an email telling me to check out this Chicago band called Paper Thick Walls. He was like, “Yeah, they sound very similar to that band you played for me that one night. I think you’d enjoy them.”

The record I spun that night was the debut from The xx. So unless he was referring to both band’s ability to cut away crowded arrangements to a simplistic pairing of naked instruments and barely-there vocal exchanges, then no, Paper Thick Walls sound nothing like The xx. Weird, typically my buddy’s spot on when it comes to music. Then again, he ended up mistaking an ivory colored ottoman for the toilet that night. Messy clean-up. Liquor must’ve hit him hard.

Despite confusion, I gave Paper Thick Walls a listen and safe to say, he still knows what’s good. Paper Thick Walls are solid (get it?). More so Sigur Ros than The xx, they play complex indie folk, heavy in both sentiment and intricacy. Their music is as upbeat as it is dark, many times touching upon forlorn topics while gently running alongside melodies that easily upturn the corner of one’s lips. Consisting mainly of songwriting duo Eric Michaels and Kate Schell, the band started in early 2009 with both individuals bringing a solid foundation of prior musical experience to the table (Schell won VH1‘s Songwriter of the Year award in ’04 and Michaels cut teeth in Chicago rock band Glasko, respectively). The result is a unique blend of influences, fleshed out with a backdrop of multi-instrumentalists and fiction-based lyrics.

They’ve come a long way in short time and with a debut record about to hit, I recently caught up with the pair and asked them a few questions. Check out my interview below and be sure to see them live, as Paper Thick Walls brings their somber, yet zestful brand of indie folk to Chicago’s Lincoln Hall on August 25th. Read through because Eric closes out with a really great line. Relevant!

Paper Thick Walls mainly consists of the two of you, both pretty accomplished prior to the band’s inception in January of ’09, can you elaborate a little bit on how PTW came about?

Kate: Eric and I for years had the same producer, Stefan Clark. I knew of Eric’s rock band, Glasko and he knew of my solo project at the time. I went to one of his shows and we both suggested possibly writing together. We also went to the same college, Loyola University where we met and both played with and recorded separately with our current cellist, John Burnham. As writers, Eric and I decided that we create really good, really unique music together. With his rock background and my indie pop/folk background, our styles blend together so perfectly.

Where does the name derive from?

K: The majority of our music has a dark streak. Some of the songs sound happy like Orange Tree, for example, but when you listen to the lyrics, it is extremely dark. The idea of Paper Thick Walls is that, no matter what, you can always hear through a wall whether it’s someone in the other room yelling and screaming or laughing and jumping. We want our music to be Paper Thick and for everyone to interpret our fictional stories in their own way – like what is going on beyond the paper walls.

How’s the recorded output thus far? You’ve got a download option on your site and some tracks posted on Myspace. Anything new in the works?

K: We have a lot of new songs that we have already played live and will be recording in the next few months. We will make sure we keep our website/myspace up-to-date and inform people when the new tracks will be out.

I want to think you two sit around with candles and an old piano/guitar in a massive, abandoned cathedral. Then songs just organically bleed out. Am I spot on or not at all?

Eric: You were absolutely right up until the bleeding part. I’m not a fan of blood. Oh, and replace the candles with dirty martinis.

So what’s the songwriting process like?

E: Actually, our process is interesting. We would come up with an idea or theme, happy subjects like war and abortion, and then create a fictional story around the theme. After the story is made, then we would put music to it. The album poured out of us in a few months. We would meet once a week and literally write and record a whole song every session. Those recordings are the same tracks you hear on our finished album, “A Thousand Novels.” We took the basic tracks and prettied them up with the help of Mike Hagler (Wilco, Neko Case). You can accomplish a lot with a laptop and an MBox.

The layered melodies and playful piano are very reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens.

