Josh Bentley - The Paper Kites (28/08/2014)
Performing a set at the Dungog Festival this weekend, we chat with Josh Bentley of The Paper Kites.
Hi Josh, where are you at the moment?
I’m just at home in Melbourne; I’ve kind of got a day off. I’ve got uni later this afternoon, so I’m just doing a couple of interviews.
I guess you’ve got more time to relax now, after finishing up the tour last month.
Yeah we do, it’s nice to be home. Like you said, we’ve been touring for the last 2-3 months on and off, which has been great. We’ve had a really good time on tour but it’s nice to be home and back into the melodies of life.
What have you been up to since you’ve been back in Melbourne?
We’ve just taken a time out to catch up with family and friends and be at home. Sam, our lead singer, has actually jumped back into the creative writing zone, so he’s been busily writing away, writing some new songs, hopefully for our album number two, which may or may not come out next year; depending on how well the writing goes. He does the majority of our writing and he’s taken the time out to relax a bit and delve back into the home studio and come up with some new stuff; that’s really exciting for the band and for him as well. The rest of us have just been working our day jobs and getting back into life. We’ve got a few shows coming up so we’ll be starting to plan for them pretty soon, which is pretty cool.
Sam’s the only one doing the writing at the moment? Is that how it’s always been?
Yeah, he’s the brains behind most of our song writing, our lyrics and that sort of stuff. He’ll bring a rough shell to the band, and the rest of us will jump in; me being the drummer, I’ll jump in with percussion or drum beats behind that, and every other member of the band will come in with their own sort of flavour and flare to add to that. Sam’s does the majority of the writing at the moment. This time though, we’re mixing it up a bit, Dave and Christina will probably have a hand in some of the writing which is cool, they’re bringing a bit of a different angle. Bringing someone else’s personal experience to the writing should be cool. But Sam has kicked it off; he’s started the ball rolling.
Have you got any specific direction that you want to go with this album?
To be honest, no, we haven’t actually sat down as a band and got to that point yet. Sam and the rest of us are just writing stuff and listening to stuff that we really enjoy. We’re not really sure what genre or musical direction this next album will take. It’ll all come out in due time, but at the moment we haven’t sat down as a band and said, “This is the direction we want to head, this is where we’re going”. To be honest we haven’t really done that in the past either, we’ve just written music that we love; stuff that we really enjoy playing and listen back to and think that our fans will enjoy too and jump on board. But yeah, we haven’t had that discussion yet, I’m sure that it’ll happen in due time.
Is this the first time since States that you’re making new songs?
It is the first time; it’s probably been over a year since we’ve written any new material or even thought about writing some new stuff. We’ve been touring States for the last year or so, so we’ve come to that point now. States isn’t done yet, we still love the songs and we still love playing them live we’d be happy to tour it again, but we’ve come that point in our career where we’re like, “Maybe it’s time to write some new stuff and start thinking about album number two, to follow up states”. So no, we haven’t written any new stuff, this is the first that we’ve written since States so that’s exciting.
What’ve you been doing over the last year to mix it up when playing live?
We’ve tried to mix it up a bit; we’ve toured States twice in both Australia and the US and both times have been different for us. In the last Australian and American tours we completely changed up the set; we obviously played a lot of the songs off States, but we tried to include a few of our older tracks from our older EPs, so our last tour took shape around an even spread of songs from each EP and album; a few from States, and a few from our EPs Young North and Woodlands, which was cool. We were going through all of our material and thinking of a really cool set the fans, and also our news fans would really enjoy. On our last tour we tried to do that, we involved a few more songs, a few more musical interludes as well, which was to keep it fresh, keep it different, keep people on their toes; which was something that we tried to do. All of the production behind it as well, the lighting plays a big role at our larger shows so we toured with our own lighting guy. The look and feel of the shows was hopefully much different to that of the first time we toured around.
How do you think the fans in different areas are reacting to different albums and EPS? Do you have fans in the USA that like your older stuff as well?
Definitely, it’s a little bit different being overseas because CDs and albums haven’t been released in certain parts or at certain times, so it’s kind of hard to keep up with what’s going on in different parts of the world. In Australia, it is what it is; we release it and it’s out and it’s done and we know that, we’re in Australia, so we can see it and we can feel it. In America it’s a bit different for us, we have a label over there releasing albums at different times and in different ways, so when we went over to the states, they released our two EPs in a box-set, which is different for us. They got two CDs for the price of one, which is cool for them. When we went over to the states the first time, a lot of fans were really into Bloom and our earlier EP sort of stuff. It was really cool to have fans come along, wanting to hear those songs, and we played most of those songs as well. A lot the fans hadn’t heard States yet, I think it just came out when we arrived in America. Going back for a second time was really cool because we got to play a lot more of our States tracks and people were like “That song, I know it now”. It’s a little bit different, you’ve just got to keep that in the back of your mind when touring, who’s heard the album and who hasn’t, how long they’ve been hearing it for, what songs we reckon they really like out of the different EPs and albums; It’s definitely something to take into account when we’re touring, especially overseas.
