The Paper Kites harmonies soar On the Corner Where You Live
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:00:33 +0000
When: Sept. 15, 6 p.m.
Where: Vogue Theatre, 918 Granville
Tickets and info: From $19.99 at eventbrite.ca or westwardfest.com
On the Corner Where You Live is the latest album to come from Australian indie-folk quintet the Paper Kites. Formed in 2010 in the vibrant Melbourne music scene, the group of Sam Bentley, Christina Lacy, Dave Powys, Josh Bentley and Sam Rasmussen has seen its easy grooving songs gain an international fan base. Signed to Vancouver’s Nettwerk Music Group, the band has reportedly almost 47 million combined YouTube views. The breakout 2011 hit Bloom has almost 23 million views alone.
Pretty impressive for a band from a place universally recognized for its hard-rocking, more-cowbell music.
“There is so much music out here at the moment and it’s really cool to see people in North America getting turned onto the full range of Australian bands,” says singer Sam Bentley. “Courtney Barnett is killing it, the King Lizard guys are unstoppable and up-and-coming people in the Melbourne singer-songwriter scene we came out of are starting to get known too. It’s a really good time to be making music here now.”
The new album was conceived in an altogether different place. A 57th Avenue hotel room window provided Bentley with the idea of a song cycle around the characters he saw going about their lives in New York’s busy urban landscape. The opening track is even a prologue of sorts to the stories. Titled A Gathering of 57th, it’s a cool minute-and-a-half jazzy interlude that would fit right in on any film noir soundtrack, right down to the breathy final saxophone note. It’s melancholy and sets a tone that carries through the entire album. This isn’t the upbeat, throw down New York City of hip hop or indie punk.
“It wasn’t necessarily New York, it could be any city really,” he said. “The mood was more the one that happens at any subway, any tube station anywhere when you are surrounded by people who are totally immersed in their own day and lives or what you get fleeting glimpses of when you are walking around and see something through a window incidentally. It’s interesting to watch, it’s introspective and took that concept and tried to write something that would really bring people into the late night sound I was hearing in my head.”
Bentley says people go to bands that cater to how they are feeling and he’s pretty sure that the Paper Kites’ fan base comes to the music with a very personal and individual impression. It’s reinforced in the back and forth on social media the band has with listeners and when the group performs. Where some of the earlier material might have had a toned-down singalong flavour like the Lumineers, nothing on On the Corner Where You Live or its predecessor On the Train Ride Home are like that. Curiously, the two albums are companion pieces that were intended to be a double record but nobody really drops those anymore due to the financial realities.
“There were so many songs that were coming out that revolved around that them of solitary observation, that it made sense to do it in two parts,” he said. “One was more acoustic, one more band, or something like that. They do cater to a similar kind of mood.”
One of the most beautiful tunes that the group has ever recorded turns up on the new album. Deep Burn Blue is a lovely melody embellished with some sublime multi-part harmonies that recall Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. The song has become a fan favourite, but the singer admits it had to work to curry favour with the band.
“Honestly, that song was sitting on the outs and almost didn’t make the record,” he said. “We had a very hard time getting it right in the studio because it was very difficult making it not drag. But when we finally got it, it was perfect to place right after Give Me Your Fire, Give Me Your Rain on the album as the two really kind of set the tone for the rest of the record.”
As stated, that tone is quite introspective. But it is also pretty groovy. For all the mellowness, the album achieves a swinging stroll through its 11 tunes. Bentley says that comes directly from the fact that most of the album was composed using a drum machine, so the rhythm track set the parameters for the rest of the instruments to fill in.
“I was listening to a lot of 80s bands that didn’t really have drummers and just used tracks and it felt right to do it that way,” said Bentley. “It was different from how I usually compose, but starting with a drum groove and building the rest from there made it more a case of what tempo will this be?”
Overall, he says the tempo turned out to be the pace that you come home alone to. He says that it’s a very solitary listening experience and unlikely to be the album you’d flip on at a dinner party and that’s fine. The one place he’s been surprised to hear people say they enjoy playing On the Corner Where You Live is in the car as good driving music.