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Estrella: Could you please state your name and what you do in the band.
Patrick: My name is Patrick Damphier and I play guitar and sing background vocals.
Cody: I am Cody McCall and I play bass and sing background vocals.
Estrella: I know you guys recently had to change your name, how did that come to your attention and how long did it take you guys to come up with Paper Rival?
Patrick: There was a band in Canada that already had the same name as us. When we signed the record deal one of the first things they did was try to trademark our name and once they tried they found out they couldnt because there was a band in Canada with the same name. It's a girl named Cindy Keating, she calls her band Keating. They had already released music on iTunes before we had, therefore they would have won in court, and we didnt want to deal with it. And they plan on marketing us in Canada so it was the best idea to change the name. We found out in March and it took us about three weeks to come up with a new name.
Estrella: How did you guys come up with the new one?
Patrick: I had the idea to call the band Paper Tiger, and Jac had the idea to call it Modern Rival and both were taken so we took paper from mine and rival from his. We were not absolutely flipped out by the name, it was alright but it ended up being something that was 100% original which is very important considering how imperative it is we rely on the internet. We needed to be myspace/paperrival or paperrival.com and not have to tact the word band onto the URL. Also we justified the name as on paper we are rivals to the other Keating.
Cody: Also, last night I found out something that was pretty interesting. We overheard talking that we could be called Scissors. When playing paper rock scissors there is a hidden meaning in the word.
Estrella: Who said that?
Cody: I dont know just some people that were at the show last night. Scissors is the paper rival.
Estrella: How has this tour with Ace Enders been going and what are your tour plans when this one ends?
Patrick: The tour has been going very smoothly and very well. A lot of Early November fans have been coming out and they seem to be identifying with what we are doing which is great. We are selling a lot of records so the tour has been very positive for us. We do plan on touring in October. In September, we are going back and tying up all the loose ends with our full length record. It is about 98% done, but we dont know who we are going to be touring with in October, we just know that we are going to be touring.
Estrella: Who would you want to tour with?
Patrick: A dream tour?
Estrella: Yeah.
Patrick: Mewithoutyou, Brand New.
Cody: Broken Social Scene.
Patrick: Yeah Broken Social Scene, Colour Revolt, and Manchester Orchestra. Bands that are not afraid to take risks artistically instead of trying to sell records. Of course we need to sell records to make a living but we really would rather be as artistic as possible.
Estrella: So you talked about your record, what is left to finish on it?
Patrick: Mixing, I am actually doing the producing and mixing side of things. I just need to finish up mixing about four songs and we need to lay down the vocals of one more song.
Estrella: How long have you already had the album written for?
Patrick: Well we started writing in August of last year when we got off tour with Keating as a record deal. We signed a record deal in January and started recording in February. It has been written and recorded as we go.
Estrella: How many tracks are going to be on it?
Patrick: Eleven.
Estrella: Do you guys already have the order?
Patrick: No we dont, we are going to choose. Since the record won't come out until February we are going to choose which songs are going to make it, because we recorded fifteen. So there will be four B-sides. We are going to choose the eleven that are going to make it in November. We are going to tour on this EP hopefully from October through release. Maybe we will take a small break around the Christmas/New Years area.
Estrella: What is the name of the record going to be?
Patrick: One not One. That came from; it's our first record but technically not our first record. And we liked the three syllable feel to it; we liked the way it sounded.
Estrella: How did you guys end up getting signed to Photo Finish Records?
Patrick: About two years ago when this band started I emailed Matt Galle the president of Photo Finish. Photo Finish did not even exist then, he's a booking agent. He books the band Circa Survive and I owned their CD, found his name and email address in their liner notes, got bored one day and emailed him thinking nothing would come of it. About a week later he called me on my cell phone, said he was interested based on what for what we had online. He flew to see the second show we ever played, took us out to dinner said he was floored and started booking us. He put us out on tour for about 6 months, we had to quit our job it was pretty scary because we had no money.
Cody: We had this old van that barely got us through the tour.
Estrella: For your first tour, who were you guys with?