Do you think that supporting City and Colour was important to your success in the states?
Yeah definitely, that was a big help for us, and also a really big learning curve while touring with the band. City and Colour was awesome, their production, their professionalism, their musicianship was just amazing to watch each night, so we learnt a lot on that tour. We also hopefully captured a new fan base, and having gone over for the second time, there were fans that came up to us and said “we saw you at City and Colour, we really enjoyed your stuff, we thought we’d come along this time and check you guys out and support you.”
What have you got planned for the future, in terms of touring?
Not too sure at the moment, like I mentioned before, we’re going to focus on a new album and some new material before we hit the road again. That’s in Australia at least, internationally it’s a little bit different for us, we haven’t got any of our music released in Europe yet, which we’re looking to do, and possibly Asia. We went to Asia for the first time about two months ago, for a one-stop festival. It was mind-blowing to see fans over there, and to see how they reacted to us being there for a large set, that got some attention that we didn’t think we’d get, so we’re almost thinking about going back to Asia, and then hopefully New Zealand as well; but again, that’s not locked in, there’s still a few things. There’s a bit of touring hopefully coming up before the end of the year, but for the band, for us personally, we’re locking down at the moment and thinking about album number two and trying to get some stuff happening for that.
You’re doing Dungog festival at the end of August, have you ever done a rural arts festival like it before?
No, we haven’t, so we’re really looking forward to getting out there. From what I hear it’s a really cool vibe, the food and wine is a big part of that festival, and the region it’s in is really cool. We’ve never played in a high school hall before so that’d be really fun and something for the other bands, we’ve never done this before. It’s only a weekend, so it’d be good to fly up to Sydney and Dungog and
hang out and really enjoy that time over there, so we’re really looking forward to it, we’re having a few practises in the next couple of weeks and gearing up for that.
Cameron D’Antone
Hi Josh, where are you at the moment?
I’m just at home in Melbourne; I’ve kind of got a day off. I’ve got uni later this afternoon, so I’m just doing a couple of interviews.
I guess you’ve got more time to relax now, after finishing up the tour last month.
Yeah we do, it’s nice to be home. Like you said, we’ve been touring for the last 2-3 months on and off, which has been great. We’ve had a really good time on tour but it’s nice to be home and back into the melodies of life.
What have you been up to since you’ve been back in Melbourne?
We’ve just taken a time out to catch up with family and friends and be at home. Sam, our lead singer, has actually jumped back into the creative writing zone, so he’s been busily writing away, writing some new songs, hopefully for our album number two, which may or may not come out next year; depending on how well the writing goes. He does the majority of our writing and he’s taken the time out to relax a bit and delve back into the home studio and come up with some new stuff; that’s really exciting for the band and for him as well. The rest of us have just been working our day jobs and getting back into life. We’ve got a few shows coming up so we’ll be starting to plan for them pretty soon, which is pretty cool.
Sam’s the only one doing the writing at the moment? Is that how it’s always been?
Yeah, he’s the brains behind most of our song writing, our lyrics and that sort of stuff. He’ll bring a rough shell to the band, and the rest of us will jump in; me being the drummer, I’ll jump in with percussion or drum beats behind that, and every other member of the band will come in with their own sort of flavour and flare to add to that. Sam’s does the majority of the writing at the moment. This time though, we’re mixing it up a bit, Dave and Christina will probably have a hand in some of the writing which is cool, they’re bringing a bit of a different angle. Bringing someone else’s personal experience to the writing should be cool. But Sam has kicked it off; he’s started the ball rolling.
Have you got any specific direction that you want to go with this album?
To be honest, no, we haven’t actually sat down as a band and got to that point yet. Sam and the rest of us are just writing stuff and listening to stuff that we really enjoy. We’re not really sure what genre or musical direction this next album will take. It’ll all come out in due time, but at the moment we haven’t sat down as a band and said, “This is the direction we want to head, this is where we’re going”. To be honest we haven’t really done that in the past either, we’ve just written music that we love; stuff that we really enjoy playing and listen back to and think that our fans will enjoy too and jump on board. But yeah, we haven’t had that discussion yet, I’m sure that it’ll happen in due time.
