In Bloom

When we first put up the video for Bloom [The Paper Kites' first single], we'd hardly even played any shows at all,” Rasmussen says down the line from his home in Melbourne. “We wrote it in about a day, put the video up and it slowly started to spread.” Giving weight to the theory that if it's good, people will hear it, the band found an audience for their sweet indie-folk tunes both in Australia and abroad purely via the internet, on the strength of one song. “All of a sudden we started seeing comments like 'Oh, hi I'm from the US,' or 'I live in England and I really like this song,' and it started growing from there. It spawned early on, kind of online but then we worked really hard to draw everyone across to seeing us live, 'cause we didn't just wanna be an internet band.”

Going on to release two EPs – Woodland ('11) and Young North ('12) – the Kites' fan base grew steadily and surely until they eventually found themselves on the road opening for Bombay Bicycle Club and supporting City & Colour all over the US. The beginning of last year saw the band bunker down at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne to record their debut LP, States, enlisting well known Australian producer/engineer/Knievel guitarist Wayne Connolly (the man behind the desk for You Am I's Hourly Daily) once again – they'd worked with him on Young North. “He fits in really well; I think if we had worked with a producer who was really assertive and controlling, it wouldn't have worked. Because the five of us, we're easygoing, but at the same time we have an understanding of each other and we kind of understand when things can stay the way they are and when we can change them. Wayne just kind of slotted in nicely, he just let us do our thing and sometimes he would gently suggest things and sometimes we'd agree, sometimes we wouldn't, but I think Wayne was a great choice. He has the right personality; I think he's a great producer to work with.”

With their own headline tour of the US and Canada late last year, a number of the shows were sold out, so they're doing something right. Rasmussen says the band doesn't feel any pressure when writing new material: “I don't think it affects us that much to be honest, I mean we want people to enjoy it, but our tastes are always changing and moving forward and we kind of just go with that. I'm not of the opinion that 'We play what we want and who cares who listens to it' because if it weren't for the people that support and listen to our music, we wouldn't have the resources to record or travel the world playing for all these people. So I definitely appreciate the people who listen to us and I suppose I just hope that they appreciate the music that we want to make.”