My 15 Minutes With... Papermaps hit the road

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: PAPERMAPS.NET
Papermaps will be at APK Live in London on October 18.

Papermaps — Dean Marino (singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer), Wendy Leung (keyboardist/ vocalist), Bobby Lee (drummer), Todd Harrison (guitarist/ keyboardist) and Betty Dimo (bassist) — have had a busy summer driving across the country for a Canada-wide tour. They're looking forward to being even busier thanks to the release of their new EP Inferior Ghost, which is available now. They're heading to London later this month, performing at the APK Live on October 18. I talked to Marino about what it was like to play at North by Northeast (NXNE) and how he and his band made it through some difficulties on stage and in their careers:

You guys just got off your big Canadian tour and held your CD release party right after in downtown Toronto at the Horseshoe Tavern. What was that like?
"The show was spaced out a little bit so we had time to actually recuperate from the lengthy driving that we did on the Canadian tour. It was nice to come home. There was a good crowd and I feel we had a good turnout. The people who were there were right up front and into it, so it was a nice, warm feeling. We had some technical issues during the show, which was unfortunate — some monitoring issues. It kind of put a damper on the first four songs for me, but midway through the set, I was feeling it. I think I made a joke to the crowd before our last two songs; I said, 'I finally feel comfortable with you.' Every show we played on the tour technically was great, but we come home and this happens."

NXNE is a pretty big deal in Canadian music, film and entertainment. You guys got the chance to showcase there back in June. Was that something you all wanted to be a part of for a while?
"We played NXNE the year before, so it wasn't our first, but it was certainly our busiest one. It was our most intense because we played a total of four shows and also did a lot of press and it was definitely the most we have done in such a short period of time. It was great because for us it was the most positive and productive NXNE we have played and been a part of so far in our careers, and we hope we can do it again. We also managed to play Canadian Music Week as well, so we somehow played both Toronto festivals, which is rare. The festival organizers like to book bands that didn't play in the other festivals just to keep a variety of acts, so we were really lucky to be a part of (NXNE) this year, and it turned out to be the best and busiest one."

By the looks of things, you guys have gone through a lot of changes location-wise and musically and say on your website that this EP is like, "...A farewell to the places we love." Can you elaborate more on the changes that have occurred and what is in store for you guys in the future?
"I ran a recording studio called Chemical Sound since 2006 and it sort of became the headquarters for the band. We would rehearse there, write material and we actually recorded our debut record there. I had to close the studio in March due to economic trends; basically the music industry trends where the market for big studios beat out the market for smaller studios, and I wanted to get out of the business of running a commercial studio before things got too crazy. So I closed the studio down and that meant that the band was sort of homeless for a few months, and we had recorded these songs that ended up being on Inferior Ghost. These songs were meant to be for a full-length album we were going to put out in early 2013, but I felt since we are changing our headquarters and already have these six songs, we might as well put them out as is and start fresh in a new space. Now we have a new studio that we work out of and it's kind of like we are turning the page as a band and starting fresh. I feel that if we included all the work we did at Chemical Sound and continued it at this new place now, the record would have seemed very lopsided and like a schism. Half of it would have a certain sound and the other half would have a completely different vibe, so for consistency we just pulled the plug on the project and released it as an EP."

For news, tour dates and to purchase Papermaps' new album, check out their website at papermaps.net.