Ethereal Site

Wallpaper is the enigmatic onstage existence of Oakland music addict Eric Frederic. In another life, he fronts a prog-rock powerhouse (indie stalwarts Facing New York), but in this one, he's a pop-pushing kingpin as interested in art as artifice. The Wallpaper project began in early 2005 as tweaked satire, Frederic funneling his earliest influences (P-Funk, New Jack, East Bay rap) into two EPs of diced, digital beats and lyrics caricaturing the pop vernacular. But as the Hyphy hip-hop movement crested in Frederic's backyard, something changed. "I saw that classic Bay Area sound resurfacing," he says, "that same psychedelic, drippy, care-free, funky approach that reigned from Sly Stone to Digital Underground." He needed to pay tribute, and in a hail of house parties and homemade discs, Wallpaper was reborn as Ricky Reed, Frederic's disco-smashing doppelganger. This glitz 'n' grit champion of the groove has since become a gilded name in the underground, wooing crowds with a computerized croon, live reinventions of R&B classics, and tales of excess in the Information Age. Live, Wallpaper is joined by Arjun Singh on drums. They have blown spots alongside such notables as Subtle, Darondo, LA Riots, Electric Soft Parade, and Nino Moschella."Wallpaper. represents the eccentric everyman," says group frontman Ricky Reed, "a blue collar pop band for the other 99%, a twerking class hero who might ACTUALLY show up at your house party - THAT IS WALLPAPER.!" 

Direct no-nonsense party music on the surface, Wallpaper., comprised of Arjun Singh and Tom Peyton on drums, Derek Taylor on percussion and Novena Carmel vocals, follows the trajectory of intoxication through the fuck-ups and the hangovers and the adventures and manages to even pinpoint the divine light that strikes for a split-second in the damnedest of places. In the heartbeat of the songs, Wallpaper.'s provocative party anthems open up to celebrate core human values, especially friendship, neccessary for emotional survival. In "Good For It," the new Wallpaper. single, Ricky, with a mix of swagger and vulnerability, invokes the essential function of friendship operating the deepest levels in times of real trauma. "It's describing a real terrible situation that you're in, without any of the details. There hasn't been a song about just needing help in a long time," he says, harkening back to the Beatle's "Help" and REM's "Everybody Hurts." Where the dynamic of "Drunken Hearts," is built around "a love song between two train-wrecks," "The Underdog" champions the long shot, the one you take because you don't take opportunity for granted. Ricky, whose "parents are not from money or involved in the entertainment industry," has been making music since he was 16 and strongly identifies with the underdog. It takes a strong work ethic to make it look as easy as Wallpaper. does.