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 Guitarist PAUL VOGE from THE PAPER & THE PLANE takes time to discuss the gritty realities lying behind the band’s new EP with DAN RIDLEY. “I think we took way to long to put something out. I think now that we have taken so long, people are expecting something great.”
The reality of being part of a band that has remained idle on the recording front for over a year is not lost on Paper & The Plane guitarist Paul Voge. Even as we sit within the safety of his bastion of hardcore/punk merchandise Kill The Music, he still seems a little uncomfortable when it comes to discussing the band’s long awaited second instalment, ominously named A Year, Two Months, Sixteen Days And Counting. Nonetheless, with frank honesty and a grin Paul proceeds to hold nothing back about the upcoming EP.
“We tried to record this CD three times over a year or more,” he explains. “In the end in happened in three weeks. So ideas and fruity shit we wanted to do, we just didn’t have the time. We got it done with what we could. I think we know we could have done something better. We rushed to get this thing done to coincide with this tour that had been put on for us by someone else. I guess it would have been a good reality program to see us with our finger up our ass for so many months doing nothing and then finally getting started. It would be called the ‘When Lazy People Do Something’ show. We actually had to stop, record this CD and rush to do it and get it here and done. People are expecting something cool, which sucks, because that means they are expecting something good.”
Taking a moment to reflect on his answer, Paul proceeds to relax and summarise his own harsh analysis.
“Just because we aren’t 100 percent happy with what we have done doesn’t mean someone else isn’t going to dig it. I am just overly critical with everything I do Every band would be like that and wouldn’t say their favourite CD is their own … well, I hope not anyway.”
For a band that has existed solely up to this point off their early 2007 EP, An Introduction, Paul still finds himself in a state of disbelief over the fuss made of group. Despite the fact that it was a highly successful enterprise for a first time release, his charming cynicism overrides its impact and eventually brings the focus back squarely on the timeline between ventures.
“It’s weird when you think of that CD,” he ponders. “We pressed a 1000 of them. We sold nearly 1000 of them doing fuck all really. We have done six shows in 11 months. That’s kind of cool. But anything for five bucks is going to sell at a show regardless of what it is,” he says with a smirk. “It’s kind of funny though. We did that EP in seven hours and now we take a year and a half to do the other one, so it’s kind of like ‘what the fuck went wrong?’”
As the conversation takes on the flavour of a humorous but altogether self-deprecatory emphasis on the band’s dysfunctional dynamics, I feel it is my duty to point out some highlights. Having performed with some of this generation’s most prominent punk indie acts, such as Brand New and Moneen, and being held in high esteem by their peers must give some sense of accomplishment to the band.
“Honestly I feel lucky,” – sounds promising – “but I also feel that we are about 100 steps behind were we are should to be.”
I tried.
“Every time we have done something like that we have pissed that opportunity away. Like we did Brand New and come back and do nothing or we will do a sold out show at The Zoo one week and then do nothing for four months. We have turned done things that would make peoples’ jaws drop on the ground. We turned down Lifetime; we turned down Boys Night Out. I might look back in 30 years time and jump off a bridge because of that.”
So far the whole affair has been a lighthearted descent into the band’s trial and tribulations, but his face now takes on a more serious demeanor when he expands on his last comment.
“I know if I was in a struggling band and saw this ‘Paper & The Plane’ band every week turning down shit I wanted to do, I would I hate that band. I guess we feel that way about ourselves. We should be doing more because we get offered so much more. Opportunities only come once. We have had six or seven. So it’s like how many times can you knock back a good start before people go, ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ We want to prove we are worthy of these things. A lot of people would think ‘fuck, another one for them.’ We want people to think we deserve one or two of them. Hopefully 2008 will be as good as last year.”
Whether or not this year will see the band rise or fall has yet to be seen. If the accolades being heaped upon them from fans on MySpace are anything to go by, odds are perhaps stacked in their favour. As the interview winds down and Paul’s motley assortment of customers trickle in a question still remains for this interviewer – with all the time that has passed between shows and releases does the band have the fortitude to be so liberal in its approach in the future?
“I don’t know. That’s definitely a question mark,” he says. “If you’re not, what are you doing? If you are you have to do it. None of us are 16 years-old anymore. Obviously business and work mortgages and rad shit like that, but I mean we never, as this band, have done it yet. We have gone the other way. We have done sold out shows. We have been to a top of sorts and now we need to work our way to the bottom and start again. But whether we are ready for it? I don’t know…”
THE PAPER & THE PLANE launch the A YEAR, TWO MONTHS, SIXTEEN DAYS AND COUNTING EP at Club 299 on Friday May 23 as part of the Vectors Tour, with Mere Theory, Fifty Sixx and Closure In Moscow.
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