Paper Fairy is the solo project of Brooklyn musician Chris Gaskell. The debut album under the Paper Fairy moniker, Haunter Haunted, is out today and we have an exclusive stream of the record and track-by-track for you to check out below.

Haunter Haunted features Gaskell on bass, piano, guitar and vocals with guest appearances by various other New York musicians such as drummers Itay Morchi (Johnny O’Neal), Colin Taylor (broadway musical “On Your Feet”), Dillon Treacy (Amber Mark, Elle King), as well as Jasper Dutz (Nels Klein) on woodwinds and Mike Haldeman (Moses Sumney) on guitar.

Wanting to craft music that spoke to him on a different level than ever before, Gaskell has used Paper Fairy to explore the duality life inexplicably offers. More so, Haunter Haunted is a horror-themed concept album where two opposing forces discover they are one. Using the tracks as a dialogue between each other, the jarring interludes let your mind analyze both sides of the narrative while diving into the darker more haunted side of things. The dual narratives of the album was inspired by the idea of a demented tooth fairy who puts candy under children’s pillows and is also incidentally the dentist who makes a fortune from filling cavities.

Listen to the record for yourself above, and below find our exclusive track-by-track commentary on Haunter Haunted from Gaskell below.

paper fairy

“Nowhere” – “I wanted to make a rock song that didn’t sound like other rock songs and this is what I got.”

“Shutter Horror” – “Sometimes you see something and you don’t say something and you always remember.”

“No Overtime” – “Every record (especially this one) deserves a true heartbreak ballad. At the time I wrote this I was listening to a lot of Messiaen and think that was channeled here- particularly the Quartet for the End of Time.”

“Haunter” – “This song really cuts the core concept of this record, and it was one of the first ones I wrote. The two sections represent the two opposing forces talking to each other- the experienced and the naive, the guilty and the innocent etc. It’s part invitation part plea for help. This track is my nod to Yeezus.”

“Taste of Life” – “‘Where there’s a ghost, there’s a name creaking the pipes. I heard them say who’s to blame when I close my eyes’ — True story: One day I left the front door open to get something outside and when I came back into my apartment I could feel someone else was there even though my roommates were gone. As I turned the corner into my room I saw a person standing there! He had come in looking for someone who didn’t live there and he left shortly thereafter- but the moment of seeing him there in my room still freaks me out to this day.”

“Feels the Same” – “There is so much wild stuff happening on this record that I tried to just write a song that was based on a vamp as a challenge to myself. Another shout to Yeezus at the end of the track.”

“Not Another Teen Country Love Song” -“I like to listen to bad country music when I’m in rural America because it’s fun and now I can’t escape the urge (this is officially a horror album).”

“Second to Last” – “My bedroom and kitchen face a schoolyard, so everyday like clockwork there is a sonic explosion of youthful cries during recess from 12:30 to 1. It kind of breaks up the day subconsciously. The sound at the beginning of this song is an iPhone voice memo of these kids.”