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Interview with
PAPER ANTHEM

(January 2021)

Interviewer – Dave Bruce

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Photo by Kelsey Graham

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“A stunning journey into Hitchcock’s emotional landscape… never a wasted musical moment”  – Baeble Music

“Flowing lyrics and a sound absolutely gorgeous to the ear” – Audiotox

“Instantly memorable” – Hot Lunch Music

“Nothing short of absolutely gratifying” – Ear to the Ground

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Have you always wanted to be a musician? When did you get the song writing bug?
My father is a blues singer, and ran a music festival, so I’ve always been surrounded by that industry and the mythology of it, but he never bothered to teach me how to play guitar or anything, so all I had were some truly boring classical piano lessons starting at age six. Though I’ve always heard songs in my head that I didn’t know what to do with, beyond a goofy ragtime instrumental entitled Mrs. Chippy about an early 1900s ship-dwelling cat that the crew unfortunately had to kill and eat, which I wrote when I was about eight or nine, I had virtually no interest in being a musician until I turned twenty-one and heard Snow Patrol for the first time (really late on that one, I know). That’s when I first started teaching myself guitar and writing pop songs.

How would you describe your sound? Why do you think people resonate with your music?
I would describe my music as simultaneously intimate yet expansive. I’m interested in trying to make the smallest sounds and the biggest; in trying to paint soundscapes for the visuals I see in my head. I’m also a filmmaker and I think I tell the stories in my songs in a very thematic way, or at least I try to. I love stories. I think anyone who likes Paper Anthem is drawn to the introspection of me trying to understand myself and my feelings through my songwriting, and the songs help them do the same. All music is just group therapy to some degree, an experience between musicians and listeners.

Which artist’s music and/or performance, past or present, inspires you today?
I’m a huge fan of Foals from the UK. I’m obsessed with their visual aesthetic, the way they perform, the way they structure their sets. Thank God for the Pandora Bloc Party station for getting me into them, but it wasn’t until winter 2011 where I sluggishly noticed they’d released a second album and began listening to that on repeat on bikes to work in the freezing cold when I became a bigger fan. I’ve seen them four times now and can’t wait to see them a bunch more in the future when the virus decides we’re allowed to do that again.

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Photo by Pamela Pavlova

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Your new single/EP/Album has just been released/is about to be released! Describe its origin and evolution.
Sign Language was the very first song I wrote after releasing my first album. I had a band together at the time, and I was going to start writing with them. I put a really rough demo together on guitar to show them. The song itself was, I guess, about realizing a relationship isn’t good for you anymore. I’m really big on evolving and self-growth and all that, and I love to be inspired by a partner who’s doing the same. And I just had this moment where I realized that they weren’t that kind of person. They’d just rather gossip and talk about drama at work between employees or whatever and do drugs instead of working on their art or anything that would make their life better. So, these lines like “I’ll guide your hand” and “I’ll be the one you’d always said you’d be” are about my foolish attempts to help guide them towards what they said they wanted for themselves, but I had to learn that you just can’t do that for other people. It wasn’t very mature of me yet something I tried to do over and over again. Maybe it’s something I was subconsciously hoping someone would do for me? I still can’t not try to help motivate my friends to this day, but only if they want that kind of help. Anyway, the band I had at the time eventually just sort of fell apart, but some cool drum fills by my old drummer are still in there. I love writing with others and hope I get to do that someday.

What are the signature pieces on the album, and which is your favourite track?
I think the crucial bits are Sign Language, Within Walls, Daywalker, and Dreamweaver. If I had to pick a few songs to sum up the story of the album, it’d be those: denial, the reveal of secrets, the separation, the imagining of a happy ending… Though maybe you’d need Clarity, as well, for the acceptance. My favourite track is Daywalker, by far.  It’s this 7-minute proggy religious space epic about intense romantic feelings that go nowhere. It has my favourite piano lines I’ve ever done. I feel like it’s the most “me” thing I’ve made, to date. I’d like to think it’s the kind of song I’d love to listen to, if I wasn’t Paper Anthem.

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Any tours or events coming up soon? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
I wish! Ugh. I’m going to try to do some live stream concerts of some sort after the album release, and one of them might be in this historic venue called The Auditorium in my hometown of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, just with no physical audience. I miss shows so much. As an audience member, too. I used to go to so many local shows to support other artists and a lot of the time I just wanted to go home but I’d stay for all the sets and everything and this point I’d just kill to even go to one of those. The terrible mixing, the awful beer, the shaking floor. It’s a nice memory now.

If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why?
That’s hard to answer! As cool as it would be to just play rhythm as Yannis Philippakis Foals lead singer/guitarist] does some lead stuff over it, maybe our relationships with our favourite artists require distance. I think my answer would have to be UNKLE because I know practically nothing about him as a person, but I’ve been obsessively listening to his music for over 12 years. Even just being a live touring member for a show or something. I love those songs on War Stories so much. That project is so big on collaborations and guest artists, and if I ever got to do anything with him, I’d just die.

Do you have any long-term aspirations as a music artist?
I like to keep goals realistic nowadays, but I would love to collaborate with some of my idols, see what I could learn from them. If I could get someone, I grew up with to produce one of my future songs or records, that would be a dream come true. I’d love to perform at a festival, I’ve never gotten to do that yet. But really, I’m just happy that anyone’s listening to me at all. It’s such a gift. As difficult as it is now for independent artists, the internet has created so many opportunities for us to reach people at every level of success.

