paper jam on texas pop and their tweeroes

Lately, it feels like everyone (and by everyone, I mean all of my heady college radio peers) is talking about the precocious musicians proliferating the Midwest’s young pop punk scene. And it’s for good reason, too. But as some critics have deemed power pop finally saved, or just now hitting its 21st century stride, acts like the Denton-based Paper Jam—with their jangly love-crush anthems, addictive hooks and smart, earworm-forward songwriting—know that, in Denton at least, the scene is at its best when those from afar don’t quite know what’s totally going on. Alas, the twentysomethings are getting along just fine, even outside Chicago.

Paper Jam self-released its debut album, This and That, in June. It made its whimsical entrance by way of sing-alongs, pastel paintings (“Polka dot girl bring back color to the world/Day to day there’s no fun in feeling grey”), and Natalie Hanne Winkler and Cecilia Case-Hernandez’s sugary-sweet vocals. The album was recorded as a five-piece: Winkler on vocals and guitar, Case-Hernandez on bass and vocals, Mason Blair on guitar, Natalia De la Cruz on keys, and Taylor Rivers on drums. Paper Jam has since embarked on two tours across Texas and the Midwest. 

This and That doesn’t so much as sound like Paper Jam’s first go at demo making as it does an intrepid, colorful strut into a scene where virtually no other act was making similar-sounding music (Denton’s DIY scene is largely hardcore), nor did anyone know who they were. Well, except for this one guy, who, mid-interview, walked by us and hollered something about Paper Jam single-handedly carrying out the pop tradition in Texas’ small towns. The band has no idea who is listening and doesn’t really care, anyway. Perhaps that’s why they sound so good. 

During the interview, four out of the five Paper Jam members (Winkler, Case-Hernandez, De la Cruz, and Rivers) and I huddled outside Austin’s Chess Club during Red River’s Free Week in what you could ostensibly call the middle of winter. It’s Central Texas, so that means, at best, solid sweater weather. We’re standing on the street outside of the venue because, embarrassingly, I’m unsure if I’ll be able to sneak myself into the 21+ show. But for tonight, Winkler decided to make me a member of the band, allowing me to worm my way into a space that was at least 50 people over a fire-safe capacity. 

How did Paper Jam start?

Natalie (vocals, guitar): Natalia and I wanted to do something creative together. We had been friends for a while, and we were both very into music. We had the idea to start an all-girl band, and although I had been in a band before, I wanted to explore a different genre and do something that felt more authentic to me. We had all been friends for a long time since forming a band; we are all from towns around DFW and grew up together. Denton is the closest music scene to all of us, and I also live there now. Cece moved there after leaving New York, which is why I asked her to be our bassist, and we started after that. 

What kind of music were you making before? 

Natalie: Mostly noise stuff. I wasn’t really singing at all in that first band. It was my very first venture into writing and being a vocalist, and at the time, I didn’t really think I could sing. I was chanting a lot, and I felt like my writing wasn’t very strong. Overall, I just wasn’t confident. It took a while to find my thing with this new band and figure out how I like to sing and write. 

How did you get into jangle pop? I feel like bands of the genre are few and far between in Texas. 

Natalie: For me, I was introduced to it in my first band, but we weren’t really following it with our writing. But I really, really liked it. I think I navigated to it the most because there’s more emphasis on the female vocal, which I resonated with. It’s more melodic and singy. What I was doing before was not at all. 

Natalia (keys, tambourine): [Natalie] definitely put me on. First listening to Talulah Gosh and Dolly Mixture was, like, everything. 

Cecilia (bass, vocals): When I was younger, I was more into classic punk, which I still love. But having that emphasis on female vocals was very important to me. But it is also important that we are still sort of punk. 

Natalie: [Paper Jam] is a combo of what we love most out of both genres. It’s DIY, too, which made everything feel achievable for us. 

Can you guys tell me about making the album? What was the writing process like? 

Taylor (drums): Natalie wrote most of the songs. She would come to us with the lyrics and melodies, and then it’s up to us to add our parts and make it a complete song. 

Natalie: We’ve been asked this question a lot, and I’m still trying to figure out how to make it into complete words. 

Taylor: We get asked this all the time. In all of the interviews. All of our interviews out there. 

