Paper Airplane

“My favorite local album in 2019, far and away, is 'Othello' by Paper Airplane. I find this album endlessly interesting. There are 17 tracks packed with hook-laden songs and experimental flourishes, that surprise and delight me every time I listen. I have a hard time picking a favorite because a new one grabs me every time. For today, let’s go with this: Burn too Bright,” @Radio614, To and from Columbus. - To and From Columbus

Ryan Horns pushes through setbacks to make anger-fueled double album “Othello”

Ever since high school, Ryan Horns has written songs. It’s the way he processes the world around him. This week, in fact, he may write three or four songs.

But in order to do so, he had to teach himself how to play guitar, and then he had to teach himself how to record the songs. Still, that wasn’t the hardest part. He could learn those things on his own. The tough part was meeting other people, convincing them he was a capable singer, songwriter and guitarist, and then getting onstage in front of an audience.

“I remember the first show I ever did was at the Treehouse, and there was sort of a buzz because I had put some songs out. People were going to show up, and I was terrified of that,” Horns said. “So I go there, and it’s packed in that tree room, and everybody’s like three feet away from me, right at the same level. And I wanted to hide the fact that my hands were shaking. So my hands are shaking, but I needed to pick up something to drink, and then you realize everybody can see your hands shake while you’re spilling your [drink].”

As a kid, Horns’ social anxiety was written off as a harmless byproduct of shyness. “Over the years you realize ‘shy’ isn’t putting yourself in a room for days on end because you don’t want to deal with people,” he said. “It wasn’t until the ’90s that I realized, ‘Oh, I have a pretty bad problem.’ Overcoming it took a long time.”

Horns, a former journalist who now works at Ohio State, faced his fear head on, taking public speaking classes and performing routinely with his bands, the Last Hotel and Paper Airplane, a power-pop project he put on hold several years ago but was inspired to resurrect in late 2016, channeling the rage resulting from current events into a new batch of songs.

“Once the election happened, I looked around and I was like, ‘I don’t have any hope for this place anymore. I’ve lost faith in a lot of people around me. I don’t know where they’re coming from anymore,’” Horns said. “The funny thing is that I found hope in not having any hope. ... You find some sort of resolve in that.”

Armed with at least two albums of material, Horns initially thought he’d release a pair of records, one as the Last Hotel and one as Paper Airplane. Recording began in 2018 at Musicol and 3 Elliott Studio down in Athens, but each time a lineup solidified, bandmates would move away or bow out and Horns would have to start from scratch.

Eventually the Paper Airplane lineup came together with Horns on vocals and guitar, band co-founder Antonio Garza on drums, John Fitzgerald on bass, Keith Jenkins on lead guitar and Rob Cave on keys. The bandmates will perform at Rumba Cafe on Friday, Oct. 11, to celebrate the release of their excellent new double album, Othello.

“You and I had a falling out/We’re both full of rage and colorful shouts/It’s been so many years now I don’t even know/What I was mad at so long ago,” Horns sings on the standout title track.

“That song was the hardest song to write,” said Horns, who had trouble finishing the track, which was partially written before the other Othello songs. “Then I realized, ’Oh, that song is actually about dealing with anger, like all these others. ... I was reading more about [Shakespeare’s] ‘Othello,’ and I was like, ‘This is a whole play about dealing with anger and manipulation. That pretty much nails it.’ That song, I think, defines the whole album.”

When Othello was finally finished and submitted to online retailers, Horns faced yet another hurdle: the album art, which depicts Horn pointing a toy ray gun at the camera, was rejected. “It’s supposed to be a commentary on how ridiculous the gun culture is,” said Horns, who revised and resubmitted the artwork, which is awaiting approval.

“This album started out about being pissed off, and it turned more into perseverance, like, ‘How do you get through all this?’” he said. “So you’re trying to overcome anger, but then you realize maybe perseverance is the only thing that can help to overcome anger.” - Columbus Alive

When most of the members of Paper Airplane moved out of state after the Great Recession, Ryan Horns became a one-man band.
He still wrote regularly, filling his voice recorder with hundreds of songs.
“I was like, ‘What the hell’s the point of writing all this when I don’t have a band? No one’s going to hear it,’” said Horns, 44. “I became kind of depressed. You feel like you don’t have a voice anymore.”
In 2015, drummer (and original member) Antonio Garza moved back to Columbus, and he and Horns resurrected the project.
Not until the 2016 presidential election, though, did Horns feel a burst of angry inspiration that he channeled into a cohesive album idea.
After writing and recording 25 songs in a year, several of which will make their way onto the upcoming album “Othello,” Paper Airplane — which also includes Brian Larcey (guitar), Jamarr Mays (bass), Claire Pollard (keys, vocals) and Garza and Matt Whitslar (both on drums) — will debut a single Saturday at Rumba Cafe.

