Andrew Paley

In an interview, Andrew Paley once described his songwriting as the pursuit of "open spaces, sharp edges and bright colors." He was referring at the time to his work with the critically acclaimed post-punk band The Static Age, but it's now clear that he’s carried that spirit with him into the next chapter. It was first apparent on his 2016 solo effort, Sirens (out on Paper + Plastick in the US and Make My Day Records in Europe), about which one reviewer said it captured "the emotion of Morrissey combined with the digital heartache of Boards of Canada" (VultureHound). And it now continues with his new album, Scattered Light, out October 16th, 2020 on Highwires. On this followup, Paley has entirely stepped away from the acoustic anchor of his earlier solo effort and pushes further out into that open space of possibility, hearkening back to his work with The Static Age and melding the personal and political in a set of genre-defying songs that pull from post-punk, alt pop, art rock, and electronic music. 
 Now back in Chicago after cancelling multiple tours in 2020, and on the tail end of a few years of extensive touring across Europe, Japan, Brazil and elsewhere (playing alongside artists like Bob Nanna (Braid/Hey Mercedes), Garrett Klahn (Texas Is The Reason), Ducking Punches, The Lion And The Wolf, and Brian Fallon), Paley is writing, experimenting with generative art and synthetic media, and working on the occasional collaboration with other artists like StayLoose.