FEATURED ARTIST: The Papers
It’s been a minute since we’ve had a featured artist and we’re deeply sorry! Now that we’re back in business AEMMP Records is pleased to bring you Chicago folk outfit: “The Papers.”
With their thundering thick sound, The Papers leads the listener to assume that this is an army of a band, overflowing the stage. That is not the case one bit. The Papers are a humble 3 piece consisting of drummer Mike Sportiello, who is the cause of said thunder. Matt Script the in-house jack-of-all-trades, on guitar, keyboards, and vocals. Then the lovely Marie Hahn serenades us with her tranquilly smooth voice; engulfing the instrumentation into one collective force.
Back in early 2013 Hahn was in search of an audio engineer to record some vocal/guitar demos that she had written. She came in contact with Sportiello, who is the studio manager at IV Lab Studios He agreed to record the demo and also contribute some drumming. In the twilight hours after the studio was empty, the two became somewhat nocturnal and diligently crafted The Papers first EP; “Care Less,” released in November of 2013. Sportiello had played in a previous band, with Script and he joined on as Hahns’ songwriting partner a few months later.
In July of this year The Papers released a second EP Titled “Anyway” (again recorded and produced by Mike Sportiello at IV Lab). With a new EP, the band embarked on a small west coast tour this past July. This was the fist tour for Marie, Mike, and Matt. The first time on tour is an experience in itself, and it’s always good to hear that this was even more successful than they hoped.
“ We did a lot of trading of shows, where local bands from different cities would let us open for them in return for some help should they come to Chicago in the future. And once we started reaching out to people we started getting a lot of ‘we're musicians too, we know what the struggle is like, let us help you out!' One band from San Francisco gave us all of the money made from ticket sales from the show to help support us on our tour. You really got the sense that we're all sort if in it together as musicians and it's a great give and take. That was the biggest positive things that we experienced together.” – Mike Sportiello.
The Papers are in the middle of writing some new material but they still make their presence know in the local scene here in Chicago. Head over to their Bandcamp to get your download of “Anyway” or stream it via Spotify! And as always like them on Facebook and follow on Instagram to be keep up to date on shows, videos and new music!