Q: How can musicians write political music well?

A: There’s several people that have done it well. John Lennon did it well, and Jimmy Cliff. Bands like the Clash did it well. They don’t go specific on people. You have to choose why you’re feeling this way, and for me, it was, “I’m angry and sort of embarrassed by everything, and how do I get over that?” It’s not a sense of trying to change the world or anything around you. It’s “How do I deal with it?”

Q: You used to take song inspiration from stories you wrote as a journalist. Where do you find song ideas now?

A: The election was really eye-opening, especially from a journalistic viewpoint for me. I saw this happening and was like, “This is unfathomable.” Especially when Trump won, I looked around, and my brother voted for him, and my dad voted for him, too, and you start to question, and I got angry. I think that anger fueled the songs I wrote in 2017.

Q: How does your interest in literature intersect with your songs?

A: Every word has a purpose. It’s a lot like journalism. The whole idea is to remove everything that doesn’t matter.

Q: How has your sound changed since the last album?

A: I’ve got a friend who was super into hair metal, and I hated hair metal. I thought it was the most ridiculous joke music I’d ever heard. I was into ’40s blues and thought that’s what music was. Now I see the importance of what hair metal was trying to do, and that’s celebrating rock ‘n’ roll. That’s what this album is, celebrating rock ‘n’ roll — screaming and guitars and feedback.

— Julia Oller

joller@dispatch.com

@juliaoller - Columbus Dispatch

When Ryan Horns, 2000 Ohio State alumnus, began his undergraduate career, he was certain he loved music and writing, but uncertain of what his future would look like. Since then, Horns has created one in which he could do both.
By day, Horns is the communications specialist at the Ohio State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and by night he writes and performs shows with his band, Paper Airplane.
“From an early age, I spent most of my time writing stories and songs in my room, thinking I wouldn’t do anything with creative writing,” Horns said.
The beginning of Horn’s career was focused on journalism, writing stories for notable media outlets such as MTV, Columbus Alive and the Marysville Journal-Tribune. He became fascinated with the mixed media aspects of communication, and writing stories transitioned into writing songs and creating videos, Horns said.
“Everybody needs writers and artists to turn the story of their work into something the reader can understand,” Horns said.
In 1997, he formed his first band, The Last Hotel, which allowed Horns the freedom and opportunity to intermix music and writing as a vocalist. Horns said being in the group taught him how to juggle multiple projects while managing a band.
The Last Hotel changed its name to Paper Airplane in 2008. The group took a break from performing music and recorded two albums, “Who You Know” and “Othello,” Horn said. They performed at festivals and filmed two self-made videos, most recently releasing a music video for their single “Too Many Words” in August 2018.
Antonio Garza, drummer of Paper Airplane, describes the band as melody-driven indie rock.
“One thing about Ryan is he is always, always writing music, at least since the time I’ve known him,” Garza said. “I don’t think you could ever stop Ryan from writing new songs, that’s just kind of what he does.”
When he’s not writing music, Horns manages the online content for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His role is to turn the stories and work of current students and faculty into articles and multimedia pieces.
In 2018, Horns was awarded the Outstanding Service “Above and Beyond Award” by the Engineering Staff Advisory Committee.
Betty Anderson, associate chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said Horns has brought great and positive change to the public relations of the department.
“All of a sudden as soon as Ryan arrived, we started seeing our department featured in articles everywhere, all the time,” Anderson said. “I learned more about the department from reading Ryan’s articles than I learned from being in the department.”
As an undergraduate student, Horns feared the possible reality of being a broke artist or writer, but asked himself, “Why don’t I do what I love and write?” So, he declared a major in creative writing.
“It took understanding that what I was doing is what I enjoyed, and at some point, you have to look at yourself and say, ‘This is what I want to do,’” Horns said.
Paper Airplane’s music, as well as its newest single, “Sidewalks Falling from My Feet” can be streamed via Spotify. - The Lantern

After throat surgery, singer/songwriter Ryan Horns uncovers ‘Too Many Words’

Following a seven-year hiatus, power-pop band Paper Airplane is again ready for liftoff.

