Melbourne indie folk quintet, The Paper Kites have today dropped an endearing video for single one, Electric Indigo from the new record (twelvefour out August 28), alongside an extensive national twelvefour album tour reveal. Set to kick start in Adelaide at The Gov on October 15 the tour will move through to Perth, Margaret River, Castlemaine, Melbourne, Geelong, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra and finishing up in Wollongong on November 8.
Directed by up and coming filmmaker Matthew Cox and the team at Indimax Productions, the video stars actress Laura Brent (The Chronicles Of Narnia, A Few Best Men) and was set at local Melbourne haunt, Dance or Go, a club known for kicking out patrons who are not dancing. The video’s narrative focuses on a struggling writer who heads out for the night in search of various forms of inspiration. Cleverly falling in line with the album concept, the video is themed around the hours after midnight.
Having already garnered the full support of Triple j and a host of community radio stations around the country, Electric Indigo is a glorious taste of what is to come on the new record. Comparable to a warm embrace from an old friend and while exploring a slightly bigger sound for the band, the song is beautifully familiar with intelligent songwriting and exquisite harmonies.
“The album is a concept record, based around a theory that an artist's creative peak is between the hours of midnight and 4am,” explains lead vocalist and songwriter Sam Bentley, who’d been searching for a theme to shape album number two. A passing comment from a friend back in August 2014 delivered the spark. “That idea turned into the heart of the project, so every night I'd sit down when the clock ticked over to midnight and just start writing.” For two sleepless months Sam worked, reversing his sleep patterns and penning thirty songs in his home studio. “I got to the end and thought, I'm never doing that again,” Sam laughs. “It was wild to write until you are so tired that nothing sounded too over-worked – songs didn't feel restricted by a commonly analytical brain.”
Determined to capture a bolder sound, the band travelled to Seattle to record with Grammy-nominated producer Phil Ek (Father John Misty, Manchester Orchestra, Fleet Foxes) and the result is twelvefour, an album that is lush and intimate, with drum machines and dirtier guitars (“very much an ‘80s twinge,” Sam insists) mixed with atmospheric synth moments. “The great thing about working with Phil was that you couldn’t fake it – he wanted to hear the real thing,” Sam explains, “He was really honest with us, sometimes brutally, but all in the interest of making a better record.”
“This record is the sound of five people trying to make something they're proud of. And we really are,” enthuses Sam.
The Paper Kites is made up of Sam Bentley, Christina Lacy, David Powys, Josh Bentley and Sam Rasmussen.
Tickets to the national twelvefour album tour are available now.
twelvefour is set for release on August 28.
