Folk Bands and Artists
Paper Beat Scissors
Under the moniker Paper Beat Scissors Tim Crabtree constructs delicate and intricate tapestries of songs. Their complexity both belies and serves their simple aim: to create a point of emotional connection and communication with the listener; To hold a space to disappear, briefly, inside the spells they cast.
The start point for Paper Beat Scissors was a desire to reproduce the catharsis Crabtree felt as a teenager getting lost in melancholy Radiohead songs or Michael Stipe’s blurry incantations on early REM records – artists whose seeming isolation was at the heart of the creation of its opposite: a true connection with their audience.
The intimate eponymous 2012 debut (mixed by Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara) sparked BBC sessions and appearances on Rolling Stone cover CDs. The electronically-flecked follow-up Go On was sandwiched between orchestral explorations – a symphony performance in Nova Scotia that spurred a 2018 project crisscrossing Canada performing with local chamber ensembles. The 2019 album Parallel Line zoomed back in to a core of acoustic guitar and string quartet.
Ultimately, leave him alone with just his voice and a guitar and the connection comes through clean and true.
Genre: Alt Folk,Americana