The group has a new album, Othello, arriving later this year, and will tease the recording with a single release and accompanying concert at Rumba Cafe on Saturday, Aug. 25. (A second album, In a Great Big Field, is expected to follow in 2019.)

Despite the lengthy absence, primary singer and songwriter Ryan Horns never stopped making music, writing and recording full demos both at home and in a practice space he shares with the Japanese B-Sides, a cover band in which he sings and plays guitar, and which has been his primary live outlet the last six years.

The hiatus coincided with a procedure Horns underwent in 2011 to deal with his uvulitis, a swelling of the uvula in the back of the throat (Horns described the uvula as “that punching bag thing”), a condition that often caused him to feel as though he was gagging while he performed.

“I went skiing in Colorado, and I was dealing with the swollen throat and the high altitude, and I remember lying in bed feeling like I was suffocating,” Horns said of the moment that drove him to pursue surgery. ”[The doctors] knew I was a singer, and they told me, ‘There’s a chance you could sound like Fran Drescher after the surgery if we do it wrong.’ Really? You’re telling me that now? But there was really no option when it feels like someone constantly has their thumb jammed down your throat.”

During the recovery — Horns started performing with Japanese B-Sides almost immediately but said years passed before he regained full confidence in his voice — the musician wrote and recorded relentlessly, filling digital recorders and iPads with fully formed demos, many of which centered on issues of anger and learning to let go.

Previously, Horns, a onetime journalist, approached songwriting as a narrative form, building songs that unfolded like dark, true-crime dramas — shadowy tales that often ran counter to the sunny, pop-oriented delivery.

“There was always that sense in Paper Airplane where it was laid-back music, very melodic, but the songs were about a guy getting murdered, or a guy getting in a car crash and going over an overpass,” Horns said. “When you’re a crime reporter, or that’s part of your beat, you’re just fascinated by what people get away with, or what they don’t get away with.”

Othello, which includes songs like “Too Many Words,” a rowdy earworm that will be released with an accompanying video this weekend at Rumba, however, is more personal, shaped by social and political ills Horn witnessed working as a journalist, as well as the difficulties he experienced transitioning from a profession that long offered identity as much as a paycheck.

“I didn’t have a voice anymore, and then I stopped being a journalist and you’re feeling like, ‘What am I doing all this for?’” Horns said. ”‘Too Many Words’ is about a lot of things. There are aspects of being overloaded and wanting people to hear you, but do I have anything to say? And is it even worth it?” - Columbus Alive

On weekdays at The Marysville Journal-Tribune, Ryan Horns has a direct line to Main Street, USA. Plunked next to a radio scanner that feeds his police beat, he listens to a wash of success and failure, the ethos of regular people trying to doing extraordinary things. He takes notes. He follows up.

Walk the streets of any small town in America, and the stories will almost write themselves.

For the most part, the drama is subtle and odd in ways you’d never expect. It unfolds in tiny houses and humble settings. Hidden among elm trees and behind garage doors are characters trying to survive, trying to make sense of a life that passes by them in a blur.

On weekdays at The Marysville Journal-Tribune, Ryan Horns has a direct line to Main Street, USA. Plunked next to a radio scanner that feeds his police beat, he listens to a wash of success and failure, the ethos of regular people trying to doing extraordinary things. He takes notes. He follows up.

These curiosities provide the backbone of White Elephants, the excellent second album from local power-pop band Paper Airplane. They’ll release it Friday, Aug. 21, at Ruby Tuesday with support from Super Desserts and Winter Makes Sailors.

“Some of the characters are made up, but a lot of them are people I meet in Marysville,” said Horns, the band’s lead singer, guitarist and songwriter. “Some dude will get arrested and it’s funny or poignant, so I’ll transfer that into a lyric or even an entire song. There’s a lot of good people trying to do stuff.”

Characters on the album wander the streets in horror and learn how to dance beyond white-picket fences. They lie naked and look for answers. They’re are linked only by their flawed yet relatable humanity.

Each song is a snapshot, and the band will have you peering into a life you’ve never wondered about otherwise.

“He doesn’t give us a lyric sheet or anything,” drummer Antonio Garza said. “We’ll play a song after a while and then you’ll catch something that he said.”

