Jason Quever, the songwriter who goes by the moniker Papercuts, openly admits to falling for the weird, wacky and wonderful world of The Twilight Zone when creating his latest long player, this past spring's You Can Have What You Want.

The San Franciscan, apparently addicted to 1950s and 60s episodes of the fabled TV series, let the eerie, unnerving nature of the shows dip into his songwriting, which ultimately influenced the finished product presented in his third solo effort.

The Twilight Zone, whose remakes have never matched up to the original black-and-white series, created plot lines from dreams and allegories, to tempt the viewer into better understanding their senses, through the otherworldly or simply absurd. Stories ranged from alien abductions to haunted houses, but instead of pandering to the horror genre and filling each episode with gore and obscene images, The Twilight Zone was the first to attack the subconscious, preferring to scare the mind over the body.

When listening to You Can Have What You Want, an odd title considering the circumstances that influenced it, one can sense a bit of The Twilight Zone aesthetic in Quever's complex, ethereal drawl. Here, the songs are part of the story, one built on creating a mood above anything else, and one that explores some of the darker elements in San Franciscan weird-folk and alt pop. "Musically, I wanted to explore drone like, dream like, layered music, which was the concept before trying to record them properly," reveals Quever. "I came across this type of idea while making four-track demos, and further explored it here. Plus, lyrically I love the lonely, sci-fi theme, similar to those Twilight Zone episodes."

Quever has one of those ragtag, itinerant back-stories that sound constructed for the sole purpose of buttressing press releases. Born on a religious commune in rural California, Quever was orphaned as a teenager and hit the road, eventually ending up in San Francisco, recording with the anti-folk crowd frequented by Devendra Banhart and Vetiver.

Recording under the moniker of Papercuts since 2001, Quever has since recorded alongside Cass McCombs, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and The Skygreen Leopards, in addition to his three solo outfits, all of which are recorded in his own time, at his home-built studio. "I recorded the album in August 2008 at my home studio," explains Quever. "I did it that way so I would not be confined to hours and methods of someone else. Still, I wanted to finish it rather quickly so it would not sound too labored over. As such, I made a mastering date at the end of the month, which meant I really couldn't second guess things too much because of the time constraints."

And the resulting ten songs revel in both Quever’s openly sci-fi influences, but also the quickness in which he chose to record them. A relaxed charm overrides the record, as each song sounds comforting, as swaths of reverb lilt over acoustic strums, moving from light shoegaze to alternative folk or even dusty, contemporary blues. It is, as a whole, a relatively quiet record, one best enjoyed with an open fire and a glass of red wine, but in doing so it keeps a sense of electricity, one that lifts the whole collection above other like-minded contemporaries. The songs do ebb and flow through each other, but simultaneously assert themselves, especially with the opener 'Once We Walked In The Sunlight' and languid think piece 'Dead Love'. "I write a lot of songs and throw away most, besides the ones I feel can be some sort of aesthetic statement while still containing strong melodic and lyrical content as well," adds Quever. "I don't put anything on a record that I don't think could be a decent song with all the instruments stripped away to an acoustic guitar and one vocal. Still, if I could go back to the record, I would have recorded some of the songs more up-tempo, like we play them live now. The band has added a lot of energy to the songs since we've been playing them live, it would be nice if we could have had the perspective when the songs were brand new, but that's how it goes. Fortunately, it fits the theme of the record to be somewhat subdued; that was sort of the point of this one."

Yet, while You Can Have You Want is more of a quiescent gem harking back to the eerie and wonderful world of The Twilight Zone, in the live setting, Papercuts is a different beast altogether, a more electric incarnation and jolts the more subdued theme on record. "When you see us live, all we can wish is that we're enjoying ourselves, and projecting that enjoyment to the audience. The songs are much louder and electric live, plus there's a full band, so it will be a completely different experience to the record."

So, in a nutshell, a live Papercuts experience is equally exploratory, but in a different context, or paradigm. Gone is the ode to the Twilight Zone, and in its place is a more modern, contemporary sound, as uniquely invigorating and thought-provoking as ever. "To me, I used to think about themes and different types of sounds, and how they go together, quite a lot. But at some point in time, I realized that both live and in studio, all sounds are particular colours somewhere in my mind. So in both settings, it's important to separate them and find a way to put them together properly, so that the colors, or sounds, don't become redundant."

And this is what Quever has done with You Can Have What You Want. It's a clever experiment in how far pop music can go, and still be gloriously accessible. Best so go see it live, and then pick up a copy of the record.