The Paper Scissors are an Australian garage-punk rock band consisting of Jai Pyne, Xavier Naughton and Ivan Lisyak. They’ve played some big festivals such as Falls Festival, Playground Weekender and Parklife. In 2008 the trio embarked on a co-headline tour with Bluejuice. We were lucky enough to be able to catch up with them before they embarked on their next journey across Australia.
How would you sum up The Paper Scissors in three words?
Creative young men.
You’re about to fly up to Brisbane to play a showcase at the Big Sound Conference. In what ways will the MusicNSW Quick Response funding support you in getting there?
We’d be stuck in Sydney without it ! It has come in very handy, it really helps with costs and just the logistics of getting there- and it means we don’t have to sleep on the floor of someones flee-ridden lounge room carpet! Huzzah! But seriously, it’s awesome because it helps bands like us who are very independent to do showcases like Big Sound. We don’t have anyone backing us and don’t have the cash flow and getting funding means we don’t miss what could be amazing opportunities.
What is your favourite venue in Sydney to play in and why?
We always like playing at Oxford Art Factory- good PA, good size, good stage, lots of lights, it’s somewhere people actually go as it’s easy to get to. Man, I miss the Hoey, that was the spot, we always had good shows there. We also dig playing The Metro, of course we’ve only done support there, but you feel pretty good playing on that stage.
Sydney’s music venue ‘crisis’ is seemingly the talk of the town, reasserted by Tone’s recent announcement of closure. As a band regularly playing around Sydney, how has your band been affected by the venue ‘crisis’? Would you describe it as a crisis or rather simply a temporary transition between the demise of old venues and the rise of a new generation of performance spaces?
I think we’ve seen this crisis before, but yeah it is kind of grave, it filters into everything, and I think venues are closing for two reasons: I think people are kind of passively interacting with things these days via the internet and it gives them this sort of vicarious satisfaction. They can watch the clip on youtube and download the track and post on a wall or a blog, and it feels like they are interacting. And this makes people less likely to go and see real music at a real venue. I think this then also trickles down to he second reason- that Sydney is a pretty hard, capitalist heavy city. There are a lot of people out and about to make money, and running a music venue and making money don’t mix that well. I really sincerely hope that we see ‘a new generation of performance spaces’ but we’ve lost the Hopetoun, Tone, The Exelsior, things for The Annandale aren’t boding well and it’s a little bleak. I haven’t given up hope though. I think we need to find new ways of supporting our emerging bands, more venues like Fbi Social please.
Your first ever single ‘We Don’t Walk’ was discovered by local community radio stations such as FBi Radio. How important a role do you think community radio still plays in discovering new talent and enriching our local music scene?
It is pivotal, essential. I remember hearing WDW in my car, it was so exciting, it was so great to hear music we’d been making on the radio and it was a really exciting starting point for us. And not just for emerging talent either. Without community radio there wouldn’t be any indie music scene in Australia, it would just be that one big radio station that has all the power. Community radio has always supported us, I think because they don’t have an agenda they just seek out good music and play it, they don’t have to think so much about their demographic or anything.
Are there any local Sydney artists or bands that inspire you?
Yeah I think there is a very disproportionate awesome bands/artists to venues ratio. Guerre, Collarbones (half from Sydney), Fishing are great, The Jezebels are kicking arse, Ghoul, Deep Sea Arcade… Lots of great music from Sydney, I think there is some really good stuff.
After Big Sound, are there any other new projects or tours are on the horizon?
We are playing around the traps yes! We have an Fbi Social show Saturday October 8th and we are locked in for some Summer funtimes festivals and other shows which we will let everyone know about soon. We have some new music cooking too. Stay tuned.