In some ways, this album plays like a second edition of Middlemarch!, a stellar 2007 debut of sunny pop that borrowed heavily from Cat Stevens, The Shins, Wilco and Ram-era Paul McCartney. The lovely vocal layers, delicate keys and general pleasantness are largely intact throughout 16 new songs.

Yet, in important ways, the band took risks, toeing the boundaries of what can be enjoyed immediately.

“It was all about trying to push the elements of pop music,” Horns said. “There’s elements of the first CD in there with a few songs, then elements of us throwing in the kitchen sink and then elements of us trying something totally new.”

Individual tracks bear influences from the outside - the narcotic drone of The Velvet Underground on “Spring Vultures” or the saccharine punch of Big Star on “Time Is Full of Photographs.” Still, everything comes back to the clear, gentle sound the band has made its own.

That sound is the result of breathing room and a lack of pressure. Paper Airplane’s not really looking to make it - only to make records they like. If they wanted to get serious, band members joke, they should’ve bought a van five years ago.

“I was in a band before where that was all they were worried about,” Garza explained. “We never played any shows. We just practiced and practiced and recorded but never did anything with the recordings.”

Even the collapse earlier this year of local label All Hail Records didn’t really faze them. This time around, members had heard a sound they liked, worked with Cincinnati producer Brian Niesz to get it and fleshed everything out at a relaxed pace.

“It sounds like it could’ve been made in the ’60s, or it sounds like it could’ve been made today,” Horns said. “You could hear everybody situated in the room. The sound is very warm.”

For much more local music coverage, check the Sensory Overload blog. - Columbus Alive

Paper Airplane are a Cinci/Columbus quartet that deliver a sound that is a good portion of 60’s nostalgia, a bit of 80’s pop and 90’s alt folk, and maybe even a touch of Electric Light Orchestra. Mixed together, it’s a sound that is surprisingly modern and decidedly appealing. The Beatles influence is evident, but the songs and sound aren’t copycat nostalgia -- instead, Paper Airplane takes it and uses it to their own purposes.

On their All Hail Records release Middlemarch, the music is beautifully layered, allowing the listener to discover new sounds with each visit. The smooth voice of lead singer Ryan Horns adds another layer to the music, blending effortlessly into the notes beneath it. Paper Airplane succeed in taking music and creating audial poetry. That being said, it’s also damn fun.

The lyrics echo the poetic nature of the music, finishing the art without making it look paint-by-number. They wax philosophic, but with Horn’s voice, the songs still sound light and somehow happy, regardless of the depth or darkness of the content.

Among the many standout tracks are the the opener “Keeping Things Whole,” because it sets the stage so well for the whole of the CD, and “Four Trucks Sitting in the Snow,” due to its exceptional lyrics and its fun, bouncy notes (well, as bouncy as Paper Airplane gets anyway). “Fire Escape” is another that sets itself apart as it allows the listener to unravel the story the lyrics tell, discovering meaning as it pertains more perhaps to themselves than the songwriter himself. The storytelling of “Mighty Resilient,” with Elliot as its main character, is brilliant -- sad, yet somehow uplifting at the same time.

“Rooftop” -- a mercifully short song -- is one that doesn’t work. The musical backdrop is surprisingly dull, especially given the quality of the other tracks, and the falsetto vocals are tough to get through without hitting your iPod’s ">>|" button. The lyrics aren’t interesting enough to work past the poor musical content and the song creates a sudden stop in the flow of the album.

The CD’s title Middlemarch is shared with George Eliot’s 1871 book of the same name, a story that is considered one of history’s greatest novels. If Eliot’s closing passage were translated to the music of Paper Airplane, it would fit: “For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

Personally, I hope this CD stays neither hidden nor unvisited. - Life on the C-Bus

Paper Airplane, a Columbus-by-way-of-Marysville band, isn’t part of any distinct musical trend or genre.

The band played the Toledo’s “Indie Pop” festival, so there’s that. But if you’re looking for off-kilter vocals to go with your catchy choruses, you won’t find them here. (Don’t look for a basic verse/chorus/verse structure, either.)

Singer Ryan Horns is a vocal acrobat, and his clever melodies and impressive pipes take center stage on every Paper Airplane song. Like most frontmen who unabashedly embrace their inner pop, he makes no bones about sitting below the dais of Lennon and McCartney, though it’s hard to say whom he favors more.

The band’s new CD, White Elephants, is presented like a cassette tape—with two theoretical sides, complete with the sound effect of a tape being inserted at the beginning and flipped halfway through.

