Bands typically break up after college. People move away, grow apart, or j… Read Full Bio ↴Bands typically break up after college. People move away, grow apart, or just shrivel up and get jobs. It was good while it lasted, right? But what happens when the music is so good, the band’s listeners so devout, the ambition to keep creating so strong that even the time-draining power of day jobs can’t get in the way? Such is the story of Faded Paper Figures, whose “day jobs” are not exactly easy gigs: Heather Alden is in residency after graduating from medical school (a real doctor!), John Williams is a full-time professor of English at Yale (just published his first book), and Kael Alden writes music for a production company in Los Angeles called Robot Repair (his music appearing in several Hollywood films, TV shows, video games and ads). How did all this come together? And how do they possibly keep it all going?

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.

The Persuaded
Faded Paper Figures Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

He won't know Adorno
He's an adult with an adcult
You can buy your way into his head

He was never better
Wearing sneakers and a sweater
Made by 12-year-olds sweating in Shenzhen

He says,
Let's drive, drive, drive
Till we burn, burn, burn,
We can choke on it later on tonight
And we'll fumble with the planet
Dry the river and then damn it
Just persuade me that everything's all right

This was his reality
He says the stupid love equality
And he's never seen a car he didn't like

On code like a reptilian
Pays Rapaille another billion
From your cortex to the page is just a hike

So
Let's drive, drive, drive
Till we burn, burn, burn,
We can choke on it later tonight
And we'll fumble with the planet
Dry the river, then we'll damn it
Just persuade me that everything's all right

Because things, we've got to have our things

We're not persuaded by the Omnicom
We're not persuaded we're the only ones
We're not persuaded by hegemony
We're not persuaded we were ever free

Is that your conscience, or are you alone?
Is that Noam Chomsky on the telephone?

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of this song by Faded Paper Figures expresses a critique of capitalism and consumerism. The first stanza speaks of a person who is not aware of Adorno, a critical theorist who wrote extensively on the effects of the culture industry on society. This person is portrayed as someone who has bought into the adult culture propagated by advertising and consumerism. The line "You can buy your way into his head" suggests that the person is easily influenced by marketing and advertising.

The second stanza continues the critique of capitalism by pointing out the exploitation of workers in manufacturing centers like Shenzhen. The person is portrayed as someone who is oblivious to this reality, wearing clothes made by child laborers. The chorus uses the image of driving until burning and choking on the fumes, and then trying to fix the damage. This is a metaphor for how capitalism and consumerism operate, through the exploitation of natural resources and the damage to the environment, with the hope that technology will fix the problem later.

The last stanza acknowledges that the problem is systemic and not limited to just the individual. The mention of Omnicom, a global advertising and marketing conglomerate, and of hegemony, the dominance of one group over others, suggests that the problem is pervasive and not easily solved. The lyrics also suggest a desire for change, for people to be more aware of their impact on the world and to recognize the limits of technology in fixing these problems.

Line by Line Meaning

He won't know Adorno
He is not familiar with Adorno's ideas and theories.

He's an adult with an adcult
He is a grown-up person who is obsessed with advertising and consumer culture.

You can buy your way into his head
It is possible to influence him through advertising and consumer culture.

He was never better
He was never in a better position or state in his life.

Wearing sneakers and a sweater
Dressed in casual clothes.

Made by 12-year-olds sweating in Shenzhen
These clothes were produced in a factory in Shenzhen where 12-year-olds work in harsh conditions.

He says,
He expresses his opinion or idea.

Let's drive, drive, drive
Let's keep driving non-stop.

Till we burn, burn, burn,
Until we run out of fuel and breakdown or crash.

We can choke on it later on tonight
Later on tonight, we will suffer the consequences of our actions or decisions.

And we'll fumble with the planet
We will attempt to manipulate or control the planet.

Dry the river and then damn it
We will try to make a river dry and then build a dam on it.

Just persuade me that everything's all right
Just convince me that everything is okay, even if it is not.

This was his reality
This was his perception of reality.

He says the stupid love equality
He thinks that the idea of equality is stupid.

And he's never seen a car he didn't like
He likes all cars he has seen.

On code like a reptilian
He is highly skilled in programming, like a reptile is highly adapted to its environment.

Pays Rapaille another billion
He is willing to spend a lot of money to hire an expert in marketing and psychology to influence people's behavior.

From your cortex to the page is just a hike
It is easy for him to come up with ideas and translate them into advertisements that manipulate people's desires.

Because things, we've got to have our things
We feel the need to possess material things to be happy.

We're not persuaded by the Omnicom
We are not influenced by the Omnicom advertising agency.

We're not persuaded we're the only ones
We do not believe that we are the only intelligent beings in the universe.

We're not persuaded by hegemony
We do not accept the idea of one group dominating over others.

We're not persuaded we were ever free
We do not believe that we have ever lived in a state of true freedom.

Is that your conscience, or are you alone?
Are you feeling guilty about something, or are you simply by yourself?

Is that Noam Chomsky on the telephone?
Is that Noam Chomsky calling you on the phone?

Lyrics © CAPITOL CHRISTIAN MUSIC GROUP, Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol CMG Publishing
Written by: FREDERICK JACKSON, NOLAN WILLIAMS, RICHARD LEE SMALLWOOD

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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