Interview: Papermoons (21/08/12)

Aloha Papermoons!

For the record, who is Papermoons? And how did you get together?

  Papermoons is Matt Clark, and Daniel Hawkins. Long story short: we met when our prior bands Adios (Matt) and Little Compass (Daniel) toured together in the summer of 2005. After those bands dissolved we started writing and sending songs back and forth from Ohio to Texas under the moniker MAPS. We played a few shows in those respective states and eventually Matt moved down to Texas and Papermoons became a fully functioning band in 2007 with the release of our self titled 7".

How has 2012 been for you guys?   It's been rather busy in fact. We've played a handful of shows and managed to write and record the majority of our next full length record. We're still working on it but expect to have it wrapped up by year's end for a release at some point in 2013. 

It's been your first active year as a band since 2009, so what's it like being back in the process? 
   It feels really good. We're more focused now despite being even busier with our personal lives. The time and energy we put into Papermoons is more deliberate and conscious, which so far, is resulting in positive things!  

Why did you decide to take out those couple of years? Was it conscious decision or was it just something that happened? 
  It was definitely something that just sort of happened. We had every intention of not taking time off. But when I look back on what transpired in each of our lives during those years, we really couldn't have planned it any better. Those years needed to have happened and during that time our lives became what they are now. 

You did two comeback shows recently. How did they go? 

   They were both really great! and we look forward to getting busier with live performances once we finish this next record. 

New Tales is one of my favourite albums from the last few years. How was the album cycle for you? Anything you wish you had done differently?

   Thank you! New Tales came together quickly in the summer of 2008. We were living together at the time and recorded the whole record ourselves in our tiny garage apartment living room in Houston. Daniel was in school at the time and we were both working full time jobs so we would usually write during the week and track all weekend. It was sweaty and involved a lot of Miller High Life and cigarette breaks. As far as doing anything differently; sonically I am sure there are many things that could have been improved and tinkered with, but we feel the record really encapsulates what we were going for and feeling at the time. No regrets!

You're working on your 2nd full length at the moment. How is it going for you? Care to share any details with us? 
 It is coming along great so far. We decided to go ahead and record this one ourselves again, which has its ups and downs. There is a lot more freedom with this one as we don't have any deadlines to meet or tours coming up. We can really focus on each individual song. We are more than half way done tracking it and will hopefully be done by the end of the year.

Is there any chance of us getting new material before the end of the year? 

 I hope so! We won't have anything out physically by the end of the year, but as soon as we have some final mixes done we will start leaking some tunes for sure. We are also going to work on posting some teaser videos in the very near future.

Is it likely that you're going to be doing a full tour soon? 
 Not anytime very soon, but hopefully at some point we can hit the road again. We will have to wait and see what happens with the next record. 

What bands have influence on Papermoons? Who are your favourite bands?   Oh that's a tough one…we don't presume to really sound like anyone.. but we sorta study musicians like John Vanderslice, David Bazan, Will Johnson/Centromatic.. Wye Oak. There are always little things to learn from others. Mostly things subconsciously creep into our writing and performance, which can later be attributed to something we've been listening to…too much perhaps. 

If Papermoons was a sauce, what sauce would it be? 
   Sad sauce?  

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