It’s a more visceral record than 2007’s Middlemarch. Formerly polished guitars have been excoriated a bit, and you may be able to tell that much of the album was recorded onto analog tape (by Cincinnati’s Brian Niesz and Columbus Discount Recording’s Adam Smith). There’s also more synthesizer; the synth riffs on “Until It’s Gone” and “Car Crash” are surprisingly Times New Viking-ish.

But I have a feeling all of those sonic divergences are more subtle than the band realizes. If you’ve heard Middlemarch, there’s not much here that’ll shock your pants off.

White Elephants is, however, more thematically cohesive. The album is based around its title track, which Horns wrote at the request of his uncle, who wanted a song written about his two-year battle with cancer. (Horns’s uncle, unfortunately, died two weeks before he had the chance to hear the song performed live.) It’s a song about death’s emotional impact (“All we have is family/And all we have is one another”) as much as the tough-to-swallow practicalities that contribute to that final sendoff (“You’re caught between life and the cost of your health”).

The other songs follow in the vein of “White Elephants,” some reminiscing, some looking forward, some both. The strongest ones (“It’s Almost Over,” “Until It’s Gone”) are devoid of insouciance, filled instead with an incensed passion that Horns couldn’t hide if he tried.

And while not every song on White Elephants is as memorable as it could be, there’s enough of that passion to further cement Paper Airplane’s place in Columbus’s pop pantheon.

Paper Airplane will hold a CD release show beginning at 10 p.m. Friday at Ruby Tuesday, 1978 Summit St. Also on the bill are Winter Makes Sailors and Super Desserts. – The Other Paper - The Other Paper

Ever since his high school days, Ryan Horns has written songs. It’s the way he processes the world around him.

But in order to do so, he had to teach himself how to play guitar, and then he had to teach himself how to record songs. He could learn those things on his own. The tough part was meeting other people, convincing them he was a capable singer, songwriter and guitarist, and then getting onstage in front of an audience.

“I remember the first show I ever did was at the Treehouse, and there was sort of a buzz because I had put some songs out. People were going to show up, and I was terrified of that,” Horns said. “So I go there, and it’s packed in that tree room, and everybody’s like 3 feet away from me, right at the same level. And I wanted to hide the fact that my hands were shaking.”

As a kid, Horns’ social anxiety was written off as a harmless byproduct of shyness.

“Over the years, you realize ‘shy’ isn’t putting yourself in a room for days on end because you don’t want to deal with people,” he said. “It wasn’t until the ’90s that I realized, ‘Oh, I have a pretty bad problem.’ Overcoming it took a long time.”

Horns, a former journalist who now works at Ohio State, faced his fear by taking public-speaking classes and performing with his bands, the Last Hotel and Paper Airplane, a power-pop project he put on hold several years ago but was inspired to resurrect in late 2016, channeling the rage of current events into a new batch of songs.

“Once the election happened, I looked around and I was like, ‘I don’t have any hope for this place anymore. I’ve lost faith in a lot of people around me. I don’t know where they’re coming from anymore,’” Horns said. “The funny thing is that I found hope in not having any hope.”

Armed with at least two albums’ worth of material, Horns initially thought he’d release a pair of records, one as the Last Hotel and one as Paper Airplane. Recording began in 2018 at Musicol in Columbus and at 3 Elliott Studio in Athens. But each time a band lineup solidified, bandmates would move away or bow out.

Eventually, the Paper Airplane lineup came together, with Horns on vocals and guitar, band co-founder Antonio Garza on drums, John Fitzgerald on bass, Keith Jenkins on lead guitar and Rob Cave on keys. The bandmates will perform at Rumba Cafe on Friday to celebrate the release of their excellent new double album, Othello.

“You and I had a falling out / We’re both full of rage and colorful shouts / It’s been so many years now I don’t even know / What I was mad at so long ago,” Horns sings on the standout title track.

“That song was the hardest song to write,” said Horns, who had trouble finishing the track, which was partially written before the other Othello songs. “Then I realized, ’Oh, that song is actually about dealing with anger, like all these others. ... I was reading more about (Shakespeare’s) ‘Othello’ and I was like, ‘This is a whole play about dealing with anger and manipulation. That pretty much nails it.’ That song, I think, defines the whole album.”

joliphint@columbusalive.com - Columbus Dispatch

Chip Midnight was sitting at his makeshift work-from-home desk in the basement of his Worthington house when his email pinged.
He saw it was from an old friend, so he opened it. But he was unprepared for what it included — so much so that the idea of it all practically took his breath away.
This was on June 4, the anniversary of the date three years ago that Midnight’s oldest daughter died of a sudden brain bleed at the age of 17.
And now, on this very day, came a surprise email from Marysville musician Ryan Horns saying he’d written and recorded a song in tribute to Olivia Midnight because even though he never knew the teenager, the way she had so clearly lived her life caring for others inspired him.