Natalie: OK, OK, from our friends. Our friends will ask us sometimes. But I think what’s really important about a song to me, or what I love about music, is lyricism. Chord progressions can be cool, and melody is really important, but the lyrics and the story someone is telling are what’s most important to me. As we’ve gone on, Cece has gotten into a similar way of writing, too, and so we’re sort of an evolving process. 

Cecilia: I totally agree. We are so much better now at writing songs. It really helps that we are all friends and have been for so long. 

The production on the album is incredible. Who knows how to engineer and produce?

Natalie: It makes it really convenient that we have engineers in the band who have recording gear and whatnot. Taylor recorded it, and it was mixed and mastered by Taylor and Mason. We had all the equipment already. 

I’m curious to know how your first tour went this summer. I saw that you guys went to the Midwest and played on bills with Good Flying Birds and National Photo Committee. 

Cecilia: I mean, the Midwest is cool because there’s not really a scene to that extent in Texas where they’re all playing somewhat similar music. There’s definitely more coming up. So it was cool to see. 

Natalie: We sort of got that experience with Touch Girl Apple Blossom and some other Austin bands, so I think the Austin scene can be a bit similar to the Midwest in ways that it’s young and DIY.

But yeah, this summer, we played with Good Flying Birds under their original name, Talulah God. It was so cool because, personally, I was already a huge fan of their music, and I think we all learned a lot from them and their experience, having recently signed to Carpark and being in such a cool community where everyone is supportive and is constantly sharing their wisdom. 

I’ve only played with the National Photo Committee before, and I was actually living with Max, the guitarist and lead vocalist, then. I learned so much about that—what do they call it—the youth rock scene up there. But I definitely think it exists elsewhere, if not to the same extent, in places like New York and Austin. It’s coming down here. 

Cecilia: In Denton, we are usually playing on a bill with a bunch of screamo bands. 

Natalie: But it’s so fun! After we play, and it’s three other screamo bands and just us, the crowd gets so into it. They go from moshing and hitting each other to jumping up and down and dancing. They will come up to us and be like, ‘Oh my god, that was so fun, I’ve never heard something like that before.’

Cecilia: Yeah, we love Denton. 

Natalie: It’s extremely supportive. Everyone in Denton is lovely. 

Cecilia: There’s a lot of tweemo happening in Denton, too. Like hardcore but cute. 

Natalie: Tweemo! There’s definitely a lot of tweemo. The cuteness is taking over. 

Cecilia: I think this time next year, it’ll get cuter. 

Any tour must-haves?

Cecilia: Well, we love to talk DIY, but we are really freaking DIY. I mean, of course, we all have no money. The five of us piled into one SUV with all of our gear. Honestly, we have so much gear I’m not sure how we did it. 

I love watching bands figure out the gear stacking game.

Cecilia: But we did it! It was definitely Tetris. We took a lot of before pictures to get it right when we had to load up afterward. We also encountered an oil issue sometime during that tour. Shout out to the Jiffy Lube south of Illinois. 

Natalie: If you’re reading this—and I’m sure they all are—absolutely incredible service. Beautiful people. I can’t remember the name of that town in Illinois with that Jiffy Lube. Okay, anyways, what is a must-have for us? 

Cecilia: Pillow and a blanket. Oh, and fiber pills!

Natalia: Oh my god, yeah. Fiber pills. Taylor? Any must-haves?

Taylor: Um, love. 

Who are your pop heroes?

Cecilia: Who are our twee heroes? Our tweeroes? 

Tweeroes! I think we may have just started something there. Tell the zines…

Cecilia: Hah. Mine are just the classics, Dolly Mixtures and Talulah. But I’m also a mainstream classic pop girl, so I’m going to have to shout out Ariana and Beyoncé. And I’m not even joking at all. 

Natalie: Definitely Dolly Mixture, they are huge for me. The Pastels are another big influence, and I know if Mason were here, he’d also say that, as well as Big Star and the Beatles.

Cecilia: Yes, the Beatles. Our twee heroes, the Beatles!

Natalia: I would say Dolly Mixture, Would-Be-Goods, Beyoncé, and I love Daryl Hall and John Oates—I just think they’re awesome. Also, any ‘80s New Wave. I’ve been really into that recently. 

Taylor: She’s not twee at all, but my pop hero is Hannah Diamond.

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