From Scotland to Texas to the Cornwall coast, Citizen Papes—the creative project of singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer JP O’Grady—has gone the scenic route to success. Inspired by a plethora of greats from a multitude of decades—taking influence from Bon Iver and The Beatles, Nick Drake and Dijon—O’Grady has carved a sound that bursts with virtue and vitality, of cascading cadence and emotional brevity.

Conceptualised and crafted in Glasgow during the pandemic years, the Papes project was only fully realised this year. In April Grady shared a debut EP, “For You”, an anthemic and affable four-track that acted as an incepting sonic proposition from the Scottish-born, Newquay-based talent. He has been consistent since too, sharing singles “Gramophone” in May, “Unbelievable” in July, and now brand new cut “Half Way Home”. The fresh sonic outing is heartfelt and gently pursuing, with Grady’s gorgeously light vocal performance serenading atop the unassuming, acoustic-driven instrumental backdrop.

All three tracks will feature on “Gramophone” the sophomore Citizen Papes EP—a second of the year—due on October 23rd. Tonight (19th September) Grady is in London to promote the forthcoming EP, performing at The Social. With such in mind, we connected with Grady, talking his Scottish roots, the inspirations for the Citizen Papes project, and his two EPs.

Listen to “Half Way Home”…

Read the interview…

How are you? How’s your summer been?
Busy but amazing! So happy to have music out in the world and be able to write and work with cool people!!

Talk us through your background – where did you grow up? What music were you around? What was your early musical education? 
I grew up in a little village called Chapel Of Garioch in the North-East of Scotland. It was really peaceful and beautiful there looking back on it. I wasn’t around a whole bunch of music honestly, my dad had a few CD’s he had burned for the car, with a really random mix of tunes on it. It ranged from Motorhead to Nelly Furtado. But honestly a lot of the old music I love I had to find myself, and introduce my parents to!! My mum loves Paul Simon so I gotta give her credit for that. In terms of musical education, I just used to watch these youtube videos teaching ragtime pieces on the piano. I had a couple lessons but only ever pretended to be able to read music, I don’t think my focus was ever very good so it didn’t last long. Pretty much everything is self taught.


How did Citizen Papes come about? What was the initial idea?
I had been working on music for a couple years before Citizen Papes came into fruition, I was in a band with my brother, writing music and playing some gigs around Scotland. Eventually it kind of fizzled out and I decided I probably needed to take some time to write a lot and see where I wanted to go artistically. Then lockdown happened, and it really allowed me to focus for a few months on writing and producing demos.


Where did the name stem from? What is the meaning behind it? 
Well my name is JP, which was always nicknamed Japes. To this day most of my close friends call me Japes, but my aunty started calling me Papes a good few years ago and I thought it was cool. It caught on a little between some friends and family. But if I’m being completely honest… I would’ve probably gone with Citizen Japes if there wasn’t already an artist called Childish Japes (great artist btw). 

What are the sonic, visual and thematic inspirations behind the project? 
Sonically I love all sorts of things, I’m really into classic songwriting though, very unoriginal for me to say but I love The Beatles, Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Abba etc. In terms of more modern music I’m really into Bon Iver, Adrianne Lenker, Vampire Weekend, Martin Luke Brown, Ethan Gruska, Boygenius to name a few! Visual inspiration is a lot harder for me to pin down honestly, I’m a bit terrible with all that stuff, I don’t watch a whole lot of TV and can barely sit through a movie. I quite like making my own music videos though, but just kind of wing it haha! Thematically, I tend to write a lot about longing + finding a sense of belonging. I’m generally quite an unsettled person, and I struggle a bit to live in the moment in the sense that I’m annoyingly always longing for something. It seems to just be the way my brain is wired. 

You’re based in Newquay – has the move down to London ever tempted you? Do you think it’s harder to rise within the contemporary industry if you are outside of the capital? 
Nope, never been tempted to move to London. If it had the same cost of living as some other places in the UK then maybe, but in general I’m not a huge fan of the place. I actually think it’s easier to rise in the music industry outside of London as an artist. The way I see it, if you can get a bit of recognition in your local area, then grow from there, things will fall into place. London is absolutely packed with cool artists, so I don’t feel I have much to bring to the community there. 

Talk to us about your affinity with surfing and how it influences you as a musician and a human? 
Surfing is an amazing little escape from everything else I do in my life. I’m chronically addicted to technology, whether staring at my laptop screen producing music, or not being able to put my phone down. So being able to just paddle out and catch waves for a couple hours provides me so much joy. Surfing is pretty all consuming, especially on more chaotic days, you can’t think about anything else during the time you’re out there, so it’s very meditative, not to mention great exercise, and you get to see cute seals and be part of a cool community. 

You pluck from a variety of sounds and genres to concept the Citizen Papes melting pot. Is that something you are naturally inclined to do, or is it something you’ve set out to do? 
Honestly I haven’t really ever thought about it. When I make music, I don’t consume a lot of music simultaneously and I try not to overthink things. I’ve been in some writing sessions where people want to pull direct inspiration from one particular song, and I just don’t really resonate with that method. I don’t know why you’d want to make another version of something that already exists. But I guess there’s always going to be a mix of your inspirations weaved throughout your art, which is cool! 

Talk us through your two EPs – you are releasing them within a few months of each other, why did you choose to do that? 
Gotta keep the ball rolling!! But I guess truthfully I just have so much music I’ve written in recent years, that I didn’t feel it was necessary to be precious about putting too much out in a short space of time. I still have a bunch more tunes and I’m constantly writing, so why not drop 10 songs in the space of a few months!

What was the creative process behind making the EPs?
I primarily wrote and produced the songs myself, in a few different environments. There was some writing I did in my bedroom at my parents place, then a few songs I made when I had a tiny bedroom studio in Glasgow, and finally the more recent ones were written and produced out of my studio in Cornwall. There are a few co-writes also. There’s three songs across both EP’s that I made with Ross Hamilton in his studio in Glasgow. And the song Unbelievable was written with Ross Leighton of the band Fatherson. A fully Scottish roster haha!

What are the similarities between the two EPs? Where do they differ? Whether in their musical style, thematic message, or visual identity.  
I think in general the second EP is a lot more ‘pretty’. The debut EP is a bit more bandy in the instrumentation, though still primarily using sampled drums. I wanted to really dive into more meaningful songwriting on EP two, and actually sing about what’s going on in my life.  EP two is more cozy and will hopefully make people feel warm. EP 1 is a little bit more energetic for those that want to dance!


What did you learn from the release of the first EP that you are taking into the release of the second? 
Don’t sweat the small stuff, and don’t get too focused on numbers. If people like it, they like it, if they don’t, there’s so much great music out there. I try to remind myself that as long as I’m proud of the art I release, I should be happy with that!


What do you hope this new second project achieves? 
I just hope people resonate with the songs and make them their own! Music is very powerful and I’d love to be able to make music that resonates with people the same way my favourite tunes do.

What’s to come from you – this year and beyond? 
My next tune “Half Way Home” just came out, and I think it’s my favourite song I’ve written to date. I’m playing a few shows in England after that release, check my socials to stay informed! My second EP drops in October and I’ll be announcing some more shows then too. Debut album to come next year!!