Origami Ghosts, as you might imagine, don’t make music like other people’s music – and that’s a good thing, right ? Originality is, surely, what we crave. ‘Elancourt‘ is the first release from the band’s new album ‘Healthy Travel Potions‘ (out July 12th) and is as good an example as any of Origami Ghosts’ blend of jangly-guitar-folk-pop. as it recounts the restless travelling life of lead-singer and band mainstay J.P. Scesniak.
But who are Origami Ghosts ? Right now they are predominantly Scesniak and keyboardist/vocalist Cassandra Wulff, but over the fifteen years of the band’s existence it has been through many changes. As Scesniak explains “I originally was playing in a band called Paper People but had these songs that didn’t fit the mood, so I linked up with my friend Joel Hanson who played hammered dulcimer, and that was the first version of Origami Ghosts. From there we added a cello player, and a drummer, then eventually Joel left…It became this vehicle for me to collaborate with whomever was interested and just keep putting out records with different people.”
Fittingly for a record with one theme of people in motion ‘Healthy Travel Potions‘ was conceived in Seattle, recorded over three days in a converted Methodist chapel in Ballard, Washington before J.P. Scesniak and Cassandra Wulff decamped to their new centre of operations in Austin Texas. Another theme is described by Scesniak as capturing his and Wulff’s mystical leanings “Cassandra and I study magic, spirituality and things like elemental beings. I grew up going to church and had God in my life, but I stopped going to church when I was young, and then through travelling discovered Eastern religion and yogic philosophy. I’ve always had a spiritual outlook though, so that sort of informs a lot of these songs.”
