Kael and Heather married in 2005, and shortly thereafter moved to Irvine, CA, where they met John Williams, who was also in the area doing a PhD in comparative literature at UC Irvine. Heather was studying biology, and Kael was already hard at work creating music for film and TV projects. One afternoon in the fall of 2007, looking for a distraction from writing his dissertation, John suggested to Kael and Heather that they write some music together. Within three weeks they had written a few songs, and put them up online (on ye olde Myspace). The response from listeners was fast and overwhelming, so much so that they were motivated to continue writing and release a full album, Dynamo, in 2008. After playing some shows in southern California, the band won “Best Electronic Band” at the OC Music Awards, and was listed by the New York Post as a “new music must-have.” NPR called the band’s debut album “clever, intriguing . . . even beautiful.”
When John graduated and got a job at Yale, and Heather was accepted to medical school at UCLA, the band realized they’d either have to carry on via long-distance songwriting, or else end the band. With Dynamo doing so well, and many more songs still on their way, the band decided to try songwriting bi-coastally. John purchased some home-recording equipment to take with him to Connecticut, while Heather and Kael moved to Los Angeles, where Robot Repair built a beautiful studio space for Kael to work in. During the next three years, the band sent tracks back and forth online, video chatting, and emailing notes to write two more studio albums, New Medium (2010), and The Matter (2012). The band’s sound had matured by this point into something more powerful and intense. Alternately sparse and epic, harmonic and grinding, pensive and playful, FPF was clearly moving beyond their electro-pop beginnings.
By 2013, FPF’s music seemed to be circulating everywhere, with millions of plays on Spotify, LastFM, Hype Machine, and Pandora, and appearances on everything from ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” to MTV’s “The Real World,” NBCSports, and E! Then, just as the band was contemplating a fourth album Kael and Heather discovered that they were expecting a baby. Many fans wondered whether Faded Paper Figures would be able to maintain its songwriting work with so much going on. But very little seems to slow them down. If anything, the music now comes with even greater clarity and brilliance, and as a result, the band is now set to release their fourth studio album in August, 2014, titled “Relics.” This most recent album promises to be their most honest, sophisticated, and ambitious, spanning a vast musical and lyrical spectrum, from epic synth-pop anthems on questions of life and death, to quiet, intense meditations on the passage of time. The band seems to have fully mastered not only their signature sound (electronic beats, gorgeous guitar riffs, and beautiful harmonies), but accelerated full force into a brave new world of sitars, analog synths, and even more intense vocals. Whatever emotions and uncanny dreams those day jobs are creating, it seems to be paying off enormously in their musical lives.
Being There
Faded Paper Figures Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Like the traffic, full of broken worlds.
Being there
Is harder when you feel it,
When your self is long deferred.
And when you talk to me,
Don't talk through me.
Keep you lit up on the screen in my soul.
Typing in your office
While I am holding up the line.
And when you talk to me,
Don't talk through me.
Your remorse is code
But you talk right to me
Talk right through me
My remote control
Keep you lit up on the screen in my soul.
That's what these zeros and ones are saying
That's the code.
That's it.
Zero as a place means one
Zero as a place means...
Absent-minded on the freeway
Just pull over on the shoulder.
The lyrics to Faded Paper Figures' song "Being There" explore the complexities and challenges of modern communication and the struggle to maintain meaningful connections with others. The opening lines suggest that change is imminent, as "moving days are coming," and that this change is accompanied by a sense of disruption and fragmentation, described as "traffic full of broken worlds." The singer acknowledges that being present with others and truly understanding their experiences is difficult, particularly when one's own sense of self is unclear or deferred.
The chorus emphasizes the importance of genuine communication, imploring the listener to "not talk through me" and to avoid relying on technological or emotional shortcuts. The lyrics refer to the singer's "remote control" and the way in which the other person is symbolically "lit up on the screen in my soul," suggesting a disconnect between the singer's inner life and their attempts at connection with others. The repetition of "talk right to me/talk right through me" highlights the tension between surface-level communication and deeper understanding, and the difficulty of bridging that gap.
The song also includes a brief reference to coding language: "That's what these zeros and ones are saying/that's the code." This could imply a metaphorical comparison between human communication and computer programming, with both relying on structured systems and syntax to function effectively. Overall, "Being There" is a poignant and introspective reflection on the challenges and limitations of human connection in the 21st century.
Line by Line Meaning
Moving days are coming
Change is imminent.
Like the traffic, full of broken worlds.
Just like the traffic is a mess, the world is too.
Being there
Being physically present can be challenging.
Is harder when you feel it,
It's harder to be present when you're not in the right state of mind.
When your self is long deferred.
When you're not in touch with yourself.
And when you talk to me,
When we communicate,
Don't talk through me.
Don't speak at me, speak to me.
My remote control
My emotional distance.
Keep you lit up on the screen in my soul.
I keep you in my thoughts, but at a distance.
Typing in your office
While you work,
While I am holding up the line.
I'm struggling.
Your remorse is code
You're speaking in a way that hides your true feelings.
But you talk right to me
You talk to me as if everything is okay,
Talk right through me
But you're not really listening.
That's what these zeros and ones are saying
The language we speak is just a code.
That's the code.
It's just a way of communicating.
Zero as a place means one
Sometimes what we think is nothing is actually something.
Zero as a place means...
It can mean a lot of things.
Absent-minded on the freeway
Distracted while driving.
Just pull over on the shoulder.
Take a moment to regroup.
Contributed by Riley K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Kent
Just wow
Larkin Schramm
fucking fantastic nostalgia