Paper House End Of The World Interview

Paper House End Of The World Interview

With their live show being described as 'offering you candy and then pushing you in the dirt", Paper House have quickly gained a reputation for their captivating live performances, often collaborating with diverse musicians, artists, filmmakers and set designers, to create immersive experiences for their audiences.

With songs about boozy nights, bad decisions, broken hearts and the best intentions, Brooke Russell and The Mean Reds blend vintage Americana with widescreen, dark country.

Check out Paper House, here.

Interview with Emily Siddons

Question: How would you describe your music?

Emily Siddons: Our music is layered, complex and unique with catchy melodies – everyone always seems to tell us how emotional our music is too!


Question: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind End Of The World?

Emily Siddons: It is very much a tongue and cheek song but with an underlying sense of cynicism (and I guess a small amount of fear). I wrote this song when I was at university so I was spending a lot of time pondering the big questions about life and the world. It was around the time huge environmental issues really came into our consciousness and I always found it so baffling that people would just bury their heads in the sand and pretend nothing was wrong. It is definitely easier just to go out for a night on the town and pretend everything is OK, but I think we are all a bit doomed really…


Question: How has the month-long residency, Sundays in July at The Toff in Town, been?

Emily Siddons: Our residency was great, if a bit cold! We thought we would turn horrible wintry Sundays into evenings of magical music and mulled cider. We played with some amazing people including Poppongene and Tilman Robinson who is a talented composer and producer who has performed at MONA FOMA and Perth International Arts Festival. We were also be joined by Brooke Russell and the Mean Reds, The Age of Floods and DJ Miss Goldie from PBS.

Question: Why do you choose to collaborate with other artists?

Emily Siddons: Many of us have a background in the arts, and find that we discover new ways and modes of creative expression through collaborating with other artists, particularly those from different disciplines. We also love to put on a good show and have collaborated with visual artists, filmmakers, designers etc to take the immersion and spectacle of a live show to another level.


Question: Who do you want to work with, next?

Emily Siddons: We would love to create a virtual reality music video or incorporate virtual reality into a live concert experience of some type, I love the work that VRTOV is doing lately – it would be amazing to work with them.


Question: Do you write your own songs? What's your inspiration?

Emily Siddons: I must admit Al and I are quite obsessive nerds, the process starts with melodies that pop into my head which I record into my iPhone. I then revisit these snippets of ideas when the mood takes me and I translate them into Logic and start building songs around them with keys parts, electronic sounds etc. When I have the basic sounds and shape of the song I usually take them to Al who feeds in his ideas, which to be honest is probably where the magic happens. He adds guitars or sometimes re-records odd sounds I have played and runs them through lots of old effects which completely transforms the sounds. We then take the songs to the other two members, James and Ben, and try and figure out how to actually play the sounds we have come up with! I love getting everyone's input as between us we straddle so many genres from pop/rock to jazz/improv and classical worlds which I think is the reason for our unique sound.


Question: What music/artists do you listen to when you are not playing your own?

Emily Siddons: I personally love female trail blazers like Bjork and St Vincent, I think we all share an unwavering love for Prince too!


Question: What's next? Tour/Album/Single?

Emily Siddons: We are releasing our debut full length album A Certain Kind of Now on 23rd September 2016 and will be playing some launch shows around the release so stay tuned.

Question: Do you prefer performing live or recording?

Emily Siddons: Even though I love playing live (and am a bit of a show pony) I love the process of creating new music - starting with an idea and seeing it come to life is so satisfying.


Question: What/who was your inspiration to go into the music industry?

Emily Siddons: It wasn't one particular person, I just grew up with music in my blood, I started playing piano and singing at 6 years old. I do remember the first cassette tape I bought at age 5 though which was Michael Jackson's History on double cassette!


Question: What's a typical day like?

Emily Siddons: I work as a Producer at ACMI during the day, Al is a recording engineer, Ben is in the MSO and James is doing his PhD, needless to say we all lead pretty busy lives and have to find those rare moments when we can sit down and play together. Writing and playing music is very much my escape and creative freedom.


Question: Do you have a website fans can visit?

Emily Siddons: You can find us here!

Question: What is the story behind the band's name?

Emily Siddons: It came about from thoughts about the fragility of life, and the feeling of being temporary while trying to find a sense of your place in the world and where you call home.


Interview by Brooke Hunter