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LOCAL HEROES
Paper Airplane Pilots navigate an acoustic set
Andy Downing
Published December 22, 2006
On "Western Automatic Music" (Spade Kitty), the Paper Airplane Pilots frequently crank up the guitars in an attempt to mask the album's broken heart. These are high-volume songs about heartache--pure power pop turned to the service of the age-old question, "Why did you leave me?"
Frontman Jeremiah Wallis sings lyrics such as "I don't mind if you drag me down"; "When I woke I was alone"; "I was only kidding when I said I didn't need you."
Throughout, the singer rarely raises his voice above a growl, stepping back to let the guitars holler, wail and shriek for him.
That is, perhaps, the band's greatest strength: making heartbreak not only palpable, but instantly catchy.
"I think it's the classic breakup album--kind of about the one that got away," says the 30-year-old singer-songwriter. "This is some really personal stuff."
But that's not to say the band wallows in depression. "We tend to be pretty loud live," adds Wallis. "We'd constantly hear, `You guys need to turn it down.' We were ridiculous with the guitar."
Which makes Saturday's performance at Schubas--a rare, acoustic set--a trepidatious venture for Wallis.
"When you're playing acoustic you can't hide behind that wall of noise," says Wallis. "It can be nerve-racking when all of the focus is on my voice and the song. I'm not a super-confident frontman as it is, pulling rock star moves and dropping to my knees to solo."
These quiet moments will also give audience members a chance to hear host of new tunes as fledglings, not yet fully formed and buried in noise. Part of this is rooted in necessity--drummer Tom Collier moved to Denmark in June and the remaining three members have yet to find a suitable replacement--but Wallis says the Pilots, inspired by the late-night, pub-crawling recordings of Harry Nilsson, have also begun to explore a mellower side.
Listening to "Western Automatic Music," it's easy to think otherwise as the band high kicks through a flurry of stampeding choruses. "The Way It Goes" shimmies on a rapid-fire acoustic riff. "She Is a Ghost" opens in a daze before a burnished electric guitar swoops in, as if to rouse the living. The fading memories of "Old Haunts" give way to an extended, winding solo that carries on for three glorious minutes.
During the interview, Wallis makes several allusions to seeking shelter behind these guitars ("When everyone is going crazy it's easy to hide"), a fitting description for what is, in fact, an intensely personal album, largely written after the singer parted ways with a longtime girlfriend.
The Pilots began recording "Western Automatic" in late 2004, doing much of the work at its practice space, Two Rooms Studios, at Lincoln Avenue and Diversey Parkway. "It was a long process," says engineer Steve Versaw, who assisted in the recording.
"Jeremiah knows what he wants, but more often he knows what he doesn't want. Sometimes we'd make changes for an entire day and the next day we'd scrap everything and start over again."
It seems that Wallis has always had this independent mindset. Growing up in Somonauk, Ill., the then 17-year-old could only make it through three guitar lessons before dropping out to learn the instrument on his own, jamming on Nirvana covers with friends (including current Pilots bassist Jim Kompare, who attended Somonauk High School with the singer).
"There were always guitars around the house when I was a kid, but they seemed like these mysterious objects that you had to be a magician to play," says Wallis.
"But when I set my mind to [learning the instrument] it came pretty easy. From that point on I was on my own."
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Paper Airplane Pilots, 10:00 p.m. Saturday, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport Ave. $8; 773-525-2508
