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Melbourne Indie Folk band, The Paper Kites have released their latest single St. Clarity and will be following it up with a national headline tour. Shortly after, The Paper Kites will be heading over to the US, which will be their first time performing on US soil.
The quintet, Sam Bentley, Christina Lacy, Dave Powys, Sam Rasmussen and Josh Bentley have built up a loyal fan base and incredibly have over six million views on YouTube.
Sam B and Sam R took time out to chat with Music News about their upcoming tour and supporting City and Color in the USA.
Music News - Can you tell me about the early days of The Paper Kites? How did the band form?
Sam B - We don't really have an exciting band forming story; it was really just an experiment to start off with. Christina and I needed to expand our little acoustic duo line up and pulled in our friends. Dave, Sam Rasmussen and myself were all playing in different bands at the time and Christina and I had just been playing around locally, nothing serious. We all knew each other and had seen each other play. As we just needed a few extra players for a show we were doing, we pulled them in and we seemed to get a pretty good response. So it went from there to 'let's try another show' and then 'let's record something' and so on.
Music News - You just released your latest single St Clarity, can you tell me about that?
Sam B - St Clarity is a song about seeing things from an angle you haven't seen it before, and the clarity in finally seeing it that way. We were really keen to release that song first. It's hard when it's such an eclectic sounding record to choose the right song to release, everything you put out pushes a different idea of you to your fans. But we felt like St Clarity had the right vibe, it was a bit dark and a bit moody but wasn't too far from what we've done previously. There's a few songs that people will associate with their current idea of what 'The Paper Kites' sound like, but at the same time there's definitely some left wing tracks in there. It's always good to stretch a few perceptions.
Sam R - St Clarity was a song that we really wanted to release first. It always felt right to us that we share it before the rest of the songs. We also ended up flying a 'bubble artist' from France to feature in the accompanying film clip!
Music News - Which artists have inspired and influenced you?
Sam B - Everyone in the band has their own musical influences that they draw on. I really love Elbow and I love their arrangements and Guy Garvey's voice, I've been listening to a lot of Nick Drake too. But it really depends on the sort of music you want to write and what you want to get across in a song. I think that effects what influences you.
Sam R - We've been really fortunate to tour with some quality acts (Boy & Bear, Josh Pyke, Bombay Bicycle club) and every time we do, we come away inspired to grow our musicality and performances.
Music News - The Paper Kites will be touring Australia throughout August and September and will then head over to the US. This will be your first time performing on US soil. Can you describe what this incredible achievement feels like?
Sam B - Yeah it's pretty exciting to be heading over to the US. Half of us have never been there before so that's cool, we're not sure what to expect. For an Australian band to be opening for City & Colour and playing some of the venues we're playing is huge. But even in Australia some of the venues were doing are the biggest we've played. I think we're all keen to take the new music on the road to new places and bigger places.
Music News - You have build up a loyal fan base and have over six million YouTube views. What do you attribute this success to?
Sam B - There's no one person that's responsible for it I think. Particularly with a platform like YouTube we just place a lot of importance on making interesting videos. The rest is really just people sharing it around. We just try and match up a song with something that visually sits well with it, and isn't just a band playing in a room.
Sam R - It’s certainly really exciting! Most of us haven't even been to the US or Canada before so it will be an exciting couple of months! After supporting City and Colour for a few weeks we will play a string of our own shows.
Music News - What is your favorite thing to see in the audience, when you're on stage?
Sam B - I've seen some strange things from the front. I got contact lenses a while ago and couldn’t see anything; so to be able to see now is great ha-ha. I've seen couples making out, I've seen that really tall guy that should really be standing at the back, I've seen people crying down the front - that's always something interesting to see. I suppose to have people so connected to a song is the ultimate flattery as a writer, so I'm fine with it.
Sam R - It may seem like we are 'seasoned performers' but to be honest, we still get overwhelmed when people turn up to our shows! So to answer you question, our favourite thing is simply having an audience.
Music News- What is next for The Paper Kites?
Sam B - We'll be back in Australia from the US mid November and we'll probably have a bit of a break, but festival season is coming up so we may not be resting that long. There's been talk of a maiden voyage to Europe potentially next year so we'll see.
Sam R - Once we return from overseas we will have a little break before playing a few summer festivals. There will also be some more exciting tour announcements.
View the video for St Clarity here: youtube.com/watch?v=W5nrAHk_x8M
NEW SINGLE | ST CLARITY | AVAILABLE ON ITUNES NOW
NEW ALBUM | STATES | SET FOR RELEASE LATE AUGUST, 2013
NATIONAL TOUR SHOW DATES | ON SALE NOW
www.thepaperkites.com.au
www.facebook.com/thepaperkitesband
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Would Johnny Marr place one of his solo songs ahead of favourites from The Smiths and Electronic? His choices are revealed in NME’s Blind Ranking video below.
Ahead of the release of ‘The Age Of Everything’, which arrived last Friday, October 2, NME sat down with the guitarist for a look back through his catalogue. Marr was challenged to place five songs in order of greatness, choosing a position for each without knowing which song would follow.
Electronic’s ‘Getting Away With It’ came first, with Marr saying it “goes down very very well, even if people are hearing it for the first time”. Next came ‘Spin’, taken from his latest solo album. Reflecting on the newer song, he admitted that “not everybody knows it, but it makes an impression”.
When ‘This Charming Man’ by The Smiths came up, Marr observed: “Obviously it’s very well known, but it goes by so quick.” The track remains a “connection” to his younger self, he explained: “I can hear the young man who wrote those guitar parts”. He described his 2014 solo release ‘Easy Money’ as “pretty catchy”, adding that it “goes off bigger than any other at any gig”. He then considered another much loved Smiths song, ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’.
“Beautiful song to play. Very proud of it still,” Marr reflected. Recalling a recent performance in Liverpool, he added that “it occurred to me that it’s the ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ of my generation.”
See where each song landed in Marr’s ranking by watching the video below, then share your own order in the Instagram comments.
The wider conversation with NME covered his “emphatic” album ‘The Age Of Everything’, his admiration for The Cure and Fontaines D.C., and his thoughts on why Andy Burnham should be able to listen to The Smiths. Read the complete interview with Marr here.
A Liverpool concert on November 14 is next on Marr’s schedule, followed by a brief run of dates with stops in Mexico, São Paulo and Chile. His largest solo headline performance to date at OVO Arena Wembley had been planned for later this month, but has been postponed, with a replacement date yet to be announced.
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