Austin Chronicle: Do you feel that your work is art more so than it is traditional music?
Jerry Paper: I think music in itself is a very expressive art form. When I intellectualize it, I tend to stunt my creative process and that creates obstacles. I try to not think about it too much and leave my music as a place to play and not worry about fitting into a genre. When I was younger, I had a tendency to have an idea and set out to actualize it, but over my life I’ve realized that, by doing that, I am setting up obstacles for myself. If I trust myself, I don’t really need to put up bumpers to guide me.
AC: What cultural aspects do you pull inspiration from?
JP: Any aspect of my life informs whatever my music is. The expression is innately a filtering of the world through me. As a person who doesn’t want to be stuck in one mode – my whole life I’ve been growing and changing – I think my music will inherently grow and change as I view the world differently and have different opportunities in my life.
AC: How do you think that translates to more nuanced communities that you are trying to reach?
JP: Cities are groups of people. One thing that I’ve been thinking about lately as I’ve been playing more shows is that live performances are one of the few ways to musically connect to other people. A lot of the time I’m writing by myself, and releasing music also feels very lonely because I feel that I’m not a part of the music when it goes out. When going to different cities, everywhere is different, and every audience brings different things out of the band.
Jerry Paper
Thursday, March 17, 11:30pm, Hotel Vegas Patio
File Under: Character Driven
This article appears in Guide to SXSW 2022.