Caspar Milquetoast began as a pen name for Gillian Pasley, a singer/songwriter from New England with a lifelong love of storytelling. Joining up with a band in Denver (Leah Bertrand on synth; Jordan Oleson on bass; Dave Knodle on lead guitar; Andrew Quinlan on drums), Caspar Milquetoast's songs are short stories in the folk tradition, deftly weaving genres together with new wave synthesizers, country-twang steel, and 90s fuzz pedal anti-solos. For fans of John Prine, Wednesday, or Silver Jews, Caspar Milquetoast sings about people you know and just haven’t met yet.

Their debut EP From The Cheap Seats is about watching other people, as if from the grandstand – the friends who stop coming around, the guilty consciences you can’t relieve, the strangers in passing cars you could have loved under different circumstances. It’s about the balance between agency and passivity; between wanting to be known and just wanting to be admired. It builds to a biting truth: “I thought you knew me / because I’m made up / I’m just someone that I thought you’d like.” Like an angel or an airplane, these songs soar skyward with twinkly Wurlitzer and cosmic pedal steel, and plummet back down to earth with unflinching honesty.