1. Carl Arnfield (and co) - here we go again, a bastard years ago, a bastard today - but...very important but...ye be still a passionate busy man making many feel indolent and sterile - good on ya and good on ya for the focus (you are still a bastard though). I digress - the question we want to know is - what the fuck are you up to know and I hear the strings have increased by 2 - elaborate!
Carl: Yeah I'm playing mandolin and banjo with Paper Town, I have played mandolin on some of the Bullet Kings and AFS songs, but just as an embellishment, but in Paper Town it is the only thing I’m playing. There might be a bit of Uke as well soon.
Ste: Getting Carl in on banjo and mandolin are what really cemented the sound for me...prior to us adding the double bass on the first demo....and I think we got the best of him because of the new direction etc......anyway I didn't know he'd been in every band in the know Bloody Universe did I! So when I meet any other random musician now, I just say ‘Do you know Carl’.
2. The ethos behind Paper Town - many familiar faces who just can't fuckin' stop ha, ha - love it. So what is the crack?
Carl: You can’t stop being creative and playing music, it’s just what we do.
Ste: Yeah ethos ….that's a Biggy but thanks for asking........
So...A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY...
...a few drunken buffoons found themselves in possession of some strange acoustical instruments…Instruments that could produce sound without the need for electricity or gas...
And they asked the question...
So where do Folk and Punk meet? (and why Bother?)
It wouldn't be a totally original idea to cross the two genres, in some respects the two have somewhat similar paths. If Folk music is best described as songs about people and their surroundings, issues and stories of the past, even conquests or injustices of the past then Punk could be described as songs about current issues and people of the present, and who better to describe the present than the people living in it...us (Oh dear really)....well at least we got an angle. Also realising we were no longer hiding behind a stack of Marshalls the size of a small bungalow, was a revelation, can we play acoustic? not plugged in?.. really just…unamplified? This is something we could take to the streets, or even onto the crowded dance floor, it fits in more with the social ethos of the public house - (A ‘Public House’ a place for socialising, communicating, ruminating, getting pissed ….falling over,..quietly....not a place to have your ear drums blasted out for six hours, to the point where conversation is impossible) - But is it still Punk Rock?
There is an expectation, we have found, for us to plug in though and we are still working on our live sound as well as working on the ‘play it acoustic’ ethos - So where DO we take it? (sorry mate ...just just realised I’m sticking my own questions in here...is that the way an interview should work? (bloody Anarchists they are that Paper Town lot).
The Punkers have put up with us so far, but what about some of the other ‘Folkers’. Are they ready for us? Perhaps we could get a shot at some folky events......and school them in the ways of Punk....imagine all those middle age folkers in anoraks po-going to Paper Town and spitting at each other – awesome!
PLEASE HELP ME OBI-WAN…WHERE ARE MY MARBLES?
3. How are things going down thus far - I suspect quite well as the vibe will transcened boundaries - fill us all in?
Carl: Its been great, if odd, if we played these songs as a full band on distorted guitars we would just sound like a plethora of bands, but switching over to other instruments has given us a whole new sound.
Ste: Going great thanks..still can't believe people actually like us. I mean I think it's Punk...But when you're stood in front of a sea of spikey topped punks that came out to see the Subhumans looking at us clearly thinking who are these dicks with the banjo's and boxes and acoustic guitars the last thing going though my mind before we played was, the first song we play is a waltz... (a bloody Waltz...!) there is only 3 beats instead of the usual four which 99.9% of western music is based on ...I mean how many punk songs do you hear that start with, ‘One Two Three’, where's the ‘Four’ everyone’s gonna think right? Anyway they seemed to bloody like us...so Phew....and on we go.
4. Clusternut Anarchy will lead to the downfall of the ripe tomato rebellion which I think is a pure disgrace and not only insults our intelligence but degrades the rectal sheep we let graze on our pubic fields. Please discuss and add in 3 meat based political arguments for the hell of it!
Carl: I've never been in a band popular enough to be asked and I doubt I ever will. Rebellion is an odd thing, so many people look forward to it, but knowing how much some bands get paid to reform to play it, its goes against my ideas of what punk is.
Ste: Yeah agreed ...I guess...it's always been the underground mycelium of punk that has attracted me really.
Today..Human DNA from missing M.P.s found in horse meat burgers - that’s the only meat based political argument I’m hoping for!
5. Best Paper Town song thus far and tell us about the song writing process please?
Carl: Oh…as ever some of the new ones are the favourites to play right now, its always the case when you are in a band …to pick a track we play live … it would be ‘Wobbly Bit’.
Ste: Well my part of the song writing process is done usually done on a ukulele walking around the house with a three year old hanging on the back of my pants shouting, ‘Daddy be Quiet, I wanna watch telly’ but when that parts over with, we just Jam it out in Ry's living room, acoustic fashion and I let the others be judge of whether or not it's a good song. Quite a few of the ones we do are re-workings of songs that have been previously shelved.....One of my favourites is, ‘Crash and Burn’.
