New Moon
Winnipeg popsters to release first album in four years
Melissa Martin



A little more than a year after the 2002 release of Paper Moon’s debut album, 1000 Reasons to Stay… One Reason to Leave, the band’s momentum was fading.

The original lineup had fragmented, leaving frontwoman Allison Shevernoha, bassist Rob Rodgers and drummer Chris Hiebert to assess the future of the project.

Seeking a chance to clear her mind, Shevernoha escaped to Montreal in October 2003. Once there she rented a room in a nice condominium and spent the next few months in a contemplative, self-imposed exile.

Her absence could have spelled the end of Paper Moon; instead, it laid the groundwork for the band’s rebirth. Out of the distance between Montreal and Winnipeg grew the first words and riffs that would eventually flesh out Broken Hearts Break Faster Every Day, Paper Moon’s first album in four years.

“A lot of (the songs) are about being miserable and homesick,” Shevernoha says of tunes such as So Far Away (the song from which the album’s title is lifted) and the aching Is It Too Much to Ask.

“It makes me absolutely appreciate where I am now. I’ll sing the lyrics, and sometimes I’ll start to get a little choked up, thinking, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I felt that way.’”

Shevernoha’s loneliness may have been bad for her, but it turned out to be a gift for listeners. Informed by a wistful, yearning sentimentality, Broken Hearts is a graceful collection of pop confections. It’s richer and more energetic than 1000 Reasons, though the band’s sound is still defined by shimmering instrumental arrangements and Shevernoha’s own delicate vocal.

Of course, having four years between albums certainly helped the maturation process. After Shevernoha returned from Montreal a few months after her departure, she, Hiebert and Rodgers began the painstaking process of crafting a new album.

“We’d like to have something out once a year. It was killing us that it took so long,” the singer says.

First on the agenda was finding more people to play with. Guitarist John Wilson joined after he approached Shevernoha in Winnipeg Square, announcing simply that he wanted to play with Paper Moon.

“John doesn’t mess around,” Hiebert explains.

Violinist and vocalist Nicole Pielou joined just in time to record one track on the album, and Shevernoha recruited new vocalist and keyboardist Leslie Workman (formerly of Cone Five) after a late-night karaoke session that uncovered the duo’s vocal chemistry.

“I was playing keyboards and guitar, and I thought we should get a full-time keyboard player and someone who can sing backups,” Shevernoha says.

“That’s something we’ve never had,” Hiebert interjects. “On the last recording and on this one it was always four layers of Allison’s vocals. We’ve never had proper background vocals. It’s always been boys trying to sing falsetto. It was, ‘OK, that’s enough of that. Let’s get some girls in the band.’”

Now, Shevernoha says, “the whole lineup is totally perfect. We just don’t want to let go of any of them. Everyone has their own thing that they bring to the table. Everyone leaves their egos at the door. It’s really cool.”

Another factor contributing to the recording delay was an unexpected trip to New York. In early 2005, Hiebert and Shevernoha were invited by their publisher, Nettwerk, to visit the Big Apple and work with established songwriters there.

From the trip emerged three co-written songs for Broken Hearts — and a new sense of perspective.

“It’s valuable to see how other people do it, especially professional songwriters,” says Hiebert. “We have a better sense of different angles to look at when writing a song. So we learned a lot about how to write a song. I don’t think we’re going to change anything too much, but it’s good to have all those other tools.”

Though such opportunities delayed the recording process for years, the band was not quite laying low. In the past year, Paper Moon has been getting its live stride back again with shows in Winnipeg and jaunts out West. Though they find that many fans remember their name, the band is still going into touring with sights set on winning back an audience… as well as finding new fans.

“I think we are rebuilding, anyway, because I think we decided to sound slightly different,” Shevernoha says. “It’s feeling like it’s the beginning again for us. Locally, we’ve never really had a huge following, but throughout Canada people have remembered us and are still on board.”

If building a new audience is the goal, the sextet is returning to the scene at just the right time. Thanks to the dreamy pop sensibilities of bands such as Stars, Broken Social Scene and Metric, it’s cool to care again.

“When we started in music around ’95 or so, people our age were going to shows. Eventually those kids stopped going because they were getting jobs and growing up,” Shevernoha says. “We have gained a bunch of fans who were 16 years old. They were six when we started. There is this whole new thing that is starting, where people are starting to appreciate live music again.”

For fans who want to show Paper Moon their appreciation and get reacquainted with the outfit, the band has scheduled a release party for Broken Hearts on Feb. 9. They never got a chance to play a proper release party for 1000 Reasons (instead, they were awkwardly sandwiched on a bill headlined by Toronto rockers Tuuli), so this Thursday at the West End Cultural Centre will be a special event, indeed.

“This time we were like, ‘We’re doing it right,’” Shevernoha laughs.

Hiebert agrees, though he admits to feeling a touch nervous about the show.

“I guess there is a little bit of pressure because for a long time we were floating on the undercurrents of the scene,” he says. “There’s always that thing in the back of your mind: ‘What if nobody shows up?’ But I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a great show.”