Up next is Agatha from new dream-pop duo Paper Plates.
Who are you? Tell us a bit about your music:
Well to start off, Paper Plates is an emerging alt/dream pop duo based in Wellington. Noah and I (Agatha) started writing music together in university and wanted to shed light to mental health awareness within the music industry as well as the wider communities of NZ. Our music reflects those issues in both sound palette and lyrics – in some songs we try to build layers of various sounds into one giant explosion of emotion, others we keep restrained and controlled like you would an inner fire on a quiet ‘stare at the ceiling’ kind of evening.
What have you been working on lately? Any new tracks or albums on the way?
We released our debut EP, “Playground Walls” in September 2019, and at the moment we’re working on some new material that we’re hoping to bring to you all soon! So hopefully we’ll be sharing some new tracks to celebrate the new decade. At the same time we’re working on our live set up and sound – we want to make sure we can reflect our sound and messages to you guys while having as much fun as we can on stage ourselves.
Where is the best place people can follow you & find your music?
Feel free to follow us or flick us a message through our social media!
1. Our Instagram page
2. Our Facebook page
3. Website
4. YouTube channel
5. Or just any streaming platform of your choosing ahah just search up our band name! (Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play etc etc etc.)
What were the 3 most influential albums/songs to you growing up?
Hmm I better answer on behalf of the band.. When we started up the band Noah and I talked about the kind of mood spaces we liked that were created by our influential artists. This lead us to these three
songs:
1. “Myth” by Beach House (from the album, Bloom). Personally, I could sit or lie down anywhere quiet and get lost in this track – all the layers in this song create this charming black hole of comfort.
2. “New York I love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” – LCD Soundsystem (from the album, Sound of Silver). We love LCD Soundsystem ugh. This song has such a vulnerable yet restrained mood space to it, you don’t even realise you’re already halfway through the song til you’re there. The big build up at the end is so crushingly raw, it’s like the pent up emotions from the whole song is being unleashed. We actually covered this during our Live Stream session because we loved it so much (can be found on our Facebook page!).
3. “Gondry” – HYUKOH (from the album, 22). This is one of my personal favourites from HYUKOH, it literally feels like a light snow that you don’t know when it’s going to melt away – it’s that intimate. But this is also such a fun band, definitely worth a listen if you haven’t heard them before.
Which other Wellington musician (s) would you most like to work with?
So many. We’d love to work with our local Wellington/NZ artists even if their genre is completely different to ours – we want to explore and evolve our music because that’s what it’s all about. It’s definitely something we want to work with this year.
What is your favourite Wellington venue to play in?
So far it has been in the huge live studio S1 at Massey University, where we streamed our performance of lights, visuals, full band and dancers live to you guys in October 2019 via Facebook. This was such a special venue to play in not to mention fun – the people we worked with made it worth so much too and we look forward to playing in more unique spaces like this in the future.
In your songwriting or composing (or the band’s songwriting) how do the compositions and songs take shape?
Usually either Noah or myself will think of a backbone idea of a song e.g I’ll write a song on the piano with a basic structure and lyrics and melody to show to Noah. From there he will take more of a lead into producing the track. It’s been a fun experience writing together and I’m sure it’s been a learning curve for both of us. I think because I am a vocalist the songwriting comes more naturally whereas Noah who is a drummer (amongst other instrumental things) is more of a natural producer. He is a really supportive friend and sees the potential in the things I write which has produced a cool synergy within our songwriting/composing.
Where/when is your next gig?
Our next performance will be at the Newtown Festival 2020! Come join us on the 8th of March @ the Colombo St Stage at 4pm for a boogie – bring a picnic and some great company and share the fun with us. Look forward to seeing you there!