The Paper Kites Reveal Their Femme Fueled Collaborative Album “Roses”

Australia’s gentle indie folk ensemble The Paper Kites have revealed their latest album Roses a collection of songs, each featuring a new female feature artist. A powerful sentiment of all things soft and sweet, Roses is a token of the outfits brand, filled with delicate calm tracks that are simultaneously powerful in their own right. 

In good company, Roses is a “collection of songs we had written and wanted to record with these artists,” said producer Sam Bently. “It’s an album of duets - for lack of a better word.”  

As the first collaborative piece for The Paper Kites, each song presents a diverse range of women, dynamic by their own accord, featuring Lucy Rose (UK), Julie Stone (AU), Nadia Reid (NZ), Maro (PT), Aoife O’Donovan (US), Rosie Carney (IE) Ainslie Wills (AU), Amanda Bergman (SE), Lydia Cole (NZ) and Gena Rose Bruce (AU).

“I had written these songs and had always wanted to do an album like this, but I remember almost scrapping the whole project because it felt too hard. It was about finding the right voices for the songs - artists that couldn’t just sing but had something deep and moving in the way they sang - and that’s not every singer - it’s rare,” said The Paper Kites.

With each song different from the last, the album plays like a photo album or a book of poetry - a beautiful collection of things that are closely related but also so far apart. The diverse nature of each song, while all faultless, further enhances the deep soul and spirit of Roses. 

“Walk Above The City”, the album's opening track featuring prolific Portuguese singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Maro was released as a single in February this year has already received close to 900,000 streams on Spotify alone and was awarded track of the day by The AU Review. 

“I remember Maro was the first artist that agreed to be on the album, which was perfect because she was the first artist in a long time who really stopped me in my tracks when I heard her sing. We saw her play in Munich with Jacob Collier and I'd never heard anything like her voice. I didn't find out until we connected a few months later that she was a fan of our band. It was really special to do that song with her."

Including one of Australia’s most treasured young musicians Julia Stone, known for her half of the sibling duo Angus and Julia Stone, on the conversational duet "Without Your Love" accents glistening instrumentation in support of stunning vocals. 

"I grew up listening to Julia's music and some of her work was really pivotal in turning me down the road I went-so to approach her and have her love that song and want to sing on it was an amazing full circle moment she’s such an important figure of the folk revival in Australia and I don't think we would be a band without them leading the way. It was a real honour to work with her."

Playing a part in the positive revolution of inclusion of women in music, The Paper Kites have made a formidable display of featuring ten unique and influential artists while staying true to their signature sound. Continuing their reign, The Paper Kites will be hitting the road this August 2021 for a National tour of Australia.