The duo, who were compared to artists as diverse as Lisa Loeb and The Sundays, began building a fanbase by extensive gigging across South Wales and released three EPs on their own My First Record label between 2004 and 2007, each of which met with critical acclaim and garnered positive reviews.

The name chosen was Paper Aeroplanes and they have continued to make music that has been compared to Fleetwood Mac, Suzanne Vega, The Sundays, Marika Hackman and Laura Marling.

Their album The Day We Ran into the Sea, which was released in 2010 and included a number of songs performed live by Halflight, was described by the BBC's Adam Walton as "'pop' music: brilliantly crafted and stoked from a bruised heart's embers".

[5] Paul Kerr, reviewing their 2011 EP A Comfortable Sleep for Fourohfive 405 said "Paper Aeroplanes are an oasis of gravity in a cultural desert of frivolity, of emotion in a cold hearted world.

[14] In November 2017, the band announced on their official Facebook page that "while they don't want to say that Paper Aeroplanes has come to an end", they had no plans to record future music together, with Howells instead choosing to focus on her solo project Bryde.