Interview: Nashville Pop Band Paper Ravens Talk About Their Latest Single "Addict"

Paper Ravens is a Nashville based pop band comprised of Becca Wells, Peter Wells, and Austin Duncan. We connected with the trio for an exclusive interview to discuss their brand new single “Addict”, the music scene in Nashville for pop music, and much more.

After reading our Q&A with Paper Ravens, be sure to connect with them on their website and social media, stream their debut album “Origin”, and check some more of their music on Spotify.

Congratulations on the release of your new single, "Addict". Tell us about your creative process for the development of the song.

The song started with Becca writing the main hook to the chorus when she was at work, just lyrics and melody. We started demoing it and writing the music around that main idea.

There was one day we were all in the studio working on it and Becca came in from the other room singing what is now the guitar riff in the chorus. That was the first instrumental part that started giving the song the life it needed. From there, Peter wrote the rest of the music as Becca finished the lyrics. The lyrics and music really convey the ups and downs of fighting addiction. The juxtaposition of the upbeat, hooky chorus and the dark, eerie verses really brings you through the cycle addiction traps you in.

"Addict" is your first new single since 2018 when you dropped your debut album. Why was there a three year gap between releases?

Most of the gap was due to us finalizing our band members, as well as focusing on our branding. It was once we got those things solidified and started playing more gigs that more people started hearing “Origin”, and we even got our song “Devil” on Nashville’s rock radio station.

We also shot our music video for “Swingin” and released a bunch of live videos toward the end of 2019. After that we started writing again and have been spending time sifting through song ideas and really trying to grab on to the ideas we believe are the strongest.

At the end of 2019, a year and a half after we released “Origin”, we knew we wanted to hit 2020 with as much content as we could. Once the new year hit, we started our podcast, and started tracking new songs. We’re really excited to be getting this content out to everyone!

Can we expect a music video for "Addict" to follow?

Yes! We are releasing a lyric video for “Addict” in the next couple weeks! Austin is producing it and it is in the final stages now.

We know that Nashville is a hot bed for country music but how would you describe the music scene for pop music in the city?

It’s interesting! Haha. When we say we’re a pop band from Nashville, people usually do a double take, but there actually is a rising rock and pop scene here.

The bands in the scene are really supportive to each other, which has been awesome. It slightly limits the local venues available to us since the Honky-Tonk scene doesn’t fit us. But there are some sweet local rock/pop venues here. Nashville is actually the home to one of the best rock bands, Paramore, so that’s pretty awesome too.

With "Addict" now released, what are some of your goals musically for the remainder of 2020?

We’re going to release as much music as we can and then a full-length album toward the end of the year. We’re already working on the next few singles, and we can’t wait to get them out there!

Stream and Share “Origin” on Spotify

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