Papercuts

Jason Quever anchors the West Coast soft-pop outfit Papercuts through his work as multi-instrumentalist and producer, drawing on five decades of indie, Baroque, folk, and noise traditions. Early releases such as the 2007 album Can't Go Back were largely solitary efforts, whereas later projects like the 2011 Sub Pop release Fading Parade incorporated outside players; both approaches rely on Quever’s signature combination of reverberant guitars, layered instrumentation, wistful tunes, and his own hushed vocals. Although the approach echoes many peers, his production experience—evident in sessions for Luna and Beach House—lifts Papercuts above most contemporaries, even when he alters the template on the shoegaze-tinged 2018 album Parallel Universe Blues. That record and its 2022 follow-up Past Life Regression further reveal Quever’s growth as a writer capable of fashioning hooks and melodies that rival those of his cited influences.

Raised in a Humboldt County, California commune, Quever lost both parents at a young age and spent years traveling solo along the West Coast before establishing himself in San Francisco. His recording career opened when he commandeered a friend’s vacant apartment to lay down piano parts for Cass McCombs’s 2002 album Not the Way. From that point he balanced outside projects with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, the Skygreen Leopards, and Vetiver while launching Papercuts; the band’s debut Mockingbird appeared in 2004, followed by Can’t Go Back in 2007. Issued on the Gnomonsong imprint operated by Devendra Banhart and Vetiver’s Andy Cabic, the latter album was promoted through a U.S. tour supporting Grizzly Bear.

Prior Papercuts sets had been solo Quever recordings made at his self-constructed Pan American studio, yet the 2009 album You Can Have What You Want brought in Beach House’s Alex Scally for bass, keyboards, percussion, string arrangements, and engineering assistance. The subsequent release expanded the circle further, drawing on touring musicians—keyboardist David Enos, drummer Graham Hill, bassist Frankie Koeller—plus producer Thom Monahan to capture road-tested material. Portions were tracked at Sacramento’s Hangar facility rather than Pan American, marking the first Papercuts album issued by Sub Pop; the more buoyant, expansive Fading Parade reached stores in 2011.

Quever subsequently sidelined the group to concentrate on outside production, overseeing Donovan Quinn’s Honky Tonk Medusa, Dean Wareham’s Emancipated Hearts, and Eux Autres’ Sun Is Sunk. He continued intermittent work on a new Papercuts project at Pan American with occasional contributions from Graham Hill and a modest string section. Life Among the Savages emerged in May 2014 via Easy Sound domestically and Memphis Industries in the U.K.

After limited touring Quever again paused the band, relocating from San Francisco to Los Angeles while dismantling Pan American. The next album was captured at Palmetto Studios with scant external input; Quever pared away customary density in favor of a shoegaze-oriented sound. Parallel Universe Blues appeared on Slumberland Records in 2018. He then returned to production duties for Dean Wareham, Sugar Candy Mountain, and Dark Tea before moving back to the Bay Area.

Quever resurfaced under his own name in 2021 with the five-song Baxter’s Bliss EP on Psychic Friends, presenting home-recorded dream-pop that included covers of Galaxie 500 and Leonard Cohen alongside three originals reflecting pandemic-era unease. Past Life Regression, Papercuts’ eighth album, followed on Slumberland in April 2022. Retaining the textural approach of the prior two releases, it examined contemporary pressures beneath gentle strata of strings, keyboards, and reverb.