About

Folded Paper Hearts is an indie-folk project featuring Kelsey Rodgers, Kenneth Parsons, Andy Andrews, and a rotating group of session musicians.

Across three studio albums, Folded Paper Hearts has blended indie folk, indie pop, alternative rock, and subtle electronic textures to explore trauma bonds, self-medication, recovery, estrangement, and the tension between surviving and truly living.

The debut album, Colors in Chaos, was written entirely during rehab. The songs became a way of processing addiction, damaged relationships, isolation, accountability, and the uncertain beginning of recovery. It established the emotional foundation of Folded Paper Hearts: turning difficult experiences into honest music without pretending that healing is simple or complete.

Released during Halloween, LA LA Circus stepped into a darker, entirely fictional world. The concept album centres on Maribel, a haunted circus doll born beneath a striped red tent whose tragic past transforms her into the Doll Queen. Through eerie carnival sounds, heavy guitars, electronic textures, and interconnected stories, the album invites listeners into a sinister circus where Maribel pulls the strings—and no one leaves unchanged.

Letting It Go! reimagines four songs originally written by Joshua Arran for his former band, The Noisy Crows. Rather than recreating the originals note for note, Folded Paper Hearts reshaped them through its own sound while preserving the emotions and ideas at their centre. The album was created as both an appreciation of The Noisy Crows and a way of giving those songs another life.

The upcoming single, “Chasing Ghosts,” captures the ache of watching everyone around you find somewhere to belong while you’re still searching for your place. It begins a deeply personal new chapter centred on family, regret, recovery, and the fear of being left behind.

Alongside the new music, Skeleton Sessions revisits earlier Folded Paper Hearts songs in a stripped-back, live-acoustic format—removing the layers and placing the lyrics, emotion, and imperfections at the centre.

AI is part of the project’s creative process. Some musical sounds, visuals, fictional stories, skits, and short films are created or enhanced using AI tools. Projects such as LA LA Circus are intentionally fictional, while the personal writing and emotions throughout much of the music come from real experiences.

Songs for the wrecked, the overthinkers, and the survivors. 💜

CHASING GHOSTS

RELEASE DATE JULY 24, 2026

“Chasing Ghosts” (single) came from that painful feeling of looking around and realizing everyone you grew up with seems to have moved on. They’re raising kids, getting married, and building lives while you’re still trying to make peace with where you’ve been.

The song looks back on leaving home young, burning bridges, addiction, strained family relationships, and the years lost along the way. It isn’t about being bitter toward the people who found happiness. It’s about being happy for them while quietly wondering why you still feel so far behind.

At its heart, “Chasing Ghosts” is for anyone who has ever felt like the black sheep—the person still searching for somewhere to belong while everyone else seems to have found their way home.

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BORROWED THREAD

RELEASE DATE MAY 29, 2026

“Borrowed Thread” (single) sounds like a song about depending on another person, but the “you” is really another version of yourself—the one you keep returning to whenever everything begins to fall apart.

The song explores anxiety, unhealthy coping, and trying to heal with the same habits that caused the damage in the first place. You convince yourself you’re getting better, but deep down, you know you’re only hiding the wounds and holding everything together with borrowed thread.

At its heart, “Borrowed Thread” is about becoming dependent on your own survival patterns. Even when you know they aren’t helping, they’re familiar—and sometimes returning to the person you used to be feels easier than finally letting that person go.

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SKELETON SESSIONS

RELEASE DATE MAY 8, 2026

“Skeleton Sessions” (EP) brings six previously released Folded Paper Hearts songs back in stripped-down, reworked arrangements. More than simple acoustic versions, each song has been reshaped to reveal something different beneath the original production.

By removing the heavier layers and changing parts of the arrangements, the lyrics, voices, and imperfections are brought to the front. Some songs feel more vulnerable, while others take on an entirely new meaning.

At its heart, “Skeleton Sessions” is about returning to older songs and discovering what remains when everything is stripped down to the bones.

