Pokémon, unplugging from the internet, and ‘overpowered pop’: Inside Origami Angel’s new album

Walking a line between easycore, with almost gazey heights and catchy pop-punk twangs, Washington, D.C.’s Origami Angel, aren’t afraid to dip their toes into a variation of waters, but it’s all encapsulated into what we can only describe as wondrous emo fuzz.

The duo, made up of singer/guitarist Ryland Heagy and drummer Pat Doherty, first rose up in 2019 with their debut Somewhere City, before that pesky virus came along and stopped the band in their tracks. A 2021 record followed in the form of Gami Gang, but now as we sit here celebrating their third – Feeling Not Found – we find a band who are entering their main character phase. For those new to Origami Angel, if you like heartfelt, sad songs filled with jangly guitars, this will be your latest muse.

“I guess we’re a band that has always tried to not stay in one place,” begins Ryland. “We started calling it ‘overpowered pop’. There’s anything from jazz stuff to metalcore, but all of it has a little emo rock flavour.”

Feeling Not Found has been described by Origami Angel as a “spiritual 404 error”, which pokes fun at society’s incessant over-use of digital platforms and losing that real human connection. This “error” has even caused the band themselves to question where their place is.

“The narrative of this record isn’t necessarily an honest narration,” explains Ryland. “A lot of it is very ambiguous and confused. And I think that’s really what the main ethos of the whole spiritual error thing is: a lot of bad shit has happened in the past four years – especially related to how digitised and disconnected pretty much everything is. I’m just like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’”

Rest assured, though: this doesn’t make for a confusing-sounding album. Sonically, Feeling Not Found is a complete joyride, but at the same time you can feel an overtone of exhaustion of how homogenised the digital world has become. Musically, it almost has a nostalgic tone to it, but still sits perfectly into modern-day listening. (Even if the band cheekily discard that notion.)

“I hear a lot about the concept to reject modernity, and usually what people are talking about is, like, fucking living in the woods and shit,” Ryland says. “But what I thought was really funny was rejecting all this stuff but kind of harkening back to a more analogue time, where it all seemed so mystic.”

Nostalgia here isn’t harking back to the days of fax machines and landlines, but to the early days of the internet and the start of technology. Think Myspace, Game Boy Advances and the height of Pokémon. Origami Angel’s aesthetics definitely feel like a celebration of late-’90s/ early-’00s internet culture, and they’ve even recently launched a Nintendo-esque videogame to promote Feeling Not Found, where you help the duo escape from a gig.

And on the subject of that aforementioned iconic Japanese franchise, Pokémon is a huge influence, especially on Ryland, who speaks to us proudly wearing a Aipom T-shirt. Trading cards appear in their videogame, and there’s a nod to it on the record, with the aptly-titled HM07 Waterfall (a battle move, for those of you not in the know).

“As far as nostalgia goes, I’ve had a weird relationship with it and like I dive into it a lot,” shares Ryland. “Then I realised Pokémon is not nostalgic to me, because it’s been a part of my whole life.”

Origami Angel want to be the very best (like no-one ever was…). If their popularity continues to soar at the rate it currently is, like the mysterious original trio of Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres, they’ll be on their way to legendary status.

Feeling Not Found is due out on September 27 via Counter Intuitive

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