On Nashville trio Paper Route’s third album Real Emotion, the group went all in for the cover — literally. For the image, lyricist and frontman JT Daly used monochromatic mixed media — prints, paint, and found items like a boombox and an old TV — to create an room, an installation filled with different pieces inspired by a song in the album. Then Paper Route posed in the same room — immersed themselves in their songs, so to speak.

Daly, Chad Howat (bassist and pianist) and Nick Aranda (guitar) have been a band since 2004, and have toured and shared stages with acts such as Paramore, Thurston Moore and Mark Kozelek. Real Emotion drops today (September 23); to celebrate, Howat chatted with Myspace to talk about their beginning and future. (They’re also heading off to a national tour starting October 27, featuring Halfnoise — Paramore’s Zac Farro — as an opener.)

Hometown: I’m originally from the Chicago suburbs, the same area as Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. JT is from a small farm town outside Cleveland, OH and Nick is from the high desert in California.

Homebase: We live in Nashville, TN

How did you all meet?

JT and I met in college. I joined his band. That band moved to Nashville. Band broke up. We “retired” from band life. He started doing art and I started producing. We then decided to make some music for ourselves and we haven’t really stopped since, no matter how hard we’ve tried. We met Nick a few years later when he was playing bass for a bunch of national artists. We didn’t need a bassist but we liked his personality and musicality.

Why are you called Paper Route?

A couple reasons. JT had a paper route as a kid and it reminded him of his youth. My dad had a paper route (in the middle of the night) as a second job when he was a school teacher, so that we wouldn’t lose our home. It reminded me of my adolescence and witnessing what it took to make ends meet.

Tell us why is your album called Real Emotion.

JT had the song title “Real Emotion,” which stemmed from a conversation he was having with a friend regarding mental health and the impact it has on relationships with those closest to you. I’ve battled OCD and anxiety for most my life. We’d been open with each other about the collateral damage our mental illnesses can have on ourselves and the ones closest to us. It’s hard to wrestle with thoughts like, Maybe the only way I can actually love somebody better is if I just take this pill of synthetic chemicals every day. 

What’s different about this album is that Nick’s guitar is front and center on quite a few tunes. JT’s voice has never sounded better and he’s exploring new ways of using it. The beats, keyboards and sample-mangling are still there, but we sort of see this as our version of a guitar album.

How do you describe your music to someone who's never heard you before?

It’s a difficult thing, so I usually just try to avoid the answer and tell them to just check it out. That being said, I think if you took M83, Jimmy Eat World, Radiohead, The National, Nick Cave, Blur and Massive Attack and mashed them together, we would sound somewhat like that. This album is a bit more focused on the guitars and JT’s voice.

Did you grow up in a musical household?

Yes I did. My mom is a self-taught pianist and her whole family sings. Every Christmas we sing a dozen Christmas carols and there are tons of harmonies flying around the living room. My grandmother is very old but her voice is very sweet. My uncle, Pete Sallis, is a country songwriter here in Nashville. So I grew up surrounded by music. JT did as well. His dad was in bands and his uncle is an amazing pedal steel player who played with Johnny Cash and other legends back in the day.

Does living in Nashville influence your music?

There’s a rich history of songcraft and musicianship in Nashville. Anybody can experiment and get crazy and weird in the studio, which we LOVE to do, but if that’s married to a well written song underneath, it’s a beautiful thing. We try to make sure beneath all our sonic tomfoolery that there’s a solid skeleton.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

There are so many different influences. Between the three of us, the biggest ones were maybe Bjork, Elton John, Soundgarden, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Oasis and quite possibly a lot of obscure ‘90s CCM bands. And George Harrison is our favorite Beatle.

Who would you love to collaborate with?

The collaboration list is way too long: Max Richter, Nick Cave, Christopher Nolan, Jeff Nichols, Baz Luhrman, Kendrick Lamar, Pixar, Damon Lindelof, Nigel Godrich, Kate Bush, Spike Jonze and, um, Banksy. Maybe we could compete on Chopped or Naked & Afraid. I’d lose so quickly on BOTH of those shows.

If you were a hashtag, what would you be?

#overdecadesensation

Do you have an awesome Myspace-related story as a musician?

I remember when we first got our Myspace account. It had to be around 2006 or so. I remember when we broke 100 plays. My roommate at the time was getting around 300 or so and he would give me advice on how to promote online (which was a new idea at the time!). Then we released an early version of our song “Carousel” and it had 3,000 plays in a single day! Managers and labels discovered us through Myspace.