SONG PREMIERE: Origami Ghosts Offer Quirky Indie Folk Meets Prog Via “Lost and Proud”

Austin, Texas-based indie rockers Origami Ghosts have spent years honing their shimmering blend of folk-tinged jangly pop, traveling the world and drawing inspiration from the melange of cultures they’ve been exposed to in service of their DIY rock & roll aspirations. On their new LP, Healthy Travel Potions (out 7/12), they deftly merge the mundane with the fantastic, exploring the magic of the Earth, the complexities of aging, and the inherent joy and meaning that can be drawn from something as simple as sharing a meal. Though the band now resides in Texas, Healthy Travel Potions contains songs written all over the world as well as in their previous homebase of Seattle, Washington, where they garnered praise from The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Seattle Sound Magazine and more, worked with studio wizard Kevin Suggs (KEXP, Cat Power, Death Cab for Cutie, The Walkabouts), and laid the foundation for what would become their finest record in a long and storied career.

Healthy Travel Potions was produced by Adam McCollom—a friend of Origami Ghosts’ frontman, primary songwriter, guitarist and creative epicenter J.P. Scesniak—at Scott Colburn’s Gravelvoice Studios in Ballard, Washington, a converted Methodist church that has previously been used by the likes of Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, and Mudhoney to record some of their most critically-acclaimed albums. Though the songs that make up the new album were written throughout over the course of the past 18 years, the initial tracking sessions lasted only three days before Scesniak and keyboardist/flautist/vocalist Cassandra Wulff packed up and departed for Austin, the chapter of their lives residing in Seattle having been given its proper send-off in the form of Healthy Travel Potions.

Though Origami Ghosts have been performing since 2004, they’ve undergone numerous lineup changes, with Scesniak remaining the sole constant, as the conductor of an indie-pop orchestra, swapping the surrounding instrumentation as his artistic aspirations deem fit. “I originally was playing in a band called Paper People but had these songs that didn’t fit the mood, so I linked up with my friend Joel Hanson who played hammered dulcimer, and that was the first version of Origami Ghosts,” recalls Scesniak. “From there we added a cello player, and a drummer, then eventually Joel left…It became this vehicle for me to collaborate with whomever was interested and just keep putting out records with different people.”

Ultimately, Healthy Travel Potions stands as a scrapbook of the past fifteen years, combining the experiences Scesniak and company have had through their travels with a calming dose of spiritual enlightenment that gives the sense that maybe everything will be okay. “These songs are like potions for us,” says Scesniak, grinning. “They heal us, in a way.”

Glide is thrilled to premiere Origami Ghost’s “Lost and Proud” (below) from Healthy Travel Potions, a track of disarming melodies that creates its own subcategory of serene prog indie. The band can easily find themselves on festival stages next to the likes of Ty Segall, Flaming Lips and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Desert Daze are you listening?