Formed atop the mountains of Colorado, Paper Bird have become a non-stop Americana machine since their first show, performed on a street corner in Breckenridge.
Fusing elements of roots folk, delta jazz and old-time mountain stomp, the septet hit the road earlier this year as part of the Tour de Fat en route to their performance at this year's Monolith Festival near their base of operations in Denver. MadeLoud recently caught up with banjo and harmonica player Caleb Summeril to discuss logistics, improvisational merchandising, and the working musician's equivalent of home-field advantage
MadeLoud: Paper Bird is a seven-piece and on the current tour you've shared the stage with the 30-piece Mucca Pazza and the 34-piece March Fourth. Was this an intentional "giant ensemble" pairing, or did things just work out that way?
Caleb Summeril: Things really just worked out that way on our end. I'm sure the heads at [tour sponsor] New Belgium [brewery] thought it might be a good fit between us and those giant marching bands, but we really had nothing to do with the pairing.
ML: On a related note, as a relatively high-personnel group, do you have any logistical advice for other similarly-staffed touring bands?
CS: Get to know each other well before you hit the road so you can laugh off some of the madness that is sure to ensue at some point. We have the benefit of having a mainly acoustic act so there really isn't that much gear and we're able to get around in tight quarters. Logistically, I'd tell other bands to plan ahead and be super flexible because anything can happen during the course of a day. There are seven members in the band but we usually roll in a crew of anywhere from 10-15 people, so figuring out where we're going to sleep each night can be interesting. Things usually work out for us pretty effortlessly but everyone has learned to keep their cool when things get crazy and just enjoy the magic of the road.
ML: With the band being such a populous outfit, are songs often written with arrangements in mind, or do the arrangements follow the song? Or both? Or neither?
CS: Our songwriting styles vary from song to song. Some are written collectively with the group arrangement in mind and others are written by a single member or a few members and then brought to the band where we work on it as a whole. We don't have one given method that works to come up with arrangements; we tend to feel the songs out and trust each other enough musically to respect everyone's individual styles and ideas.
ML: Paper Bird operates without any percussion and only a one-piece rhythm section. How do you keep time on stage and in live performance settings?
CS: It's mainly just a matter of our musicianship coming out. You don't always need drums or percussion to keep time. Everyone has that inner rhythm that can keep their hands clapping or feet stomping during the course of any given song or set. It takes a little more practice on everyone's part to make sure we're tight rhythmically but it seems to be working out just fine thus far.
ML: A lot of press the band receives talks about "the sound of the mountains" or "the sound of Colorado." Not including yourselves, is there anyone you would point to as the quintessential Colorado group or musician?
CS: There are so many acts back home that have influenced and inspired us. Some of our good friends in that musical community include Laura Goldhamer, Flobots, Ian Cooke, Pee Pee, Hello Kavita, Achille Laurel, Bela Karoli, The Wheel, and Elephant Revival. I think more than there being any quintessential Colorado group is the awesome musical community that is being created out there as we speak. Colorado is getting some great national attention and all of the bands and musicians in town are encouraging and supporting each other to keep playing as much as possible.
ML: The band's back story relates a tale bordering on a hippie commune genesis, although the band's progression (and sound) from there conveys more of a strong sense of family and shared identity. Your individual personalities obviously influence the band's sound, but does the band's sound at all influence your life away from the music?
CS: The band's sound and our way of life in relation to that always seem to be intertwined on a very deep and humbling level. We have never tried to sound one way or the other, it just came out of the different musical styles that we have all individually gathered. We really function like a family in many ways and our music lies at the core of that. We all seem to have this instinctual need to create music and to share that with the world. When we all come together for a practice or performance and get to express that passion, it fuels us to continue developing and expanding the music to reflect where we are in life. I think we all crave the sound and power that our band can create and it has influenced us to do exactly what we are doing right now: traveling around the country playing music at every chance we get and striving to do that for a long time to come.
ML: Paper Bird's approach to merchandise - designing and crafting each item yourselves - is pretty unique, especially in light of a lot of the CafePress-type operations the internet has given rise to. What brought about the idea, and who does the design and crafting?
CS: The hand-made merch idea started out by just being too poor to afford other options. [Vocalist] Esme [Patterson] and [guitarist] Paul [DeHaven] started to sew fabric designs onto extra clothes we had in the closet or we got from the thrift store. From there it progressed into us making our own screen prints, with [trombonist] Tyler [Archuletta], being the art guru, designing many of the images. We continued with the theme by making patches and stickers all with our own hands. We figure the more involved with every aspect of our band we can be, the more connection we can maintain with our music. On the road we all help out with the making of merchandise, setting up sewing machines when we find a house to stay at and cranking out the shirts as best we can. We could just sell a standard shirt but I think all of us prefer the artistic integrity of going a little bit farther in everything we do.
ML: Two of the group's three singers [Esme and Genevieve Patterson] are also sisters. By virtue of their having (theoretically) similar vocal capabilities, has this introduced any unique dynamics to either the band's songwriting or its arrangement (or both)?
CS: I think the main dynamic that the sister element has brought to the band is an ease of musical understanding and creation between all our vocalists. The harmonies that they come up with astound me nearly every day and the ease at which they make their voices blend together is an amazing thing to watch.
ML: How did Paul DeHaven's pinecone adventure video for "Grey and Blue" come about?
CS: Paul is one of the most creative people I know and from what I recall, he was simply up late one night with a barrowed computer and decided to make a video. Pretty spur of the moment and magically creative.
ML: This probably isn't news, but there's a German band with the same name as yours and a sound some may construe as vaguely similar. Has this caused any headaches for either of the Paper Birds, and do you have any advice for other bands, from either a creative, legal or promotional standpoint, that may find themselves in the same shared-name situation?
CS: There has been some confusion between the two of us for sure, but luckily we found each other a while ago and have been in pretty good communication. No major headaches, just some emails and links sent to the wrong person. We also reside on different continents and I'm sure that helps diminish some of the problems that could potentially arise. From a creative standpoint, I always think it's a good idea to find a unique name but sometimes you think you've found one and it's just not the case. Make good music or art or whatever you do and let that distinguish you in the marketplace.
ML: Finally, you're plenty busy outside of the festival, but do Paper Bird actually get to enjoy Monolith as spectators (and not just as performers), and if so is there anyone you're looking forward to seeing?
CS: We're only performing one of the days of the festival so hopefully we'll have a lot of time to enjoy a lot of great music. I'm looking forward to seeing some local acts getting some great attention, Devotchka, the Wheel, and Joshua Novak being those, but we're super excited to be playing with the likes of Band of Horses, Atmosphere and Del the Funky Homosapien.
The Paper Bird are playing Monolith on Sunday, September 14th at 8:15 pm.
Photo thanks: Sir James Holden
