Paco Is Desperate! is a four piece independent rock band typically seen as falling under the umbrella of emo, post hardcore, and alternative rock. Stockpiling influences across the genre spectrum from bands like Thursday, Coheed and Cambria, and Taking Back Sunday, the group hails from Toledo, OH, a hometown that has birthed iconic bands like Citizen and Secret Space.

Following a vicious battle with drug addiction, frontman Ashlee Ryan Nunley decided it was time for a change. Having gotten clean, he chose to divert his energy toward creativity instead of self destruction. The band’s lyrics stem from Nunley’s struggles with addiction, depression, and anxiety. Musically their sound is bold, brooding, and unafraid to take risks - earning the band a fanbase that has grown from a few dozen friends to thousands of followers across the world.

After dropping freshman album Unraveled in 2019, the group revamped its lineup and added Handguns singer Taylor Eby as manager. Set out to develop a more mature, cohesive sound, the band tapped Steven Warstler (Secret Space, Mat Kerekes) to produce their upcoming EP, anticipated to be the band's first major release.

In the next 5 years the band hopes to develop their sound with a focus on standing out, stellar live performances, and building their own legacy amongst their contemporaries and predecessors. Their talent, passion, and hunger has all the potential to make them one of the defining acts of the new era.

REMNANTS 

Remnants calls back to a lot of my roots as a musician. I wouldn't call it grungy per se, but 90s alternative certainly has had a rather influential place in my heart since I was a teenager, and a lot of that bled through on Remnants. This and Glow were written pretty much at the same time, and we wanted them to serve as a signal of a sea change in our sound and direction as a band. We wanted to get heavier and more impactful; we wanted to showcase the intensity and passion that drives us in a new, louder, and more organized way.

I think one thing we accomplished well on Remnants was capturing a nostalgic grit while feeling modern and still keeping it very much us. Remnants was meant to be the throwdown at the beginning of the EP you couldn't ignore; an ode to disassociation, trauma, and frustration. 

THE ARSONIST

The Arsonist was the second song we wrote for Glow, and we did so not long after Cole first joined the band in 2019. Cole came to me with a super rough demo of The Arsonist and asked me to fix it up, so I made some revisions and we pieced the song together. It ended up becoming my favorite song of ours to perform. I love the energy and the intensity of the whole thing.

The lead guitar and the bass are the stars of the show; they make you want to move and inspire that raw emotion we aim to capture in all of our music. The swelling bloom of vocal harmonies managed to steal my heart as well, another product of the excellent production work by Steve Warstler. 

NEVER HOME (ALWAYS)

Never Home (Always) was the first song written for the EP. Originally conceived on just acoustic guitar sometime in 2019, we transformed the song as a band into something I think ended up sounding really cool and different. It's definitely got that melancholic vibe still, but it's faster and punky with a little bit of attitude. The bridge is my favorite part personally; bouncing between the palm muting and the high energy with Cole's tricky run on lead, Logan's craftwork on drums, and a harmonic chorus of defiant vocals sending this song out in style.

Steven had a big hand in elevating this song to the next level, and we spent a lot of time in studio playing around with different ideas to make this one special. The lyrics are incredibly personal as well, some of my most personal yet - I think we laid everything bare on Never Home (Always). 

DISASTER YEAR

2020 was supposed to have gone a lot differently for all of us, and Disaster Year is essentially a giant fuck you to the year that spawned a global pandemic. This was the last song written for the EP, and it went through numerous changes. We actually recorded a demo version at a different studio in late 2020 that is completely different from the final version. This track was rewritten, slowed down, sped up, restructured, rearranged and all before we settled on a version we liked. It's also the song on the EP we experimented most with, trying out all sorts of new chops. For being so emotionally cathartic, it is an awfully fun song to play. 

GLOW

The title track is a song about bipolar disorder. When we were writing it, we came up with the idea to have super massive verses contrasting with super reserved choruses. This is the opposite of how most songs are written, but the thought was to simulate the mood swings associated with bipolar with dynamics. Then we added a subtle bridge that builds into walls of warm guitars and pounding percussion to send home the message that recovery is possible, but not alone. And to hang on to the hope even if that hope is the faintest glimpse. Things do get better, even when it feels like your brain is a self sabotaging mess of chaos.

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