The Paper Kites’ guitarist, Dave Powys, is unpacking after returning from a weekend away. “You’ll have to excuse my lack of video, I’m trying to smash out this unpack before we go to bed,” he says. He’s at home in Melbourne, Australia, where they’ve been largely Covid free after an intense period of lockdown, which Powys seems to have survived very well.

“My wife and I have two kids, but they're young and we haven't had to do any homeschooling. I consider myself pretty lucky,” he says, “It's one thing to have young kids running around and not being able to send them to daycare, but that's fine compared to having to take over the curriculum from a school.”

Ten Years

A child of a different kind is about to fly the nest for Powys and his band, and it seems there are plenty of career milestones to celebrate alongside the end of the Covid lockdown. As The Paper Kites prepare to unleash Roses, their fifth studio album, the Aussie five-piece are also celebrating an impressive ten year anniversary.

The band members have known each other for going on twenty years – except for Sam and Josh, who are cousins, Powys says. Most of them met playing in other bands, but The Paper Kites were formed when lead singer Sam Bentley brought his own songs to the table. “It was just the five of us getting together and playing indie music,” Powys recalls.

Their first two EPs – Young North and Woodland – were very much emblematic of a musical trend pioneered by bands like Bon Iver and The Lumineers, which has since gone slightly out of vogue.

“Initially I think I played electric guitar for one song in the first few shows we did together,” Powys says. “The rest of the show I was playing banjo and mandolin.” He trails off before asking me, “Do you know what a lagerphone is?”

I do not.

“It's an Aussie outback instrument, it's basically a big old stick. Think a piece of two-by-four, but more circular. It has nails or screws through it, almost like a spiked bludgeon, all the way from the middle or the bottom, and stuck onto the nails on either side are beer bottle caps. You hold it in one hand, you have a wooden stick or a bat in the other, and it's a percussion instrument, so you hold it upright like Gandalf's staff, and you bang it on the ground.

“And then you crack it on the side with the bat. I reckon our first 6 months of being a band, we used to lug this lagerphone around and I think I played it in two or three songs. After a bit of travelling, all the bottle caps fell off and we had to retire it,” he concludes, laughing.

Lagerphone or not, ten years is a relatively short period of time for a group to be so prolific and undergo such a sonic transformation. In 2013 (the early days), the band released their staggering 13-track debut album, States.

“We always talk about States being a coming-of-age for the band. It’s too many songs, it’s crazy,” Powys laughs. “Because we were still so young and conflicted about what kind of music we were doing, and what our identity was as a band, we were exploring everything.

“That album has a really broad palette. Because it was our first album, we came out of the gate red hot, and said: ‘this is all the kind of music we can do’.”

Powys stresses that while he can be critical of States, he’s still incredibly proud of the band’s work. “I think each song is important, and I'm glad that they're on there, but I think we've also become more intentional,” he says.

Fusing those classic acoustic indie tropes with sparse, well-placed electric guitar, States quickly gained the group a reputation as the dark horses of indie rock.

But it wasn’t until their sophomore record, twelvefour, that the band properly hit their stride.

Released in 2015 to widespread critical acclaim, twelvefour marks the beginning of the band’s fascination with concept albums and 80s pop. Written by Bentley entirely between the hours of midnight and four AM, it debuted an expansive, sophisticated sound and saw them move further away from indie folk. In contrast to the slow burn of States, twelvefour’s opening track ‘Electric Indigo’ explodes in pops of neon and technically complex guitar work.

“I agree that our sound has changed a lot over the years, but it's never been pushed back on or criticised by any band members. We also didn't have a conversation saying, 'look Mumford & Sons have gone electric, I think we need to go electric as well',” Powys says.

“We wrote music early on with acoustic instruments, and there was a really strong influence of folk and pop music, but as we developed together as a band, and started arranging and writing more, our influence as five artists making that music together changed the course of our sound.”

And then came 2018’s companion albums, On The Train Ride Home and On The Corner Where You Live. Both are inspired by film noir and an Edward Hopper-like preoccupation with looking in on the lives of others, steered by Bentley’s languid vocals and minimalistic phrasing. But they couldn’t be more different in their sonic palettes. On The Train Ride Home is a more refined version of the acoustic elements the band debuted in 2013, and On The Corner Where You Live fuses subtle jazz, Joni Mitchell-type songwriting prowess, and twelvefour’s 80s-inspired power pop ingredients. Each album is beautifully crafted, meant to be digested together but capable of standing alone.

