Paper Route

In the summer of 2004, Nashville's Paper Route emerged when founder Chad Howat started crafting tracks during sleepless nights as a way to combat insomnia. Those initial efforts prompted him to enlist longtime friends and ex-bandmates J.T. Daly and Andy Smith for further work on the project. Additional input soon yielded enough songs for two EPs, both issued toward the end of 2006. The material drew interest from Universal Records, which helped secure placements on the WB series One Tree Hill and in the film (500) Days of Summer. Drummer Gavin McDonald came aboard just before the 2009 debut full-length Absence appeared. The record performed solidly, peaking at number 13 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, and the group supported the release by touring alongside Paramore, Phantom Planet, and Passion Pit.

Before preparing their next album, the band announced Smith's departure, which once more left them as a trio. Issued in September 2012, the sophomore LP The Peace of Wild Things entered the Billboard Top 200. Much of 2013 was spent on the road with Imagine Dragons and Anberlin, while two cover singles arrived late that year: Lorde's "Royals" and Destiny's Child's "Say My Name." McDonald exited by 2014, so Howat and Daly released the 2015 single "Zhivago" as a duo. Later that year they added Nick Aranda and signed with Sony imprint Kemosabe Records for their forthcoming album. Their first Kemosabe release, "Laugh About It," surfaced in February 2016 and appeared on the third LP, Real Emotion, which arrived in September 2016.