Get to know Olivia Midnight:"She wanted her artwork to be perfect."
Kids Interview Bands: At the age of 12, Olivia and her dad became internet stars and were featured in The Dispatch

“It was clear that Ryan’s heart was in it,” Midnight said. “He not only gave us a gift, but he gave our whole family a gift. He gave Liv’s friends a gift. I listened to the song, and when I heard him sing her name, I cried.”
Horns is a 47-year-old communications specialist by day at Ohio State University’s Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. But by night, the husband and father performs solo around town as well as with his band, Paper Airplane.
He first met Midnight — who by day works in event technology at Nationwide — because the latter has long been a prolific freelance journalist covering the music scene.
The two aren’t close friends who spend a lot of time together, but they share many music interests, so they hit it off and have stayed in touch.
When Olivia died suddenly in 2018, just weeks after finishing her junior year, Horns couldn’t imagine the devastation the Midnights were feeling. It was particularly difficult, he said, because he and his wife have a young daughter of their own.
Olivia Midnight was 17 and had just finished her junior year at Thomas Worthington High School when she died on June 4, 2018, of a brain bleed.
“After Olivia died, I was just so extremely sad for the family,” Horns said. “I mean, you see them carry on and you wonder every day, ‘Where do they get their strength?' I needed to honor it all somehow.”
Now, “Olivia Midnight” has been posted to streaming platforms and is available on Horns’ Bandcamp site as well as at Paper Airplane’s. All the money from any paid downloads and any donations that come in will go directly toward the Olivia A. Midnight Memorial Scholarship, $2,000 awards that go annually to students whom the Midnights think best embody their daughter’s spirit of giving and joy and doing good in the world.
“All we ever wanted was to raise good humans,” said mom, Kate Midnight, who still every so often speaks of her daughter in the present tense. “Liv is smart and pretty and friendly and is the kind of daughter anyone would want. Liv cared deeply for people.”
During the pandemic, like many musicians, Horns found himself without gigs. And, like many people, he found his mental health suffering from the worry and isolation and all the things the pandemic brought.
So he took to social media to help. He began sending positive messages to random people he found living their lives in ways that inspired him. And he began writing songs about them.
He wrote and recorded a song about a Cincinnati bartender, Mollie Dudley, who (with zero training as an artist) used her pandemic downtime to draw portraits of friends. And he wrote and recorded a song about a guy who used to work at Ohio State University's Wexner Center for the Arts and songs about members of his own family.
He has plans for more, and hopes to put them all on an album. But it was working on “Olivia Midnight” that proved particularly cathartic.

Olivia Midnight, I know I can still hear your name in the twilight.
But there's a smile on my face when I think about this place.
And the memories we made and all the charming things you said.
Because I know that living in a world without you is better
than living in a world that never knew you at all.

“I was depressed – I think all of us were depressed – and I just started looking for people who were doing hopeful things,” Horns said. “It's about ... taking pain and turning it into something beautiful."
For the Midnights, three years hasn’t eased their grief. Chip Midnight has only listened to Horns’ song about his daughter once. Kate Midnight hasn’t yet listened to it at all.
But they’ve heard from so many people who have heard it and were touched.
Olivia was, her mother says, a force. She was a prolific and talented artist, and her framed artwork covers the family home’s walls. She was an animated free spirit, a teenager whose lithe body was always moving and whose long arms and legs seemingly in perpetual motion from the energy she had.
Chip has found some measure of comfort over the years with support groups, especially the local chapter of the support group Compassionate Friends. And because the Midnights chose to donate Olivia’s organs, the continued support of Lifeline of Ohio has meant so much, too.
Kate tries to keep it together for their two younger daughters, 19-year-old Abbey and 15-year-old Piper. But she still cries daily.
On the anniversary of Olivia’s death, Chip never quite knows what to say publicly about it. Horns’ surprise gift touched him deeply and provided the perfect solution: “I posted the song and let it speak for me.”
"We want to keep talking about her, sharing Liv's story," Kate said. “We want people to remember her, and try to live their lives like she did – never judging anyone and always caring about others.”
To listen to "Olivia Midnight" and donate to the scholarship fund, visit paperairplane1.bandcamp.com/track/olivia-midnight. To donate directly through the Columbus Foundation, visit livmidnight.com or columbusfoundation.org.

