Daryl Shawn: guitar, drums, bass, backing vocals
Blake Lehmann: bass, guitar, lead and backing vocals
Douglas Witmer: lead and backing vocals, drums, guitar
Heidi Krug: drums and keyboards
Doug and Daryl met in high school gym class in 1987. One weekend that October, when Doug's folks were out of town, Daryl brought over a carload of gear (a borrowed Harmony electric guitar and huge 2x12 Music Man amp, and his green sparkle Ludwig drum kit, sunburst acoustic, lyric book and cheap boombox) and they spent the whole time making music. There didn't seem to be a need for discussion about what to do; Doug sat at the drumkit while Daryl manned the Harmony, they switched off, Doug wrote melodies for Daryl's lyrics, they improvised freely and recorded everything. There seemed to be no question that they would form a band.
Daryl and Doug started out with a sometime bassist named Eric, and a second guitarist nemed Steve. Sadly, Steve's overprotective mother issued a ban on him riding in a car driven by anyone other than herself, which made rehearsals and recording extremely inconvenient. He had to leave the band after a short time, but provided some great playing on their first recordings. Enter bassist Blake. Daryl knew him from junior high. In Blake was a grand slam...a bassist, a vocalist, a guitarist, AND he had a rehearsal space. The nucleus of Landscape Paperweight was formed.
Daryl met Heidi in the cafeteria one day, and asked her to be the drummer immediately upon finding out that she not only could play drums, but owned a Yamaha DX7, which seemed to be a badge of authenticity. She ended up playing both keyboards and drums, and in fact, everyone ended up playing nearly every instrument at one time or other.
They produced our first two recordings on cassette four-track, and sold many copies to friends. For their third album, they decided to invest some money and recorded part of it at an eight-track cassette studio...in the end, the four-tracks sounded better.
In the spring of 1989, their song "Platform 12" got airplay on Franklin and Marshall College's student radio station. The band was subsequently invited to play at "That There Art" an alternative art happening in an old warehouse in downtown Lancaster, PA. Landscape Paperweight performed a tight set of originals and covers including the Violent Femmes' "Hallowed Ground" to a packed room of college hipsters.
Later that summer they rented out a pavilion in a park and put on their own show (in true DIY fashion, not that they'd have known what that meant. Self-help books?). The stage set featured a park bench and newspaper, whereupon the ever-melodramatic Doug sat and read onstage during instrumental passages. The pavilion was packed, and the band played almost every song it knew. This was the band's last performance.
Doug eventually made his way to Philadelphia. Daryl, Blake, and Heidi all ended up for various periods of time in San Francisco by way of Ithaca, Boston, and who-knows-where-else. All stayed involved with various musical projects. In the fall of 2004, Daryl moved to Oaxaca Mexico. That same fall in Philadelphia, Doug spotted an oddly familiar face at a Mark Eitzel show. It was Blake! He had recently moved to the city. They hadn't seen each other since 1989.
In August of 2007, Daryl, Doug, and Blake reunited in Philadelphia to hang out and reminisce. No music was made, but the friendship was rekindled. Doug and Blake remembered they were born on the same day.
In June of 2008, Blake used his detective skills and tracked down Heidi, who now lives near Harrisburg PA.
After nearly 20 years since playing together, Landscape Paperweight will perform at Philadelphia's "The Fire" on July 9, 2008. They'll play old and new originals and a few select covers. They will be joined by guest drummer Alec Meltzer.
