OFTEN lauded for its strong local ties, Tenement Trail is also proud to showcase a number of acts from much further afield this year with the likes of Milburn, Phoria and Yves appearing throughout the day on Saturday 8th October.
Coming from as far as Australia, indie folk-rock band The Paper Kites will be taking to the stage at Nice N Sleazy on Saturday night before headline act The Bar Dogs, hoping to leave their mark on the festival and depart Glasgow with a whole lot of new fans. As an ardent touring band, the five-piece have a growing following around the world thanks to their vast catalogue of material, impressing fans and critics alike with each release. Constantly evolving and developing their sound, their latest album Twelvefour expanded on their folk stylings with greater genre experimentation and creativity, making for a hypnotic and complex listen. Full of wonderful harmonies, introspective lyricism and warm instrumentation, the band make for an alluring live prospect this coming Saturday.
Currently on a mammoth tour which is taking them all over the world, we caught up with guitarist Dave Powys to discuss their upcoming appearance at Trail and life on the road:
“Yeah we can’t wait, it’ll be our last show of this leg of the tour. It’s been really good so far. We’ve played a few new places and have been back in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. This week has been particularly good, especially Utrecht.”
Given the band have such a loyal following in their native Australia, it is no mean feat to bring your music halfway around the world in front of new crowds, but the five-piece have pulled it off with great aplomb. That’s not to say they haven’t noticed differences in the European crowds though: “In a lot of places, people have been really polite and very well-behaved. Back in Australia, people are having beers, chatting and enjoying hanging out aswell as listening to the music. With a lot of places here, we’ve been attracting crowds who are really attentive and polite. It seems as though they’re not enjoying themselves but then they cheer really loud when you finish a song. Everyone enjoys music in different ways though.”
It sounds as if the band are more than ready to embrace the famous raucous Glasgow atmosphere: “I’m really looking forward to it! We’ll play a bit of a different set because it’s a festival. There will be old stuff and some current stuff from Twelvefour. On this tour we’ve been playing some b-sides aswell, stuff that didn’t make the album. There are some songs that people know that sound a bit different now when we play them live”
And with so many other fantastic bands on the bill, Powys is looking forward to becoming acquainted with a bunch of new artists he’s not heard of before; such is the magic of Tenement Trail: “We haven’t really been thinking in advance but I’m looking forward to getting to the festival and looking around. Before we left for the trip, I had a look at the lineup and to be honest there were heaps of bands I’ve never heard of but they often turn out to be the most memorable parts of festivals, seeing bands you haven’t seen before”.
Of course, with their first release coming out in 2010 and with two albums to their name, The Paper Kites have been about for longer than many of the other artists on the bill. However, they are still constantly developing their sound and are keen to acknowledge this: “I would say it has definitely evolved, but parts of our sound don’t change. On the last album we had more guitars, more electronics… bigger soundscapes”
“We’ve been touring the last album for quite a while now so some of the songs have changed over time and been expanded to make them more fun for us to play, and more interesting to hear. A few songs have definitely taken a detour. Electric Indigo is always good to play live”
Their most recent record Twelvefour came out in August 2015, and was well-received by fans and critics alike, who praised the band’s inventive style and new sound developments. But is there anything new on the horizon? “We’re not really a band to write on the road. We’ve got more touring to do before we get back home and will be heading to North America before the end of the year. We’ve then got the last bit of the tour through January and February so we’ll have time off after that and new material should happen in the next year”
Check out the band’s recent single ‘Renegade’ and catch them at Nice N Sleazy at 8:30pm:
