Paul Dehaven - King of Gold (2018)

In the wake of the break of Denver indie-folk darlings Paper Bird, the band’s founding guitarist and songwriter soldiers on, albeit a bit brokenly himself.

On Paul DeHaven’s debut LP, “King of Gold”, he adheres to a DIY aesthetic, recording and playing nearly every instrument himself. On it he explores loss, disappointment, vanity, and a longing to find purpose and connection in a modern world seemingly devoid of these. “It may be more of a generational thing,” he says. “At least for a lot of the artistic types I know. You know, we’re in our 30s and still living hand-to-mouth and trying to get by - feeling just a little discouraged by the system.”

The song “No Gold” sums it up: “The secret to being a man/Is pretending that you have/something other than a fistful of sand...There is no gold out there”. All of value lies within, and that story is told through rickety drum machines, commanding electric guitar riffs, and Paul’s earnest and bruised songwriting.

“King of Gold” is an attempt to alchemize his bitterness into something beautiful. “At the end of the day, everything we do has a certain amount of our own vanity and ego in it and desire to find a place in this world. The goal is to find those moments and places where it doesn’t feel futile.”