Alrosa Villa
His bluesy, singersongwriter sound of yore may have come from the brain of Joshua James, but it didn’t spring from his heart.
Four years ago, he ditched the Hank Williams-leaning music of Joshua P. James and the Paper Planes for the indie-pop of Yellow Paper Planes.
“I think before, the stuff I had written kind of always felt like it was at arm’s length,” James, 34, said. “It’s one of those things where it’s an easy device to use as a songwriter — to foist your experiences on a second character instead of writing from your perspective.”
The revamped lineup — James (guitar, vocals), Jeremy Ebert (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Petey Mendenhall (bass, vocals) and Brandon Woods (drums, vocals) — released its inwardlooking debut album, “Building a Building,” in April.
They will perform on Saturday
Saturday at Spacebar, 2590 N. High St.
How did you get comfortable around a new group of musicians?
It’s completely relearning how to be in a band with new people. You’re reforming all these new relationships, but you’re also in business together. ... It took a solid several tries of building things up and tearing them down to get the sound we wanted.
How has starting a family influenced your musical themes?
That played a big role in forming the lyrical content. I have a 4-year-old daughter, and a lot of the songs address how to figure out being a father who’s also on the road. Some of the songs address wanting to be a good dad who’s there while working a full-time job while chasing this dream of being a musician, (which) can bring about existential crisis.
Why the switch to Yellow Paper Planes?
We had kind of gotten stuck with this idea of being called the “Paper Planes,” but we got this warning shot from another band in Portland (Oregon). We had a song back then called “Yellow Paper” so Brandon (Woods) suggested we call it “Yellow Paper Planes.” It was kind of a dumb name. I’d say it was more out of laziness that we didn’t come up with a new band name. Band names are a weird thing. It’s so difficult to come up with anything interesting. 5055 SINCLAIR ROAD 614-885-9125, www.alrosavilla.com In his joyful music, reggae artist Oje Ken Ollivierre flirts with rap rhythms. 9 p.m. Saturday $20
Clark keeps busier than a preacher on Sunday mornings. The vocalist and saxophonist performs with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, HooDoo Soul Band and his church, among other area groups.
1 p.m. Sunday $18
The local jazz saxophonist wraps up his month-long residency at the venue. 10 p.m. Wednesday $5 www.promowestlive.com
An unusual mix of rap, reggae and rock, the Omaha, Nebraska-based band took nearly a decade to turn industry heads.
6 p.m. Wednesday
$39.50, or $42 at the door