Papercuts

By Andres Jauregui
Photo by Alyssa Anderson

With a little help from his friends, Jason Quever of San Francisco's Papercuts is looking forward to a bright future.
"I'd love to be successful so I could call up Tony Visconti and ask him to make a record," Quever jokes over a pint of amber ale at Amnesia, a perennial Mission District nightspot that has gained recognition for its support of local music. "But of course, there are lots of friends that I've worked with before that I could easily see working with again."
It's a sleepy Tuesday evening, shortly after the doors have opened, and Quever seems at home beneath the red-lit décor and the old-time music on the stereo. Much like the bar, Can't Go Back, Papercuts' second full-length album released in early February, feels haunted by the lustrous ghosts of soft, folksy psychedelia. However, Quever insists that any semblance of nostalgia is purely coincidental.
"If it comes out that way, it's not on purpose," Quever says. "If anything, I try not to do that. Sometimes it sounds older because it just came together that way. I'm not trying to bring something back for nostalgia's sake... Everything I use is analog, but that's pretty common. I had cassettes in the '80s, and then I got a four-track in the '90s, and now I have a better one. People might think of it as nostalgic, but I've never used a computer to record. To me, that's almost normal."
Many songs on Can't Go Back share a warm, organ-swaddled inner glow, aided in no small part by Quever's wistful vocals and keen pop sensibilities. Songs such as "Take the 227th Exit" and "Outside Looking In" feature Dylan-esque lyrical phrasings and guitar work evocative of Robbie Robertson. The production throughout is clean, bright, up-close and personal. The common theme of narrative story telling within the songs completes the album's intimate feel.
Papercuts recorded Can't Go Back during multiple sessions spanning eight months last year at Quever's Pan American Recording Studios in San Francisco's Excelsior neighborhood. Quever takes pride in the new album, but he indicates that he'd like future efforts to be more focused: "I'd love to be able to call up Andy [Cabic, of Vetiver] and say, 'Hey, let's make a record for two weeks.' ... I want to do this more in the future, have a specific time for recording so it doesn't consume my whole life. Because it can, easily... You get to a point where you don't want to write any more songs because you don't want to have any more work to do in the studio."
As one of the few bands signed to Gnomonsong - Cabic and freak-folk guru Devendra Banhart's record label - Papercuts is in an excellent position for creative partnerships. Like Banhart, Quever is the primary creative force in his band, which until recently featured a rotating lineup of musicians. Although the album's irregular recording schedule limited extensive collaborations, Quever cherishes the contributions friends and band members brought to Can't Go Back.
"Even if they weren't [always] in the studio, [my friends] were there as an influence. David [Enos] and Matt [Stromberg] played really well. They did some really cool things playing on the album that I loved," Quever says.
With a spring tour alongside Grizzly Bear scheduled and a community of talented (not to mention, connected) artists at Quever's fingertips, Papercuts is a band to watch.

www.gnomonsong.com