Origami Ghosts + Crooked Weather + Tenfoot Ukes

From Seattle
Origami Ghosts with support by Crooked Weather and Tenfoot Ukes

“Somewhere in between the anti-folk of The Moldy Peaches and the jangled guitar pop of Modest Mouse is… Origami Ghosts… infectious, accordion-inflected indie rock”
 seattleweekly.com

Origami Ghosts is the musical project of Seattle native John Paul Scesniak — traveler, teacher, and musician. Since 2004 “JP” has surrounded himself with some of Seattle’s finest and most creative musicians to produce highly entertaining performances and unique recordings, all under the Origami Ghosts moniker. The group’s light, playful, and thoughtful sound draws from folk, pop, and rock, among other inspirations. Scesniak began writing “bedroom pop” songs in the early 90’s and began studying the guitar at the University of Washington in 1996. Throughout the following decade, Scesniak performed his songs at open-mics, house parties, artist lofts, art galleries, cafes, bars, and clubs around Seattle, Japan, and France – under the names: John Scesniak, Paper People, and Jean-Paul de Bellevue. When Scesniak collaborated some of his songs with friend and Dulcimer player Joel Hanson (first in 2000 but later more seriously in 2004) the two formed a duo and had a show lined up at Seattle’s Neumo’s venue — where Origami Ghosts were born in March of 2005.

Now consisting of a revolving cast of players, Origami Ghosts is a musical vehicle for songs of J.P. Scesniak and the talented friends whom he surrounds himself with. JPS is constantly reshaping and recreating his voice and style, and has gone on to write and make hundreds of songs and recordings — with only a chosen few documented on Origami Ghosts releases. Origami Ghosts has performed at artist lofts, open mics, dive bars, street corners, prestigious clubs, bowling alleys, squats, living rooms, and college auditoriums across the US, Europe, Japan, and China for more than a decade. Scesniak’s style drives the Origami Ghosts engine — finger picked, jangly and angular guitar playing (often with a swinging tempo) coupled with soulful, personal and heartfelt vocal melodies and lyrical content. Origami Ghosts can be one — Scesniak — or many, the latter currently combines the songwriting of Scesniak with the intricate accordion playing and singing of Kara Wiggert, cello that warms the heart, and bass and drums which power and move the music to a danceable groove. The band has an “indie” folk-rock sound with a strong diy ethos. The current Origami Ghosts lineup has Scesniak (guitar/vocals), Wiggert (accordion/vocals), Kelly Viergutz (drums), Amir Estakhrian (drums), Shivani Patel (cello), Jim Smith (bass). These are some bands that people have compared OG to through the years and some words that people have come up with describing the sound: Built to Spill, Pavement, Modest Mouse, Pinback, Band of Horses, the Shins, the Beach Boys, David Byrne, singer-songwriter, anti-folk, post-punk, Americana, irreverent pop, Appalachian hip-hop, and urban.