“Sam is really influenced by film, and I think the way he casts a vision is a whole story from start to finish,” Powys says. “And for me, creatively, I really enjoy working in the framework of a theme.

“The full package is what we really like about a concept album. So for this next album, the idea of collaboration and having someone different singing on every track is as important as the colour theme through the album, and the way the videos look. Just producing a whole package and a mood which people can catch and understand and interpret in their own way.

“As lovers of music, at least a few of us have had our lives changed by digesting music that way. And that's not to say that the way we appreciate music is the best way, and everyone needs to adhere to that. It's just so close to our hearts. We want it to be a whole experience for the listener.”

It’s a bit counterintuitive to the way we listen to music in 2021, with the advent of streaming.

“I think we've learned a lot along the way about how the industry has changed the way people digest their music,” Powys nods. “But that's not everyone. Some people only listen to music on YouTube, other people only listen on vinyl and some are still buying cassettes. Everyone's different and everyone listens to, appreciates and remembers music in a different way. I would like to think we can write and have written songs that can stand up on their own, but also compliment each other and make more sense in the context of the whole album.”

Roses

Roses sees the Kites deviating again from the strict path they have been steadfastly walking for the last six years. Each song features a different female artist, handpicked by the band.

“We had toured so much up to that point of deciding what we wanted Roses to be, and we wanted to draw on the insane talent of people who we knew, or people we'd been meeting in our travels,” Powys explains. “So many artists have inspired us, and we wanted them to be a part of the music we're making.

“It wasn’t something we had done before, and being able to release an album with artists that some people may never have heard of is just as powerful to me as if we had ten tracks with famous singers. It's not the star power that's important to us, it really is more an album of appreciation of these different vocalists and artists.

Maro. Rodrigo Simas, 2020

“I think our door has been relatively closed collaboratively, in the past. We haven't had much of a chance to work with other people.”

Did they find it difficult to relinquish the amount of creative control necessary for collaboration?

“This album was so specifically written for the vocalists that we worked with, that to be honest, it wasn't hard,” Powys says. “We were just so excited to hear the final product or the first demo they sent back to us with their vocal.

“It was something that, quite honestly, Sam felt really passionate about doing. It really works for me as well, and I couldn't imagine having any blokes on the album at all,” he says.

The vocalists come from all over the world, ranging from local Australian acts like Ainslie Wills, to Stateside Grammy-winning Americana and bluegrass legend Aoife O’Donovan, and Ireland’s own Rosie Carney.

“Aoife was one of those voices where as soon as I heard the track she sent back, it made so much sense. She starts singing that second verse, and as soon as that voice comes in, it's perfect. That was the goal, to have the accompanying vocal be perfect for the song.”

Rosie Carney. Credit Peter Neill

For Carney’s part, the experience was a dream come true.

“I’ve always been a fan of The Paper Kites. I remember when I was 15, I’d just discovered that weird, deep music side of YouTube,” she recalls. “You know the place you’d spend hours listening to folk song after folk song? That’s where I came across their song ‘Featherstone’. I showed it to my dad and my sister Jasmine, and we’d listen to it all the time.

“When Sam messaged me on Instagram, I definitely freaked out a little bit,” she grins. “Featuring in one of their songs will always be such a pinch-me moment. Other than a zoom call we did for their podcast, I haven’t actually been able to meet them in real life yet. But hopefully when the world finds some kind of normality, we can cry and sing the song we did together on the same stage.”

Stronger Friendships

It’s fitting that Roses will be shared at the end of the band’s first decade. As an album, it synthesizes their distinctive eras, and proves that they’ve reached a new level of contentment with their sound and their dynamic as a band.

“When the band started, it almost felt like accidental success,” says Powys. “Our goal wasn't to be selling out venues or celebrating a ten year anniversary. It was more organic than that, even though I hate to use that word.

“But I think because of all those years of touring, with the five of us crammed into a hotel room, sleeping on the floor, we’ve really settled into a nice understanding of one another – giving each other space and caring for each other when we need it.

“The last few years we've learned to live in each other’s pockets, and be better friends than we've ever been. It's pretty unique. We underestimated how far we would go with this band, and it's reached a nice place, and we have a greater understanding of each other now.”

Listen to Roses below, and check out the band's interviews with the featured artists at thepaperkites.podbean.com