6. How are all the influences coming together and are they blatantly apparent within the outpourings? Are there any conflicting sounds that are thrown into the melting pot that need to be ironed out so as to give each song consistency?
Carl: For me I can’t hear my influences … but I’m not playing guitar … so it’s not obvious.
Ste: It kinda feels like a bit of conflicting sound all round I think, mixing punky lyrics/songs with folky sounds and that tends to be what makes it work for me. It's hard to discern strong influences as Carl say's but there are plenty in the mix I think. I just kinda concentrate on the words, and as for the music just make it in some way different or more interesting than the other songs. It somehow doesn't seem as easy to slip into the cliché’s as we are all playing unfamiliar instruments ...maybe more cliché’s will appear, and maybe that would be a good thing, who knows.
7. Festival fever is all around - everyone seems to be catching it (not me I am a purist) - any plans to hop on a few, any obsessive behaviour that see these as the ultimate Mecca - chinwag on!
Ste: Festivals...yeah, would be nice to play some...maybe a different vibe than the Thursday night pub gigs I think ...ha, ha which I wouldn't miss for the world anyway. We are playing ‘Dirty Weekend’...awesome, really looking forward to that.
What I'm hoping is the ‘folkers’ will give us a chance too…then we can try to bust up the folk scene with some Punk Rock attitude...he, he ...could be fun!
8. Clive Caterpillar has sexual antennae honed in to throbbing testicles within a twenty mile radius. Imagine you grew two such antennae - what would be the drawbacks, the advantages and what would be your main selling point if you wanted to off load them?
Carl: How the fuck can you answer that you muppet!
Ste : I agree…what kind of question is that? Bugger me...and what kind of mushrooms you picking? Those little ‘Psilocybin’ ones I think.....and the interview was going so well. I thought too...Hang on i'll just go and snort some of that black mould I scraped off the inside of the coffee machine.....
WOOOOOOOO...HOOOOOO!!!!!!!.................THUD!!!
Beep......................Beep.......................Beep......................Beep.......................
Nurse 1: Poor bastard......What happened?
Nurse 2: Some kind of fanzine interview or something......got all excited.....started snorting coffee mould.............He does it all the time though....he's in here every week......Sad really.
Nurse 1: Yeah.........SAD bastard!
Nurse 1&2: ‘HA...HA..HA...HA..HA...HA...HA....HA..HA’
Ste: ‘aaaahhh.........nnnnuuunnnn.......nnnnooo......Caaaterpillaaaaars’
Nurse 1: ‘What should we do about these Fuckin Antennae?
Nurse 2: Just lop 'em off and chuck 'em on the pile.
Ste: ‘Nooooooooooooooooooooo.!!!......aaaaaaagghhh!!!!
9. The band members - describe each one in 4 slanderous words!
Carl:
Ry - dog poo hair
Ste - I’m a rock star
Oli - I play everything
Ani - too nice to insult
Ste: I'm not going to name them you just have to guess who's who......
BEARDY BANJO BAND SLAG – he, he
ODOUR BOB MARLEY'S BATHROOM – ha, ha
HE'S MY BROTHER IN-LAW – he’s gonna slap me one day
PINKY PUNKY PLINKY PLONKY – big cheesy grin
10. A cognac rub on the old todger apparently increases its size by 20%, can be used as a moth attractant and also will help pull many a toothless alcho-whore? All positive stuff but...would you indulge and if so would you change your name to Betty so as to increase the horny magnetism factor!
Carl: you need locking up!
Betty: What’s that love?......... Did you mean what is that crazy waltzing song at the beginning of your set about?...Thought so...!!! (same answer really!)
‘Good Hiding’ is about getting smashed and waking up with a monster hang over, a big fat cognac soaked todger...and less of a prejudice against same sex relationships. No....really it is!
My head just starts to spin,
As the darkness closes in,
I look in your face, and I’m getting the fear,
Cause I don't know no girls with a beard.
11. 5 years from now is not that far away - where do you hope to be (asylum is not an option).
Carl: Still playing music, and I hope several albums with the Paper Town name on the front, and I hope some bugger will have heard of us.
Ste: I hope that bugger has heard of us too…If they haven't I'll get their e-mail address.
Previous to this I hadn't been in a band for about 8 or 9 years.....and I’m fuckin loving it....so hopefully still doing Paper Town....and hopefully we won't run out of ideas...but if we do we will have to think up some new genre clashing challenge to mix things up a bit.
12. Paper Town - fold thyself many times, use the art of Origami to create a form that will raise our interest levels - write on the form a message to keep us intrigued - oh fuck it - promote, promote, promote!
Carl: Don’t Open This!
Ste: Band page here - http://www.facebook.com/PaperTownUK
Videos on You Tube, Search: Paper Town – Good Hiding
and Paper Town – Wobbly Bit
Look forwards to - Loads of new songs, (plenty more to record at the moment), Better live sounds, Morris dancers, Swiss Yodelling, Coffee Mould, Poetry and Punk Rock Sean - nos.
