Paperbacks front man Doug McLean debuts new project

Yoyote features members of The Details, Paper Moon and Painted Thin

Doug McLean of The Paperbacks (second from left) is set to debut four new projects in the coming months. Killbeat Music

Local rock band The Paperbacks might be on hiatus, but lead singer-guitarist Doug McLean is busier than ever.

In the coming months, he’s set to launch four new projects, including a solo EP and a new album from The Bonaduces, the popular local rock band he fronted in the ‘90s.

But the first project McLean is debuting is Yoyote, a band that sees him teaming up with a variety of friends from Winnipeg’s music scene: Kevin Andrechuk (The Paperbacks), Keli Martin (The Details), Chris Hiebert (Paper Moon, The Bonaduces) and Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson (Painted Thin).

Yoyote performs tomorrow (Friday, April 15) at the Lo Pub with Greg MacPherson’s Nova as well as Heartbeat City, a new band featuring Ian La Rue. Tickets are available exclusively at the door.

“It came about pretty organically,” McLean says of Yoyote, which he describes as his main musical focus for the near future.

“It’s all people I’ve played with before, so it’s a pretty comfortable arrangement in terms of everyone knows what to expect and everyone’s sort of pumped about the music and everything. We started practicing just at the end of summer last year, and it’s been going pretty well.”

(I’m) trying a different method right now and seeing how much of this material I can get out, and how many different people I can play with, and how much fun we can have with it. It’s exciting.

Doug McLean

McLean adds that Yoyote’s musical style isn’t too far off from what The Paperbacks do.

“The … people in (Yoyote) all bring different things to (the band), so it’ll be a bit of a twist on it, but if you like The Paperbacks, you’ll probably like this.”

The Paperbacks decided to take a break after finishing the touring cycle for its last album, Lit From Within, at the end of last June.

McLean began cataloging the songs he had backlogged and grouping them into different categories: Yoyote, The Bonaduces, solo material, and Gothenburg Vandalism, a fourth project that will feature a revolving door of local musicians.

McLean says that for every album The Paperbacks have released, he’s written enough material for three or four more. The new projects will allow him to put out that material.

Yoyote will release a digital single in the coming weeks, Gothenburg Vandalism will debut in the coming months, and McLean’s solo EP is slated for a summer release on Parliament of Trees, the record label run by The Paperbacks and The Details.

“(I’m) trying a different method right now and seeing how much of this material I can get out, and how many different people I can play with, and how much fun we can have with it,” McLean says. “It’s exciting.”

Visit www.parliamentoftrees.com.

“Dressing Up for You” by Gothenburg Vandalism.

The Bonaduces perform at the West End Cultural Centre this past February.

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