Origami Angel has become one of the most defining duos in modern emo since the release of their groundbreaking debut album Somewhere City in 2019. After establishing a pop-punk and math rock foundation through the lens of escapism, Vocalist and guitarist Ryland Heagy and drummer Pat Doherty expanded their sonic palette on their dynamic second LP GAMI GANG in 2021. Their ambitious spirit continued with their 2023 release, The Brightest Days, which cemented them as fearless boundary-pushers, leaning into playful, power-pop inspired moments.
Last year, Origami Angel released their third studio album, Feeling Not Found, which explored ideologies of the digital age, modern humanity and discovering your analog identity. With the implications of advancements in technology and artificial intelligence taking over, the message behind Feeling Not Found grows more relevant every day. “If you write anything about technology, it’s gonna become more relevant just because that’s the way that the course seems to be going,” Heagy explains on a call with Melodic Magazine. “It’s been really interesting to see how the world has changed around the lens of that while being the person who wrote a lot of those lyrics.” Heagy began writing Feeling Not Found in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now watching elements of the record take on a life of their own nearly six years later, he says, “there’s things that I don’t even think I really meant fully that are actually super on the nose now.”
One main theme throughout the 14 tracks on Feeling Not Found is the importance of identity. The album’s penultimate track, “Higher Road,” embodies this message of taking your identity into your own hands and learning to define it on your own terms. “I think that there are so many things in the world right now that are trying to tell people what they are or trying to define someone,” he says. “It’s about taking back your own definition, whether that’s from someone who is putting a perception on you versus an audience that will never truly know you.”
“I think something that I have struggled with for such a long time since this band has had any sort of notoriety was really figuring out who I am as the person outside of this, or within it at the core of it,” he says. The significance of recognizing the crucial takeaways of each part of your identity is what Feeling Not Found is all about.
“The real story underneath the record is taking back that identity and grabbing it fully in your hands and the reconnection of the analog self. Not the perceived self, not the digital self, not anything like that,” Heagy continues. “This record has been such a cathartic experience, but it’s been the one that really redefined or helped restore the definition of the identity that I have as a writer, as a songwriter, as a performer.”
The D.C.-based duo have championed themselves as genre-bending artists that put an emphasis on their creative identity and expression. Feeling Not Found left them feeling like it was the first time they hadn’t felt pressure to sound a certain way. “I don’t really feel a weight anymore of thinking about policing one specific person, group or power in the music industry,” Heagy says. “It feels a lot more like Origami Angel, and I think that’s a really refreshing thing to feel as an artist.”
Their records feel like parts of one big puzzle, with each individual song taking the role of a single piece that completes the bigger picture. With their first two LPs, Somewhere City and GAMI GANG, the band put extra thought into where each song ended up. “‘666 Flags’ felt very goofy and like a left field turn when I only had the beginning worked out, which felt very GAMI GANG.” Heagy says that once he “wrote the back half of that track, it ended up being very triumphant and self-fulfilling and that’s when it started to feel more like a Somewhere City song.”
“We owe the listener a cohesive experience. We owe ourselves to make something that fits together,” he continues. “I never wanna just throw something together because we could. I don’t wanna be the type of band that just has a bunch of songs on a record. I want it to have a purpose because that gives weight to all the songs instead of just one or two.”
To read the complete interview, read the full issue online or purchase a print copy while supplies last.
Keep up with Origami Angel: Instagram // TikTok // Facebook // X // Spotify // YouTube // Website