K: Yes; we are influenced by Sufja - VEOBA

After a long night of drinking last fall, my buddy and I were partaking in fourth meal at 2am on my Humbolt Park apartment’s living room floor. Indian style on shag leather, drunk, and listening to records (I know, so incredibly banal); he later stumbled home while I passed the hell out. Heavy sleep filled with dreams of PBR and Big Mac attacks. Hangovers gone, a few weeks later he shot me an email telling me to check out this Chicago band called Paper Thick Walls. He was like, “Yeah, they sound very similar to that band you played for me that one night. I think you’d enjoy them.”

The record I spun that night was the debut from The xx. So unless he was referring to both band’s ability to cut away crowded arrangements to a simplistic pairing of naked instruments and barely-there vocal exchanges, then no, Paper Thick Walls sound nothing like The xx. Weird, typically my buddy’s spot on when it comes to music. Then again, he ended up mistaking an ivory colored ottoman for the toilet that night. Messy clean-up. Liquor must’ve hit him hard.

Despite confusion, I gave Paper Thick Walls a listen and safe to say, he still knows what’s good. Paper Thick Walls are solid (get it?). More so Sigur Ros than The xx, they play complex indie folk, heavy in both sentiment and intricacy. Their music is as upbeat as it is dark, many times touching upon forlorn topics while gently running alongside melodies that easily upturn the corner of one’s lips. Consisting mainly of songwriting duo Eric Michaels and Kate Schell, the band started in early 2009 with both individuals bringing a solid foundation of prior musical experience to the table (Schell won VH1‘s Songwriter of the Year award in ’04 and Michaels cut teeth in Chicago rock band Glasko, respectively). The result is a unique blend of influences, fleshed out with a backdrop of multi-instrumentalists and fiction-based lyrics.

They’ve come a long way in short time and with a debut record about to hit, I recently caught up with the pair and asked them a few questions. Check out my interview below and be sure to see them live, as Paper Thick Walls brings their somber, yet zestful brand of indie folk to Chicago’s Lincoln Hall on August 25th. Read through because Eric closes out with a really great line. Relevant!

Paper Thick Walls mainly consists of the two of you, both pretty accomplished prior to the band’s inception in January of ’09, can you elaborate a little bit on how PTW came about?

Kate: Eric and I for years had the same producer, Stefan Clark. I knew of Eric’s rock band, Glasko and he knew of my solo project at the time. I went to one of his shows and we both suggested possibly writing together. We also went to the same college, Loyola University where we met and both played with and recorded separately with our current cellist, John Burnham. As writers, Eric and I decided that we create really good, really unique music together. With his rock background and my indie pop/folk background, our styles blend together so perfectly.

Where does the name derive from?

K: The majority of our music has a dark streak. Some of the songs sound happy like Orange Tree, for example, but when you listen to the lyrics, it is extremely dark. The idea of Paper Thick Walls is that, no matter what, you can always hear through a wall whether it’s someone in the other room yelling and screaming or laughing and jumping. We want our music to be Paper Thick and for everyone to interpret our fictional stories in their own way – like what is going on beyond the paper walls.

How’s the recorded output thus far? You’ve got a download option on your site and some tracks posted on Myspace. Anything new in the works?

K: We have a lot of new songs that we have already played live and will be recording in the next few months. We will make sure we keep our website/myspace up-to-date and inform people when the new tracks will be out.

I want to think you two sit around with candles and an old piano/guitar in a massive, abandoned cathedral. Then songs just organically bleed out. Am I spot on or not at all?

Eric: You were absolutely right up until the bleeding part. I’m not a fan of blood. Oh, and replace the candles with dirty martinis.

So what’s the songwriting process like?

E: Actually, our process is interesting. We would come up with an idea or theme, happy subjects like war and abortion, and then create a fictional story around the theme. After the story is made, then we would put music to it. The album poured out of us in a few months. We would meet once a week and literally write and record a whole song every session. Those recordings are the same tracks you hear on our finished album, “A Thousand Novels.” We took the basic tracks and prettied them up with the help of Mike Hagler (Wilco, Neko Case). You can accomplish a lot with a laptop and an MBox.

The layered melodies and playful piano are very reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens.

K: Yes; we are influenced by Sufja - VEOBA