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Photo by Jason Alderman

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What is the best thing about performing to a live audience? What’s been the career highlight so far?
I love putting together a setlist. I’m addicted to making playlists, sequencing my own albums, etc., so when I play live I get to do that every night! I get to put together an album and then force a bunch of strangers to listen to it. I love theatricality, the mere idea of putting on a show. When I was like two years old, I got obsessed with that Stop Making Sense Talking Heads concert film. I memorized every single movement David Byrne did and then forced my entire family to watch me mimic it with a toy guitar. As an adult now, that just sounds dreadful. Those poor adults! But I still love performing, despite the nerves. As for a highlight, I really enjoyed my first show in London in 2019. My first time in London, in general. It wasn’t the greatest show but it was the most I’ve ever felt like I took my music on tour. So far from everyone I knew, my own currency—just an audience of strangers that had never heard me before. I guess every show is like that at the end of the day, but the ability to take your art and physically show it to people, to deliver a message very far away, is so important to me.

Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – Foals – Total Life Forever
Artist – Foals
Movie – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World or The Matrix (tied)
Place to visit – probably Bulgaria, I’ve spent about a year there in total and I can’t get enough of the food, language, and people. I can’t wait to visit my friends there again! Though there are lots of other places I’d love to visit someday, too.
Venue to play – there’s a place in my project’s origin of Fayetteville, Arkansas in the US called George’s Majestic Lounge that I always look forward to playing at. The sound is fantastic and there’s always people there just walking in from the street.
Food – Spanakopita, hands down. I could eat that forever without stopping.
Drink – As ashamed of my sugar addiction as I am, it’d still have to be sweet iced tea.
Person in History – I struggle to think of a good answer, but I often think about Pheidippides, the Greek messenger who ran for days and days to deliver the news of Greece’s victory against Persia to Athens and then died after spouting it out. I studied a lot of world history when I was a home-schooled child and then forgot it all, but that story really sticks with me. There’s something interesting to me about someone that dedicated to delivering information to others.
Tattoo – I don’t have any tattoos—yet—but if I did get one, I’d love to get a piece by Lucian Stanculescu, the artist who did the artwork on my first album, By Ghosts’ cover. I love his work so much. Something full colour and striking. I love tattoos but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

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Photo by Jason Alderman

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Check out PAPER ANTHEM below
Bandcamp – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter 

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PAPER ANTHEM
Releases
‘Sign Language’

The first single from
Third Studio Album
‘The Year You’ll Never Get Back’

For Fans of Snow Patrol, Real Estate and Biffy Clyro

SINGLE RELEASE: 29th January 2021
‘Sign Language’ 

ALBUM RELEASE: 5th March 2021
‘The Year You’ll Never Get Back’

Paper Anthem, fronted by American singer/songwriter Joseph Hitchcock is proud to release the first single of 2021, Sign Language. A bouncy, driving track with a tone of sombre and aggression. This is the first release from Paper Anthem’s third studio album which is aptly named, ‘The Year You’ll Never Get Back’ due for release in March.

After support throughout Canada and the US for the previous two albums, Paper Anthem bring their most exposing creation yet. Among the 11 new tracks, Joseph touches on themes of body dysmorphia, immigration, the erosion of friendships, and a story of lovers trapped within a telepathic dream singularity.

Many of the songs written for the album date back to 2016, when Hitchcock was going through a difficult time emotionally and personally:

“My life had fallen apart… I had to move back home and get a job at Walmart. I got a little too into conspiracy theories. I became totally isolated to everything that keeps someone human.”

Forced by the pandemic to end an extended trip to Europe early and return home again, Hitchcock can’t help but draw comparisons.

“2016 was a bad year for a lot of people, personally and politically, and 2020 has been a bit of a repeat for everyone too. These two years had a huge impact on, first, the writing, and then, later, my reflection on the compositions…  I originally titled this album ‘The Conduit’ because so much of it seemed to be about change: the way you see a lover, the way you see a friendship, the way you see yourself, the way you see your country… The new title had more impact—a reminder of the time that change takes, and the fact that this exchange of sand is permanent,” says Hitchcock.

The album was recorded across a number of years, mostly in California. Hitchcock began tracking the album in Oakland in 2017, but also recorded a bit in Los Angeles in 2018 and Kent during the summer of 2019. The album was then mixed (Kristofer Harris, Ghostpoet, Belle and Sebastian) in the summer of 2019, and sent to London for mastering (John Davis, Foals, Snow Patrol) before lying in wait for another year and a half.

Hitchcock chose to collaborate with two producers, Christopher Daddio from Oakland art-rock quartet Everyone Is Dirty, returning after producing Hitchcock’s second release, and Fraser McCulloch, the creatively frenetic LA-based producer of bands Chaos Chaos — including their cult hit track Can You Feel It?, notably featured on Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty—and Milagres.

“I think my first two albums have a lot of hope for the future — about finding the right person, getting to the right place. This one is just about devastation and destruction… All there is is going through the negativity, getting away from it, forever changed. Coming out of that, and hopefully being a better version of yourself, is what this album came to mean to me as I put the songs together, and I hope others can relate to it.”

‘The Year You’ll Never Get Back’ is available on all streaming platforms from 5th March 2021

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Photo by Kelsey Graham

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AMNPLIFY – DB