Is this the first time since States that you’re making new songs?
It is the first time; it’s probably been over a year since we’ve written any new material or even thought about writing some new stuff. We’ve been touring States for the last year or so, so we’ve come to that point now. States isn’t done yet, we still love the songs and we still love playing them live we’d be happy to tour it again, but we’ve come that point in our career where we’re like, “Maybe it’s time to write some new stuff and start thinking about album number two, to follow up states”. So no, we haven’t written any new stuff, this is the first that we’ve written since States so that’s exciting.
What’ve you been doing over the last year to mix it up when playing live?
We’ve tried to mix it up a bit; we’ve toured States twice in both Australia and the US and both times have been different for us. In the last Australian and American tours we completely changed up the set; we obviously played a lot of the songs off States, but we tried to include a few of our older tracks from our older EPs, so our last tour took shape around an even spread of songs from each EP and album; a few from States, and a few from our EPs Young North and Woodlands, which was cool. We were going through all of our material and thinking of a really cool set the fans, and also our news fans would really enjoy. On our last tour we tried to do that, we involved a few more songs, a few more musical interludes as well, which was to keep it fresh, keep it different, keep people on their toes; which was something that we tried to do. All of the production behind it as well, the lighting plays a big role at our larger shows so we toured with our own lighting guy. The look and feel of the shows was hopefully much different to that of the first time we toured around.
How do you think the fans in different areas are reacting to different albums and EPS? Do you have fans in the USA that like your older stuff as well?
Definitely, it’s a little bit different being overseas because CDs and albums haven’t been released in certain parts or at certain times, so it’s kind of hard to keep up with what’s going on in different parts of the world. In Australia, it is what it is; we release it and it’s out and it’s done and we know that, we’re in Australia, so we can see it and we can feel it. In America it’s a bit different for us, we have a label over there releasing albums at different times and in different ways, so when we went over to the states, they released our two EPs in a box-set, which is different for us. They got two CDs for the price of one, which is cool for them. When we went over to the states the first time, a lot of fans were really into Bloom and our earlier EP sort of stuff. It was really cool to have fans come along, wanting to hear those songs, and we played most of those songs as well. A lot the fans hadn’t heard States yet, I think it just came out when we arrived in America. Going back for a second time was really cool because we got to play a lot more of our States tracks and people were like “That song, I know it now”. It’s a little bit different, you’ve just got to keep that in the back of your mind when touring, who’s heard the album and who hasn’t, how long they’ve been hearing it for, what songs we reckon they really like out of the different EPs and albums; It’s definitely something to take into account when we’re touring, especially overseas.
Do you think that supporting City and Colour was important to your success in the states?
Yeah definitely, that was a big help for us, and also a really big learning curve while touring with the band. City and Colour was awesome, their production, their professionalism, their musicianship was just amazing to watch each night, so we learnt a lot on that tour. We also hopefully captured a new fan base, and having gone over for the second time, there were fans that came up to us and said “we saw you at City and Colour, we really enjoyed your stuff, we thought we’d come along this time and check you guys out and support you.”
What have you got planned for the future, in terms of touring?
Not too sure at the moment, like I mentioned before, we’re going to focus on a new album and some new material before we hit the road again. That’s in Australia at least, internationally it’s a little bit different for us, we haven’t got any of our music released in Europe yet, which we’re looking to do, and possibly Asia. We went to Asia for the first time about two months ago, for a one-stop festival. It was mind-blowing to see fans over there, and to see how they reacted to us being there for a large set, that got some attention that we didn’t think we’d get, so we’re almost thinking about going back to Asia, and then hopefully New Zealand as well; but again, that’s not locked in, there’s still a few things. There’s a bit of touring hopefully coming up before the end of the year, but for the band, for us personally, we’re locking down at the moment and thinking about album number two and trying to get some stuff happening for that.
You’re doing Dungog festival at the end of August, have you ever done a rural arts festival like it before?
No, we haven’t, so we’re really looking forward to getting out there. From what I hear it’s a really cool vibe, the food and wine is a big part of that festival, and the region it’s in is really cool. We’ve never played in a high school hall before so that’d be really fun and something for the other bands, we’ve never done this before. It’s only a weekend, so it’d be good to fly up to Sydney and Dungog and
hang out and really enjoy that time over there, so we’re really looking forward to it, we’re having a few practises in the next couple of weeks and gearing up for that.
Cameron D’Antone