Patrick: For our first tour it was three really small bands that he booked. The most the shows every drew were about 150 on the weekend and during the week it was like 10 people at the most. It was just to get us out there and we ended up touring with Circa Survive and that was really cool, it was 900 kids a night. We ended up selling 100+ CDs a night as the first band. Then we started attracting a lot of label interest from Island, Warner Brothers and Atlantic and we ended up going with Matts label which is affiliated with Atlantic. We already had that connection, we trust him, and we have a really good relationship with him. All of the marketing stuff he was telling us sounded really good to us. The big thing about our band is we like to keep everything in the family, my girlfriend does all the merch, and she did the CD art. I do the recording stuff, so we really dont have any outside people, we dont even have a manager yet and he is cool with that. He lets us do pretty much what we want and that is very appealing so we went with them.
Estrella: What is one of your favorite lines in one of your songs?
Patrick: That's a good question; I was not prepared for that. Do you have one?
Cody: I am thinking, I have no really heard most of the finished product so it's hard for me to say. There are a lot of lines I like.
Estrella: Do you guys want to come back?
Patrick: Yeah, lets come back.
Cody: Yeah, Ill think about that one.
Estrella: Is there any songs you never get sick of hearing?
Patrick: Cause=Time by Broken Social Scene, I have been listening to that on my IPod.
Estrella: I have never heard that one.
Patrick: Have you ever heard of Feist? She is actually getting really big right now in the indie rock world. She just secured the Apple campaign so you will probably be hearing her music on commercials, but she used to be in Broken Social Scene.
Cody: I know the artist, Nina Simone remix song I never get sick of hearing it, but I can't remember the name of it. It is off of the Verve.
Estrella: What is something you have always wanted to do, but have not done yet?
Patrick: I want to see the Red Wood Forest, it is in North Eastern, California. I have always been fascinated by it because the trees are so massive and so pretty. We never get to see it on tour because we never get to go through there.
Cody: I would like to live in New York for a little while.
Estrella: Yeah me too, just for a little bit.
Estrella: If you could see any band or artist perform any song live what would it be and why?
Patrick: Living or dead?
Estrella: Yeah, anything.
Patrick: Well I guess I am going to go generic on this and say The Beatles.
Estrella: Ah, but what song?
Patrick: I would like to see The Beatles with John Lennon singing 'Happiness is a Warm Gun' that would do it for me.
Cody: I am going to go comic on this one and I am going to go for Tenacious D. I am not sure which song because they are all hilarious. I just want to meet Jack Black - that is my dream, meeting Jack Black.
Estrella: Aw yes, me too.
Estrella: Did you guys want to go back to the favorite line?
Patrick: Hmm yeah that one, the tuff one. It's from 'Cassandra.'
Cody: Is it the chorus?
Patrick: No, it's the first verse.
Cody: "I could see myself living in the ocean?"
Patrick: Yes, "I could see myself living in the ocean." That whole verse the way it's phrased is really poetic and intriguing and I just love the way it's worded. It kind of reminds me of some old Jane's Addiction off of Nothing's Shocking the song "Ocean Size" is the name of the song I believe. It's a very large epic sounding song, it kind of reminds me of that, so I think thats my favorite.
Cody: I like the line from the song called, 'Keep Us In' and it's going to be on the full length and the line is, "we are the dogs that we train, fighting off anything that we are unsure of." That song is about, in Tennessee in the last year they had the election if homosexuals should have the right to be married and have all the same rights as heterosexuals and of course being in the south it lost by a landslide. We were sort of embarrassed about that and wrote a song about it. That line talks about fighting off anything we are unsure of. I think it speaks very clearly and right to the point about that but still being kind of evasive at the same time. I like lyrics that could take on multiple meanings and I think that line could definitely take on multiple meanings. But when you know what the writer is trying to say you go, "Oh yeah, that makes sense" and that line says that to me.
Estrella: Do you have any last comments?
Patrick: Look for our record in February because we are going to be touring a lot and we would like to see some new faces.
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