Exposed Vocals Interviews Paper Planes

Exposed Vocals: Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Paper Planes: Well I, Justice Johnson (The lyricist and vocalist), grew up in Elkhart, IN. My interest in music didn’t really begin until high school when I joined the choir. Yes I am a choir geek and I absolutely loved it. I was exposed to some of the greatest vocalist I have ever met and a few of them like myself went on to become singer-songwriters as well. With that kind of friend base I began to learn to play guitar. Presently I have become familiar with a few other instruments; but my songwriting began, and is still very heavily based, around the guitar. I was attending my first year of college when an offer from Bradley Denham (My bandmate/producer) reached out to produce my music he had heard through the grapevine of social media. So I dropped out of college, quit my job, and moved down to Lafayette, IN where I had some family that lived there. Brad and I became very close and wrote many songs together and after so many we agreed to form our indie pop band “Paper Planes”.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was the inspiration behind it?

Paper Planes: We really wanted a name that would symbolize the idea of a dreamer. Two guys that really have their heads in the clouds that aren’t afraid to dream. And we fell in love with the name “Paper Planes”. There’s just a sort of innocence that is essential to what we stand for as artists and what we hope to pass on to our fans. To not let the world we live in and the people you’re around steal your ability to dream and most importantly to execute those dreams. Because it truly is a happier life lived.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Have you ever given your music away for free? Why?

Paper Planes: Together we both hold very similar beliefs for free online music. As artists that spend countless hours, day in and day out, in the studio to make what the public hears a lot of artist find it impossible to give music away for free. I respect those opinions because it is their right to their own, but we believe music is meant to be heard. It is meant to be felt and to inspire, and if the first thing a person sees, when they seek to download our music, are dollar signs it leads to the possibility of being ignored. Never to be heard, felt or to inspire. We release our music on a website called Bandcamp. It is an amazing platform that allows our fans to name their own price. A person could pay fifty cents, fifty dollars or nothing at all and that is because we believe music should be available to anyone and everyone that wants to listen. Period.

Exposed Vocals: Since everybody was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Paper Planes: Do not be afraid to reach out to anyone and everyone. To be in this music business it takes a very highly ambitious individual. Reach out to every local radio station, email every music review website or blog, go to every gig audition you possibly can no matter how big or small the platform or gig may be. You will find your music played much more and in more places with a consistently growing fan base, and that is a phenomenal way to start. It gets you experience; and experience is as valuable as gold in this business.

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual process?

Paper Planes: I find inspiration everywhere and in everything. I know that has been said by many before me but I believe, with that said, those words should be taken less as a clique and more so as valid truth. I have written songs about a girl I saw walk through a coffee shop. Or because the sun shining brilliantly across the tops of the trees moved me. I think the more time songwriters spend putting the pen down and going out into the world and living, the greater your songs can become. Ever since Brad and I became a team our songwriting process has become as efficient and brilliant as I think it could possibly be. Most often we will be in the studio and Brad will present a new progression and if it hits me from the very start, and words fly through my head, I begin to write the lyrics for the song. It has led to some of our best music. “Humble Yourself” our debut single being the product of that process.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Paper Planes: We do have a website! It is www.thepaperplanesmusic.com where you can catch all of our latest music, song covers and blog entries. The platform we use to share our music, as we previously said, is Bandcamp.com.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars, and a year off what would you do? How would you spend it?

Paper Planes: If we were to receive that kind of money we would spend whatever part of that portion necessary to improve and upgrade our studio with better equipment and maybe even a better space. The rest of that money left over I imagine would be put towards funding means to travel. Again, as I said previously, allowing myself to live and experience more of the world to better our music. And because writing music is not much of a chore for us it goes without being said we would be writing music during that time as well.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Paper Planes: We are still presently in the middle of figuring that out for ourselves. Currently we have reached out to multiple radio stations in our area and outside as well along with emailing blog review websites such as this one. As far as gigs those are things that we have found come to us as our music becomes more popular. If the music is good that cannot be argued. So far that has proven to do well for us.

Exposed Vocals: So what’s next? Any new upcoming projects you want to talk about?

Paper Planes: Since the release of our debut single “Humble Yourself” we have been working on our new upcoming EP. Although life has given us a few unexpected breaks from working on the music we are still on track to release our five song EP by early August this year, which we are far passed excited for our fans to hear. Just as our single the EP will be released on Bandcamp available to everyone at their own price. We encourage you all to stay tuned with us in the future for those dates the EP will released.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Paper Planes: I Imagine if Brad would have never given me the offer to produce my music I would still be attending college pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business finance at the school of Indiana University South Bend. After graduating I had intentions of being a CFO of a company, preferably in state to stay close to home. But looking back I’m glad that life chose a different path for me. I might like wearing a suit every now and again, but that sort of life just wouldn’t have challenged me enough.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while staying ahead in your music life?

Paper Planes: On top of writing the music Bradley also mixes and masters and handles all the production as well. With all of that it is hard to keep up with the other responsibilities in our lives. As much as I love sleep, like anyone else, we just don’t get much of it. Life does not slow down simply because you’re busy.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

Paper Planes: After the release of our EP in early August we will be touring throughout the rest of Summer into the fall. We are a band, like many, just starting out and our performances for the majority will be held in South Bend and Lafayette, Indiana and in regions on the east side of Illinois. After our tour we will begin working on our first album “0.4.2.1.” which the release date has not yet been decided. If you stay up-to-date with our social media accounts our fans and followers will be informed of those dates in November.