“You can't teach talent like this … Chase Pagan is that breath of fresh air we've all been waiting for.” So said the Come Pick Me Up music blog. With a quick listen to Chase Pagan’s music—one notices his stylistic range and innate organic sense.

During a collaborative, live session between Memphis and NYC, Chase and his talented friends such as Gretta Cohn (of Cursive) on cello, Neil Gaile on that lovely pedal steel, Matthew Putman (Lovedrug), and others—Oh Musica was done with almost all acoustic instruments. Eerily, part of the Oh Musica recording also went down at a giant warehouse/loft space, which was the birthplace of The Manhattan Project—where from 1942-1946, the first nuclear weapons were masterminded. Yeesh.

Chase Pagan’s still fresh-blooded musical career has already given him insights and hard-luck lessons akin to what many artists have experienced, subsequently inspiring creativity and poise. Pagan wrote and recorded a record which was to be released by Geffen Records in 2004, but was eventually ignored by the label. Working with Ross Robinson (The Cure, etc.) for a solid three months in vain, Chase walked away from the experience with a conviction to evade the more-nonsensical major label stratagems and shortcomings—to record and release his music his way. Pagan’s debut record, Oh Musica, was completed in a mere two weeks, with a budget of $5,000 as opposed to close to $240,000.

The Daily Utah Chronicle had this to say about Chase Pagan: “Spilling an urban romanticism over organic country-rock rhythms and down-home acoustics, Pagan bridges the great divide between … Thom Yorke, and broken-pick-up-truck preachers like the enigmatic Devendra Banhart.”