Woodpigeon - For Paolo

“For Woodpigeon songwriter Mark Andrew Hamilton, For Paolo was inspired by his parents, the cassette tapes they played on long, family drives across the prairies of Canada.”

This is such a beautiful concept to build an EP around. As common as it is for musicians to refer to their parents’ old records as inspiration, there’s something refreshing about building a project around the music you were forced to listen to, whether you enjoyed it or not.

Most folks within my generation have been in that position where we’ve rolled our eyes at our mother or father, as they popped one of their “oldies” tapes into the cassette deck. Those drives would be torturous! You’d find yourself sitting there in the backseat, listening to something “lame” by Carole King, Fleetwood Mac or any variety of girly one-hit wonders (all of which are listed as influences for this release).

Yet, once you hit adulthood, each of these songs took on a different meaning. They transformed from oldies into “classics”. They served as a reminder to the carefree days of your childhood. They, as Hamilton puts it, became a part of your “musical DNA”.

For this reason in particular, Woodpigeon‘s For Paolo struck a chord with me. Though I’m reluctant to project my own family’s soundtrack onto it, I can’t help myself from hearing bits of Simon & Garfunkel or Guns ‘N’ Roses “November Rain” within this set. I’m fully aware that nobody else would hear these things. Nobody. However, this EP is so deeply routed in nostalgia that, if you give it a chance, you’ll find yourself doing the same thing.

Check out the title track “For Paolo” above, or listen to the full project on Bandcamp.

Photo credit: Grateful Grapefruit