Andre Paraguassu looks at the bigger picture with Book of Colors’ self-titled debut

<a href=”http://bookofcolors.bandcamp.com/album/book-of-colors”>Book of Colors by Book of Colors</a>
For those who are on the outside looking in, Book of Colors is easy to overlook amid Atlanta’s flourishing music scene. The city, on a national scale, is known mostly for delivering hip-hop. Little else makes a lot of traction outside the city. Book of Colors slips through the cracks; the group’s quiet, humble, introspective qualities perpetuate this reality. Even for the initiated, the band is an enigma, difficult to find, and even harder to pin down. And if nothing else, it is criminally underrated. Book of Colors is one of Atlanta’s best kept secrets, but that might just change with the arrival of its debut record.

After nearly seven years, Book of Colors’ self-titled LP is here — started independently by the band and finished with producer/engineer Ben Price, it was released on Feb. 6 by local imprint Deer Bear Wolf. Each songs takes shape as a rich, layered, and fully realized declaration of the Book of Colors’ impressive skill set. While singer-songwriter Andre Paraguassu stands out as the clear leader, the record captures the sound of an ensemble with a seemingly endless amount of parts and players working in unison. As many as 14 different players bring Paraguassu’s ideas to life. Before the album’s release, Paraguassu took a few minutes to talk about Book of Colors, and the complexities that bind the project together.

What made you wait until now to record and release Book of Colors?

I’ve actually been working on this album for most of the time that Book of Colors has been a band. I formed the group at the end of 2008 and the first guitar tracks were recorded on Adron’s laptop in late 2009 … In an extremely haunted house with no heat.

From there the project traveled to several different studios and laptops before finally landing at studilaroche in early 2013, where we finished it last year.

The record sounds like the work of an ensemble, or something collaborative in nature and less the direction of one person. Is that how you’d define the record?

Honestly it’s both. I produced, arranged and co-engineered the album. I also wrote all the songs. This means I was navigating the direction of the project every step of the way, so in that sense it’s very much the result of one person’s vision. Ben Price was absolutely indispensable in his role co-producing, engineering, and mixing. The fourteen other musicians who worked with me also brought their ideas, perspectives, and immense talents to the project.

As far as individual parts are concerned, the writing process was different for each musician and each song. I think it’s fair to say that everyone played a mixture of lines that they came up with themselves, and ones that I wrote for or with them. The ratios of who contributed what varies depending on which aspect we’re talking about. For instance, we didn’t have much discussion about the bass parts Ryan Donald laid down. However, Ryan Gregory and I stayed up countless nights passionately debating how the string parts were going to be arranged.

Book of Colors feels both antiquated and modern, loose but meticulously planned and orchestrated. Is maintaining these juxtapositions and balance intentional?

Yes. This question addresses what I’m trying to do so much that it sounds like I planted it in the interview. When I started working with Ben, I asked him to look up Harry Nilsson’s Aerial Pandemonium Ballet and Paul Simon’s first solo album. These records, along with Nick Drake’s Pink Moon were my main inspiration as far as the sound quality. There’s something timeless and classic about records from the early ’70s and I wanted to make something in that same vein.

I listen to a lot of Brazilian artists from the ’60s and ’70s, and the influence of artists such as Caetano Veloso, Erasmo Carlos, Jorge Ben, and Novos Baianos definitely shows up in the song structures, percussive elements, and flute parts.

Soul and R&B music from that time period has also been very important to me throughout my life. Without much exaggeration, it was Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, and Sam Cooke who taught me what it means to sing a song. I’ve practiced along with their songs for years and will probably always judge my progress as a vocalist by how well I can keep up with them.

The reason we don’t sound very much like those artists is that I’ve never had any interest in being a throwback band. I’ve always needed the emotional release that music offers me too much to waste time trying to fulfill a gimmick. The production choices we made were only intended to reflect the songs as accurately as possible, nothing more. I don’t believe in shoving songs into genres where they don’t belong.

These songs walk a fine line between being insanely meticulous and absolutely care-free because that’s a pretty good description of who I am as a person. It’s also what I enjoy creating as an artist.

These songs are layered and each has a strong narrative quality—lyrically, stories and pictures fill the songs and they also unfold instrumentally in a cinematic way. Is cinema an inspiration?

