ARTICLE BY MADISON FOSTER
In the newest episode of LCV Paper
Lions were featured as our “Slacker Radio Presents” piece for
their interview with Drew had interviewed them last year (If you
haven't seen it yet don't worry. I'm going to put the link to it
right here. And make sure to check out my interview with The
Balconies while you're at it). Obviously time has passed and the band
has been hard at work. The folk rock band from P.E.I. just released
an EP “At Long Creek” and the beginning of the year (which is
free for download now off their website) and just finished their
first full length album after they made the switch to Paper Lions,
formally Chucky Danger Band.
Since the band (including members John
MacPhee, David Cyrus MacDonald, Colin Buchanan, Rob MacPhee) was
interviewed for the show about a year ago I spoke to the guys via
email about all that they've been up to and the band itself.
MF:
Before
hearing of you guys I'd never heard of Belfast, PEI. How would you
say that the music scene in
Belfast
for a band starting out? When did you decide it was time to make the
move to Charlottetown?
PL: Belfast is more just a rural area that a few hundred kids grew up in, so calling anything that happens there a "scene" might be a bit misleading. On the other hand for the amount of kids in the area there was an awful lot of music being played. I think in part it's because there was no proper band program offered in our school. Anyone who had an interest in that sort of thing just ended up picking up a guitar instead of a clarinet. We moved to town (Charlottetown) when we moved out of our parent's places. Belfast is a great place to raise a family and be a kid but doesn't have that much to offer for the young adult. Charlottetown was the next logical move and frankly we are surprised that we are still living here 6 years later.
PL: Belfast is more just a rural area that a few hundred kids grew up in, so calling anything that happens there a "scene" might be a bit misleading. On the other hand for the amount of kids in the area there was an awful lot of music being played. I think in part it's because there was no proper band program offered in our school. Anyone who had an interest in that sort of thing just ended up picking up a guitar instead of a clarinet. We moved to town (Charlottetown) when we moved out of our parent's places. Belfast is a great place to raise a family and be a kid but doesn't have that much to offer for the young adult. Charlottetown was the next logical move and frankly we are surprised that we are still living here 6 years later.
MF:
You've
all been together for years. How have you guys been able to work
together for all this time and
still
be creative?
PL: I think the most important thing for us is make sure we give each other as much space as they need. Whether it's in the van, on the road or at home with friends, we don't always hang out and it's by design. That way when ever we do get together to work on music it's fresh and exciting.
MF: Back in March Exclaim posted an article about you guys giving your "Trophies" EP away for free after you didn't receive a pay cheque from your record label. At the end of the article it stated that the label would be getting you the money. Has the problem been resolved? Are you still with the same label or have you moved on?
PL: First and foremost we wanted to release the record for free because that's just something that excites us. We want to make sure as many people get exposed to our music as possible and we find that removing the road block of a price tag does just that. We hadn't really heard anything from our label in a while and later learned that their Canadian office had shut down unbeknownst to us. We posted on our Facebook to explain to the people who had already bought the record through iTunes or in record stores why we were going to start giving it away. We never intended it to be some sort of middle finger to record companies. The payment issue is still being discussed.
MF: Your video for Travelling broke 1 million views since being up since 2007. Could this is related to the track appearing on your new EP? Why did you make the decision to re-release the track? Was the decision to put the track on the EP before or after the video made 1 million hits?
PL: The decision to put it on the record came after the 1 million views. The amount of views was just verification that the song still resonates with people all these years later. We've never stopped playing the song live and have been doing acoustic versions of it for years. It and Polly Hill are two of the first songs we ever wrote so it was fun for us to put them against 4 brand new songs as almost a measure of our songwriting growth.
PL: I think the most important thing for us is make sure we give each other as much space as they need. Whether it's in the van, on the road or at home with friends, we don't always hang out and it's by design. That way when ever we do get together to work on music it's fresh and exciting.
MF: Back in March Exclaim posted an article about you guys giving your "Trophies" EP away for free after you didn't receive a pay cheque from your record label. At the end of the article it stated that the label would be getting you the money. Has the problem been resolved? Are you still with the same label or have you moved on?
PL: First and foremost we wanted to release the record for free because that's just something that excites us. We want to make sure as many people get exposed to our music as possible and we find that removing the road block of a price tag does just that. We hadn't really heard anything from our label in a while and later learned that their Canadian office had shut down unbeknownst to us. We posted on our Facebook to explain to the people who had already bought the record through iTunes or in record stores why we were going to start giving it away. We never intended it to be some sort of middle finger to record companies. The payment issue is still being discussed.
MF: Your video for Travelling broke 1 million views since being up since 2007. Could this is related to the track appearing on your new EP? Why did you make the decision to re-release the track? Was the decision to put the track on the EP before or after the video made 1 million hits?
PL: The decision to put it on the record came after the 1 million views. The amount of views was just verification that the song still resonates with people all these years later. We've never stopped playing the song live and have been doing acoustic versions of it for years. It and Polly Hill are two of the first songs we ever wrote so it was fun for us to put them against 4 brand new songs as almost a measure of our songwriting growth.
UPDATE:
Since the interview the video has now reached two million views on
Youtube. Congrats boys!
MF: You just released the new EP "At Long Creek" in June. This is only your second release since you made the switch to Paper Lions. When can we expect to see a full length release from you?
PL: Our full length record is actually all finished. We are putting the pieces in place for hopefully a fall release.
MF: Why did you make the decision to make the EP available for free download?
PL: The ep was just a fun thing that we wanted to push out as quickly as possible. It was super satisfying to conceptualize a project one day, completely revamp songs the next, set up in an old church for a week and release it online the following. Not having to manufacture albums speeds up the whole process by a 100%. We are really proud of what came out of those days at the church and again just wanted to exposed the work with as many people as we could.
MF: You just released the new EP "At Long Creek" in June. This is only your second release since you made the switch to Paper Lions. When can we expect to see a full length release from you?
PL: Our full length record is actually all finished. We are putting the pieces in place for hopefully a fall release.
MF: Why did you make the decision to make the EP available for free download?
PL: The ep was just a fun thing that we wanted to push out as quickly as possible. It was super satisfying to conceptualize a project one day, completely revamp songs the next, set up in an old church for a week and release it online the following. Not having to manufacture albums speeds up the whole process by a 100%. We are really proud of what came out of those days at the church and again just wanted to exposed the work with as many people as we could.
Check
out the band's website for the free download of “At Long Creek”
and if you like it as much as we do make sure to check them out when
they're back in town November 2nd
at the London Music Hall.
