o r i g a m i g h o s t s /// b i o

Origami Ghosts is the brainchild of Seattle native John Paul Scesniak -- traveler, teacher, and musician. Since 2004 “JP” has surrounded himself with some of Seattle’s finest and creative musicians to create highly entertaining performances and unique recordings, all under the Origami Ghosts umbrella. The group -- or collective’s -- light, playful, and thoughtful sound draws from folk, pop, and rock, among other inspirations. Scesniak began writing songs with his guitar in the early 90’s but wasn’t confident enough to perform and sing until his guitar instructor commented on his nice tenor voice in 1996. With further encouragement from respectable and accomplished musicians along the way, Jean-Paul de Bellevue (another performing moniker for Scesniak) has evolved into one of the most prolific songwriters around. Constantly evolving and shaping his voice, JP has written and made hundreds of songs and recordings -- with only a chosen few documented on Origami Ghosts releases. Origami Ghosts has performed at artist lofts, open mic’s, dive bars, street corners, prestigious clubs, bowling alleys, squats, and living rooms since it's first club show in 2005 at Seattle's Neumo's. Scesniak’s style drives the Origami Ghosts engine -- finger-picked, jangly and angular guitar playing often with a swinging tempo to go with soulful, personal and heartfelt vocal melodies and lyrical content. Origami Ghosts can be one -- Scesniak -- or many, the latter combines the songwriting of Scesniak with intricate accordion playing and singing of Kara Wiggert, cello that warms the heart, and bass and drums which power and move the music to a danceable groove. OG dances to the beat of its own drum and fits into no scene, category, genre, or box, but for lack of more creative discription the band has an "indie" folk sound with a strong diy ethos. The current Origami Ghosts lineup has Scesniak (guitar/vocals), Wiggert (accordion/vocals), Kelly Viergutz (drums), Amir Estakhrian (drums), Shivani Patel (cello), Jim Smith (bass). These are some bands people have compared OG to and some words people have come up with describing the sound: Built to Spill, Pavement, Modest Mouse, Pinback, Band of Horses, the Shins, the Beach Boys, David Byrne, singer-songwriter, anti-folk, post-punk, americana, irreverant pop, appalachian hip-hop, and urban.