Pasted: A New Digital Collage App By The Shins’ James Mercer

Frontman James Mercer's latest project is a digital collage app called Pasted.

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From the band that Natalie Portman says will change your life, there’s a new app that could change your social media feed. James Mercer, frontman of The Shins, has joined the tech world with Pasted, a suitably indie offering that lets you create digital collages on your phone.

Mercer, who’s an avid Instagram user, went searching through the App Store for a collage maker to help mix up his posts a little and couldn’t find a good one. There are loads of Instagram-optimized apps that let you combine several images in one square frame, but Mercer wanted to create an image with a more analog feel. He was after the sort of collage you’d make zine-style with cut up magazines and glue.

This is how the idea for Pasted came about. Mercer worked with Zeke Howard and Ben Fogerty, of the digital agency The Brigade to make his collage dreams come true.

“We love the look of handmade collages. The style is both artistic and the type of thing you might see in an old yearbook,” says Mercer. “Pasted was designed to bring that open-ended, playful approach to your phone or tablet.”

The premise is simple. Using basic image recognition technology, the app helps users automatically select cut-outs from their images. You can digitally cut up your photos as much as you like, adding filters, stickers, backgrounds, and other effects. It’s basically a digital scrapbook page.

Mercer’s already used Pasted to create some images for The Shins, who are just starting their first tour in a while, promoting their new album Heartworms. Mercer hopes other bands will use Pasted the same way. “I would love to see bands able to do things on the fly when they’re on tour,” he says.

Learn more about Pasted and download the app for free here.

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