I think all good songs bring a cinematic quality to everyday experiences. I’ve listen to music from the time I get up until the moment I go to sleep for as long as I can remember, so I’m very familiar with that feeling. Personally, I find that music feeds the cinematic aspect of my life more than cinema influences my music.

When I was sitting in the control room listening to the other musicians record, I always knew when we got the right one because I’d suddenly see flashes of vivid imagery. They were random scenes, like a hand reaching out from the side of a moving boat to touch the water or something like that. These never related to the lyrical content of the songs, but every time it happened I knew we had our take.

Your lyrics blur the line between stream-of-consciousness thoughts and clear, tangible insight. The songs themselves maintain an almost dream-like structure. What themes are you dealing with?

Lyrically I’m inspired by Trish Keenan from Broadcast. The Noise Made by People played a large role in shaping my view of life and reality as a whole. It’s the only piece of art that I can honestly say has had that powerful an impact on me.

Her lyrics, like Rumi (who is also an inspiration), tend to switch back and forth between an omnipotent point of view and the first-person without giving any real indication which is which. It’s a technique that provides an almost endless variety of interpretations and I use it often.

My songs are usually letters to myself as I try to deal with things that are going on in my life. Stepping outside of my own perspective to write allows me to look at things from a different point of view and I find it extremely useful.

This album touches on a number of themes: Working to overcome stagnation, rebelling against false realities, living in a world filled with sadness, and being loud and indignant are all concepts that tend to be at the forefront of my songs. However, love, joy, humor, and redemption are also consistently present and play a large role in the general takeaway from the work as a whole.

At their core, my lyrics center around the idea of a unified consciousness and an attempt to bring it into clear focus. I see us all as manifestations of the same limitless being, and I don’t know of a more compelling concept to explore than that. Even when I’m not addressing it directly, you can bet I’m referencing it somewhere between the lines.

Book of Colors has been a part of the local community for quite a long time. Do you feel the Atlanta scene has changed and evolved in the last few years you’ve been a part of it?

The city has experienced dramatic changes in the seven years since I formed Book of Colors. In regards to the state of the local music scene, I have nothing but praise. One of the most noticeable differences is that the stronghold garage rock once held over Atlanta’s local music scene seems to have faded, which is a welcome change. Not that there’s anything wrong with garage rock, but I’m very happy to see musicians who play other styles also getting love and attention.

There really are a lot of great bands playing interesting, sophisticated music in Atlanta right now. As a result, there’s been a more diverse group of people showing up to events these days. Seeing a broader spectrum of concert-goers is one of the most positive shifts I’ve seen.

How do you fit into the scene?

At last count there have been at least thirty-two people who have been a part of Book of Colors. I’ve also played several Book of Colors shows by myself. We were an eleven-piece at Phoenix Fest this past year, adding a string section and backup singers to our usual lineup. This included Julia Metry of the Atlanta Opera, Nick Ogawa of Takenobu, and Anna Kramer of Shanti Shanti (among others). The music community is tight-knit and everybody supports one another.

Book of Colors fits into the current musical scene in Atlanta by virtue of literally having grown up with these people. We’ve all influenced each other and I’m extremely grateful to be a part of it.

The album, Book of Colors, was a long time in the making. Is it too early to talk about your plans for the next record?

Not at all. I’ve written several albums worth of new material since starting production on Book of Colors. I want to record a series of singles next and I’m going to keep them really simple. I want to go in as opposite a direction as possible after this last album. I’ll play all the parts and release them over the next several months. I’m really excited about what we have planned for the next full band album as well. It’s going to be very different from this last one. I can’t wait to get back into studilaroche again and bring it to life.

What does the future hold for Book of Colors?

The biggest thing we’re looking forward to is our release party scheduled for February 27th at Terminal West with Little Tybee and Hello Ocho. We also have a music video premiering in the coming weeks and another one on the horizon. I’ve been talking with several choreographers and videographers. We’re looking to expand our live show and the possibilities are becoming more interesting and diverse. This coming year is going to be an exciting one for Book of Colors.

Book of Colors plays an album release party at Terminal West on Sat., Feb. 27. With Little Tybee and Hello Ocho. $12-$15. 8 p.m. 887 West Marietta Street, Studio C. 404-876-5566. www.terminalwestatl.com.