St. Paul

About St. Paul

St. Paul sits in that strange pocket of indie rock where the guitars sound expensive but the production feels purposefully unfinished. The band emerged from Philadelphia's DIY scene in the mid-2010s, playing basements and small venues where the PA was always slightly broken. They started as a three-piece — Colin McGranaghan on vocals and guitar, Jake Roche on bass, and drummer Mike Cammarata — though the lineup would shift around the edges over the years.

Their early recordings had that lo-fi cassette quality that either sounds timeless or dated depending on your tolerance for tape hiss. The self-titled EP from 2014 got passed around on Bandcamp, mostly because "Automatic Doors" had this hypnotic quality that made it perfect for late-night drives when you're too tired to think clearly. McGranaghan's voice does this thing where it sounds like he's singing from the next room, which shouldn't work but does.

The breakthrough, if you can call it that for a band that never exactly broke through, came with "Same Life" in 2016. The album got picked up by Exploding In Sound Records, which gave them enough distribution to reach beyond the Philly scene. Songs like "Silver Whites" and "Half Gram" showed they could write proper hooks when they wanted to, even if they buried them under layers of reverb and feedback. The guitars jangled in that classic indie rock way, but there was something slightly off-kilter about the rhythms that kept it from feeling retro.

They followed up with "Good Feeling" in 2018, which saw them tightening up the sound without losing the hazy quality that made them interesting in the first place. The production was cleaner but still felt lived-in, like a house that's been renovated but keeps the original floors. "Anything You Want" became something of a cult favorite, at least among the kind of people who still buy vinyl and argue about recording techniques.

What's notable about St. Paul is how they've managed to exist in that space between underground and mainstream without seeming particularly bothered by either designation. They tour regularly but not relentlessly. They release music when they have something to say. There's no grand narrative arc or reinvention between albums, just incremental shifts in approach and tone.

As of now, they're still active, still based in Philadelphia, still making the kind of guitar music that sounds simple until you try to figure out what's actually happening in the arrangements. They're not chasing trends or trying to recapture any particular moment. They're just doing their thing, which in 2025 feels almost radical in its lack of ambition to be anything other than what they are.

Small venue shows with engaged local crowds. He commands the stage competently without excessive energy—the focus stays on lyrics and flow. Audiences tend to be hip-hop heads who know his catalog rather than casual listeners.

Known for Breathe, Cooler Than Me, The Runner, Overnight, Moving On

See St. Paul Live