After signing with Wonderlick Recording and Sony Music in a joint venture as well as Nettwerk in North America, The Paper Kites are launching their debut album, States, into the arms of both those regions but as front man Sam Bentley admits, the album was certainly not a walk in the park. Yeah, people got mad, but they still love each other.
“It actually ended up being a pretty difficult record to make I think. It was the first time we didn’t all agree on the styles. It was really unusual for us because we’re always on the same page so, um, yeah…” Bentley trails off, wanting to openly talk about the creative process but also quite clearly not wanting a few arguments to be misconstrued as some monstrous battle. “There were a lot of heated discussions about the songs that ended up on there,” he finally says continuing. “Even now with the finished product there are still songs that some people are not that stoked with being on there and other people would be upset of they weren’t on there. It’s not that it’s a divided album but I think what happened with this record was that, especially when you’re working with five opinionated people, everyone was in their own musical bubble and had different opinions on what they saw as great music. When you bring an idea into that that doesn’t sit well with their idea then it’s always going to be a recipe for a heated discussion.”
With Bentley the primary songwriter he spent some time holed-up in regional Victoria creating the tracks for States. He laughs at the suggestion that he was able to pull rank as the initial creator of most of the music and assures that the process was democratic, even if slightly hostile. “It’s really difficult because it really is the five of us in the band and everyone’s opinion is respected. But I guess the writer can always say ‘I wrote this song so I get the say’ but we didn’t want to work like that so we discussed it all at length and it really is draining to do it like that,” he says. “Even doing it that way you can never have a result that makes everyone happy.”
Only time will tell whether the choices the band made were the right ones (commercially at least) but when we speak the video for their first single, St. Clarity had hit the internet and the early response looks positive – even if it was mostly the support of friends. “I woke up this morning and I’ve been getting all these text messages from friends about the video so it’s been pretty full on,” he says. “It’s only just beginning to hit really though and it’s going to be a busy few months.”
It’s something the band are used to though, and despite the fact they’ve had a song on Grey’s Anatomy, consistent plays on YouTube and were recently personally invited by Dallas Green to join City & Colour on their US tour, Bentley still feels like their success has been an organic and slow moving journey. “People were just passing around our stuff and telling their friends about it,” he says. “In this era you might think that internet stuff mightn’t translate anymore but I think in our situation, it really did. We have the digital realm to thank for the rooms that started to fill as we started to play more and more.”
But was this a case of genuine word of mouth taking them offshore or did things like the Grey’s appearance spur on the internet momentum? “I think the views were there first,” he says. “It wasn’t a case of ‘oh yeah that song is on that TV show’ and that’s why we got noticed. Because people were talking about us we made our way to the people that make those decisions and because they noticed people were already paying attention to us that’s we got those opportunities. So yeah, we’ve been pretty lucky.”
While Bentley also agrees that the indie-folk scene in Australia is bursting at the seams and apart from getting attention overseas; he believes their approach to songwriting manages to set them apart. “There are definitely a lot of people in the scene and that’s a problem,” he says. “It’s not that we’ve intentionally tried to avoid that but I do think that the industry, particularly in Australia, is very stuck in the idea of what’s hot and what’s not. We try to write stuff that’s not really gonna fit into those categories. I think there’s always going to be a place for the singer/songwriters doing their thing though. And if it’s stuff that people connect with then there’s always going to be a place for you and I guess that’s what’s been the common factor for our music; people really get something out of it.”
Produced by Wayne Connolly (whose production credits are too overwhelming and vast to list), States has taken to group into a new territory with regard to sonic diversity. How these sounds will come to life on this upcoming tour is another concern for Bentley. “It’s gonna be interesting because we’re dealing with sounds we never have before,” he says. “It’s always a task to translate it live and we’re really going to be working on that. It’s a really exciting process as well. We want the live shows to be true to the sound of the album but I have no idea how we’re going to do that.”
The next few months (and probably beyond) is looking like a hive of activity for The Paper Kites. While they’re busy preparing to release their album here, the US is still being introduced to their earlier EPs so States will take a little while longer to reach them. “We’ve got the label overseas and they’re a really great team and have their own plans to release the album over there eventually,” he says. “We’re doing the City & Colour tour and then a few of our own shows but they’re a little bit behind us over there.”
The connection the band has managed to establish with their audience has never been driven by market concerns or strategy. They might be becoming slowly aware of what works and what doesn’t, but it doesn’t dictate how they create their music. With a debut album there is the obvious concern of broadening your audience but keeping those that have been with you every step of the way is another delicate balance. Enjoying an album is such a ludicrously subjective undertaking that it seems futile to try and quantify it so smiling faces through the stage lights is really a band’s best measure. “We worked with Tim Coghill who’s a young Melbourne composer and he worked with us on five or six songs. He brought in a lot of wacky ideas and a lot of texture to the songs that we wouldn’t have thought of. He was a really great collaborator but again, that was also yet another reason why some people in the band weren’t comfortable. I think it pushed our soundscapes into a territory we have never been before so it has resulted in a much more complex album. I think no matter what, when it’s your debut album it’s really important that you get it right,” he says. “We’ve never tried to be the band that was the hottest thing and we’re just putting out the stuff that we’re writing and it’s a progression of the sound. People are either gonna embrace the sound and really enjoy it or they’re gonna say ‘that’s not the Paper Kites that we know and love’ and they’re gonna hate it. That’s always the risk.”
BY KRISSI WEISS