hzachariah@dispatch.com - Columbus Dispatch

"What I love about music and art is how it immediately becomes immortal. When Chip Midnight’s daughter died, I felt an extreme amount of sadness for him and his family. I finally decided to write a song for her to help, at least me, deal with it," said Ryan Horns, frontman for Columbus power-pop act Paper Airplane, in a statement accompanying the release of new single "Olivia Midnight."

Olivia "Liv" Midnight died unexpectedly from a blood clot in the brain on June 4, 2018. She was 17. As Horns noted, Liv was the daughter of Chip Midnight, a longtime local rock journalist (Donewaiting.com, Alive, Big Takeover) and all-around great guy. In the wake of her death, a memorial scholarship was created at Thomas Worthington High School; the annual gift "provides $500 to a student who shares Liv's passion for art and joy of life," said Horns, who is donating all proceeds from song sales to the fund.

While not glossing over hard truths and unimaginable grief, Paper Airplane's Beatles-y tune feels more like a celebration of life. Give it a listen below, and consider donating to the scholarship fund through a Bandcamp purchase or by searching for "Midnight" at the Columbus Foundation. - Columbus Alive

Columbus, Ohio-located garage pop band Paper Airplane, which is helmed by singer-songwriter Ryan Horns, recently released a poignant new single, “Olivia Midnight,” in tribute to the dearly departed daughter of our very own writer, Chip Midnight.

The purpose of the song is to show support for Horns’ friend, Chip Midnight, to honor his beloved daughter, Olivia Midnight, and to channel all sales of the track to the Liv Midnight Memorial Scholarship.

This scholarship fund annually gives a donation to a student who is passionate about the arts. More information about this scholarship can be found below.

Ryan Horns, as Paper Airplane, set his path on creating powerfully melodic, lyrical, and vocals-based rock ‘n roll/garage pop that spins off in different sonic directions. Gentle indie pop often turns into something more experimental and gritty – sometimes within the same song. The creative point for Horns is the meticulous craft of song-writing.

A longtime breaking news, community, and crime journalist, Horns opens up a lyrical world of suburban intrigue that’s often based upon experiences and stories that he’s profiled over his award-winning career.

Paper Airplane has released four LPs, including critics’ favorite Middlemarch (All Hail Records, 2007), White Elephants (self-released, 2009), and Who You Know (We Want Action, 2010) before the Great Recession hit Ohio hard and band members dispersed. Paper Airplane returned in 2018 and released their double-album OTHELLO in 2019 (Scioto Records).

And now Paper Airplane returns with this special tribute single. Ryan Horns reveals details about his link to Chip and Liv, and his need to record “Olivia Midnight” in honor of Liv:

“What I love about music and art is how it immediately becomes immortal. When Chip Midnight’s daughter Liv died in 2018, I felt an extreme amount of sadness for him and his family. I finally decided to write a song for her to help, at least me, deal with it. Besides, her name is Olivia Midnight – that’s just begging for a rock song. Also, what’s more rock and roll than Thin Lizzy twin guitars?”

“When Liv died, Chip said there was a huge rainbow in the sky that day, so I knew I needed to mention that. The song also needed a point, but there’s nothing positive about death, especially the death of a daughter. I finally realized nothing can take away what they shared for 17 years. In that case, perhaps a world that never even knew her would be even worse.”

“I recorded the song at home in 2019 and booked a recording session in March 2020… and the pandemic hit. Paper Airplane bandmates Keith Jenkins (guitar) and Rob Cave (keyboards) started emailing me their parts and we pieced the song together into a mix. I booked a Secret Studio session day in February and brought in only one person for each half of the day to record. Dan Bandman laid down the live drums and Brian Larcey added bass parts.”

“The final song was mixed by Keith Hanlon and mastered by Cauliflower Audio. Enjoy our song and help celebrate the brief but impactful life of Liv Midnight by donating to present an annual scholarship of $500 to a student who shares her love of art and compassion.”

All sales of the single go to the Liv Midnight Memorial Scholarship at “at” worthingtonschools. - The Big Takeover