#paperst

by Anna Hollow from TWTGE the fashion issue, April 2012

Chris Bidwell, 19, lives in Wildomar, California. He plays instruments. Jessee Fish, 18, lives in Chicago, Illinois. She sings. After a chance meeting through mutual friends, Chris and Jessee immediately bonded over similar taste in music. They became email buddies, and in a natural turn of events, started putting together covers of their favorite songs under the name Paper St. At the end 2011, Jessee flew down from Chicago to play alongside Chris in their debut show. It was a small affair, taking place at a small bakery in the small town of Lake Elsinore; but the audience’s love for them was big, and the only noise heard during their set was overwhelming cheering, non-stop clapping, and a collective begging for an encore at the end. 

On February 19th, I joined Chris in his bedroom for a short webcam chat with Jessee over Skype to discuss the band’s influences and ambitions. 

Anna Hollow: How did Paper St. start?

Jessee Fish: We started recording songs from far away, and doing it frequently enough that we could potentially put a name to it. And then we did that. 

Chris Bidwell: I think it was kind of our goal, right towards the beginning of recording songs.

JF: Yeah, we were always kind of like, “I wish we were in a band,” or, “We should start a band.”

CB: Even recording the first song, we wanted to make it a project, and not really just a song. 

AH: Who are some artists that influence you?

JF: Quick! to the Facebook page!

CB: Uh, Fleet Foxes, right off the top of my head. Obviously, Bon Iver, and . . . I don’t know. Bob Dylan! Bob Dylan influences me. What about you? I listed three right there.

JF: Well, um…

CB: Who’s influencing you right now?

JF: I’ve never really thought about this question. It’s just kind of, like . . . I know for me, personally, Bon Iver is a huge influence, sound-wise and, um…

AH: Lyrically? 

JF: Yes. That word. I think we would probably know better if we did more original stuff together.

CB: Yeah. It’s kind of hard to say that when we are covering bands–like, what our influences are. Because they’re essentially the bands that we cover.

JF: But for right now, it’s just, like: Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Bob Dylan. The Civil Wars, maybe?

AH: Do you have any non-musical influences?

JF: Like trees and the sunshine and stuff like that?

AH: Yes, exactly like that.

CB: I get influenced by [being] outside. Specifically, [staying] in cabins really influences me. And that sounds so, “Oh, I live in the mountains!”

JF: Oh, so original, Chris!

CB: No, really. I stayed in a cabin for a few days with my family–

AH: In Wisconsin?

CB: In Idyllwild. Wisconsin’s for girls. And, uh . . . I don’t know. It was really, really easy for me to just open up. Up in the mountains, you can’t hear anything. It’s awesome.

JF: It’s funny, but I have the same experience. When I was living up in my cousin, Heidi’s, house, which is literally in the middle of, like, gorgeous mountains and forests and, like, postcard material; that’s when I wrote the bulk of the songs that I’ve written. And I think most of it’s because I was in that environment.

AH: You record in two different places. How do you put the songs together?

CB: I record some instruments, and then I record my vocals. Sometimes I don’t even record my vocals first. But I record everything and then I send it to Jessee, and then she does her stuff and she records her vocals and then . . . then it’s a song!

JF & AH: [Laughter]

JF: Yeah, what he said. We usually talk about it beforehand and say, “What can we do for this song? Do we want harmonies or do we want to throw in some extra instruments or whatever?” And then if it sounds shitty, we don’t do that. Like that one song. [Laughter]

CB: Are you talking about the Robin Pecknold [cover] with the violin? 

JF: We don’t speak of that cover. [More laughter]

AH: How do you pick which songs you want to record?

CB: That’s interesting. You know what’s funny that I realized? It started off, like, we were both picking songs that we wanted to do, and then I would just kind of . . . a lot of it has to with me, actually, because it’s whenever I’m feeling like recording– 

JF: It’s all Chris. Chris is the band. 

CB: No! I mean, you can’t . . . you have to kind of wait for me to record something.

JF: It’s true. I can’t do anything except for sing and play the damn xylophone.

CB: And hope that I’ll record the song that she wants to record.

JF: Yeah.

CB: Sometimes I don’t.

CB & JF: [Laughter]

CB: But it’s pretty fair. It’s pretty evenly picked. I mean, we both like the same music, so it works out.

JF: It’s the combination of songs that we really like and songs that are even doable. 

CB: Yeah. 

JF: And, obviously, we’re not just choosing some song. We kind of have a certain flavor to the covers we do already, so…

AH: Right now, you only have covers up on your Bandcamp page. Are you going to do an album? Of originals?

CB & JF: [Laughter]

JF: Oh, the age-old question!

CB: That’s–that’s the question . . . I wouldn’t say soon, but I would say yes.

JF: It’s definitely a goal that we have, to write original things and put them out in an album.

CB: I would like to be able to come out with an album that is completely, entirely of our stuff; not covers. But for now, it’s kind of good. Being able to do covers, you kind of just grow a fan base, which I’ve realized, y’know?

JF: Yeah.

CB: Like, I feel if we just wrote some songs, it wouldn’t have got us the kick-start that we have right now.

JF: Yeah, it’s like, people know that they like the bands we cover, so they know that eventually, when we put out original things, that they’re gonna like that too.

CB: If we do a good job covering songs, then they know we’re gonna do a good job writing songs.

JF: I think it’s just a matter of Chris, like, growing a pair and writing some original songs that he wants to show me.

CB: No, you have to send me your songs! “I’ll send it to you tonight.” That’s what you said, like, four years ago!

JF: [Laughter] That’s because I’m busy, not because I don’t want to! I’ve sent you, like, all my songs!

CB: Except for the recent ones. You said there was a list of a bunch of new ones that you just did, and you were like, “I’ll send them to you, just tell me what you think.”

JF: Okay, I’ll send them to you tonight.

CB: Do it.

JF: Wait, you have to send me yours.

CB: I’m workin’ on a bunch of stuff, it’s just gotta…

JF & AH: [Laughter]

CB: Mesh together.  

JF & AH: [More laughter]

JF: Okay, you mesh things.

CB: I’ll mesh things.*

Anna Hollow is 17. She lives 20 minutes away from Chris in an even smaller town in California, called Menifee. She takes pictures, the ones for this article, included.

To see more of Anna’s photographs, you can check out her website or her blog.

You can listen to Paper St.’s music by accessing their Bandcamp page.