New York, NY (Top40 Charts) PAPA recently released Dig Yourself Or Dig A Hole, their heart-on-your-sleeves, feel good 11-track indie rock opus and first album since 2016's Kick At The Dust. PAPA's Darren Weiss has been a staple in the Los Angeles indie music scene for over a decade and has worked and toured with artists including Lana Del Rey,
Perfume Genius and Girls. Of the new music, Paste Magazine noted, "PAPA are tapping into some of the most unique and beautiful and ambitious work going on right now."
Today, PAPA shared the latest video from the album for "Ya Ya Ya," which sees PAPA's Darren Weiss and director Madeleine Woolner riding across LA, strapped with nothing but an iPhone, and finding empty spaces that were built to be occupied by big crowds, to give the video the feeling of post-apocalyptic abandonment.
"The song was conceptualized during the pandemic, when I found myself asking questions like 'who are we performing for? and 'what would we do with a second chance?,' notes PAPA's Darren Weiss. "We got our second chance and it seems that we're committed to burning down the barn, laughing our heads off all the while."
"Ya Ya Ya" follows early singles "Everything Takes An Accident," a buoyant track that leans on a mix of pop and guitar rock reminiscent of the likes of Electric Light Orchestra; "
Simple Life"; and "
Barcelona" which Weiss notes is about "When you have to go where you've never been to get back home."
The album also features backing vocals from Taylor Rice (Local Natives), keyboardists Brad Oberhofer - who Weiss played with in Miya Folik's touring band, Tyler Cash (Devendra Banhart), bassist Michael Shuman (Queens of the Stone Age, Mini Mansions), violinist Daphne Chen (Travis Scott, Niall Horan, Aimee Mann) and more.
Once described as "Joe Strummer and the E Street Band," PAPA blends the urgency and passion of their early punk influences with a classic sense of songwriting that makes their music feel fresh, vital, and somehow like it's always been there. PAPA released their debut EP, A Good Woman Is Hard To Find, in 2011 and two full length albums: 2013's Tender
Madness and 2016's Kick At The Dust. Since PAPA's last release, Weiss has been busy as a touring and session drummer with the likes Lana Del Rey, Albert Hammond Jr,
Perfume Genius and Sky Ferreira, among others.
Though it's been a few years since the last PAPA album was put out, it is clear from listening to the upcoming release, Weiss has so much more to say, and can't wait to tell you all.