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THE QUIET DAMAGE

RELEASE DATE FEBRUARY 20, 2026

“The Quiet Damage” (LP) is an 11-song journey through the raw, unsettling reality of life after rehab, balanced on a fine line between darkness and light. While the album has moments of fragile hope, it carries a deep sonic heaviness—using dark, atmospheric weight and brooding production that pulls you under just as the light starts to break through.

This contrast forces the vocals and lyrics completely to the front. The album captures the exhausting daily battle of starting over: facing the dark ghosts of who you used to be, while searching for the light in a silence that still feels incredibly heavy.

At its heart, “The Quiet Damage” is a beautiful, heavy document of survival. It is a record about what remains when you are left alone with yourself, finding the hard-won peace that only comes after carrying the weight of both the dark and the light.

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LETTING IT GO!

RELEASE DATE DECEMBER 5, 2025

"Letting It Go!" (EP) is a tribute to demos written by Joshua Arran for his former band, The Noisy Crows, nearly a decade ago. Rather than allowing those songs to disappear with time, Folded Paper Hearts brought them back, reworking them while keeping the honesty of the original writing intact.

Across five tracks—including an acoustic version of “Speak Up”—the EP explores mental health, heartbreak, emotional isolation, regret, and the difficulty of allowing yourself to be vulnerable. The songs capture people struggling to communicate, protecting themselves from being hurt, and looking back on relationships with a clearer understanding of what went wrong.

At its heart, Letting It Go! is about giving old songs—and the emotions behind them—a place to finally be heard.

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LA LA CIRCUS

RELEASE DATE OCTOBER 28, 2025

"LA LA CIRCUS" (LP) is a seven-song fictional concept album created for Halloween, including two live-acoustic songs. It invites listeners into a haunted carnival filled with obsession, manipulation, captivity, fire, and monsters hiding behind painted smiles.

At the centre of the story is Maribel, a haunted circus doll born beneath a striped red tent. After a childhood of cruelty and the night the circus burned, she becomes the Doll Queen—a ghostly ringmaster controlling the show and everyone trapped inside it.

Featuring Millz, the album combines eerie carnival sounds, electronic textures, theatrical vocals, and some of Folded Paper Hearts’ heaviest guitar riffs. The live-acoustic songs expose a more stripped-down side of the project while remaining part of its dark atmosphere. LA LA CIRCUS is entirely fictional—a Halloween story where Maribel pulls the strings and nobody leaves unchanged.

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DAY NINE

RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 26, 2025

“Day Nine” follows a couple trying to hold their relationship together after losing a baby to miscarriage. What once felt easy between them has become quieter, heavier, and filled with conversations neither of them knows how to begin.

The song captures the complicated pain of congratulating others while privately grieving the future they imagined for themselves. It isn’t jealousy—it’s the ache of being genuinely happy for someone while wondering when, or if, your own turn will come.

As the loss begins to affect their trust, intimacy, and sense of identity, they’re left asking whether love alone will be enough. At its heart, “Day Nine” is about grief shared between two people, the strain it can place on even a strong relationship, and finding the courage to try once more.

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COLORS IN CHAOS

RELEASE DATE FEBRUARY 28, 2025

Colors in Chaos is the 13-song debut album that marked the beginning of Folded Paper Hearts. Written entirely during rehab and recorded in a bedroom, the album captures a period of addiction, damaged relationships, isolation, accountability, and the uncertain beginning of recovery.

The record includes eight original songs, four covers, and one acoustic version. Its sound is best described as “indie chaos”—mixing bouncy guitar licks, anthemic choruses, electric solos, stripped-back moments, and whatever felt right for each song.

It wasn’t created in a professional studio or built around one polished sound. It was made from whatever was available during a difficult chapter, turning confusion and unfinished healing into music. At its heart, Colors in Chaos is where Folded Paper Hearts first found its voice.

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