Video settings

Please Log in to update your video settings

Video will begin in 5 seconds.


Replay video

Video settings

Please Log in to update your video settings

Melbourne band Paper Jane interview

Meet this alternative roots band, with a sometimes rock and country feel.

PT5M1S 620 349

TAKE a pinch of country, a dash of gospel, add a sprinkling of rhythm and blues with plenty of rootsy swagger and some background vocals by a bunch of friends on the grog, and you could have a recipe for a musical disaster.

On the other hand, you could have Paper Jane, a Melbourne band making waves in the indie-music scene with their Americana sound (if you are wondering what the Americana sound is, it's all of the above, bar the friends).

''Or you could say we are an Appalachian band,'' muses Buck Edwards, the group's slick-haired, guitarist and songwriter. ''That sounds good. I like that.''

Indie newbies Paper Jane &#8212; Tim Lane, Buck and Candy Edwards and Tom Curry &#8212; know how real life feels outside a band.

Indie newbies Paper Jane — Tim Lane, Buck and Candy Edwards and Tom Curry — know how real life feels outside a band. Photo: Woodnote Photography

The appearance of the banjo could indeed qualify them for that particular pigeonhole, except it's played by Edwards' wife, Candy, a finger-pluckin' Indian-born midwife who possesses all her own teeth.

The band's debut album, First Morning Song, mixes steel guitars with the usual introspective tales of heartache, but at the same time stretches some of those old-time southern sounds into newer, darker shapes; ''a bit Nick Cave, a bit dirty'', Buck says.

It has been eight years in the making, its development growing and taking shape along with the band's eight children, the youngest of whom is three.

Candy Edwards on stage.

Candy Edwards on stage. Photo: Woodnote Photography

But Paper Jane are not in a rush; for them, making music is an act of passion rather than a commercial imperative. And, they all admit, it's been a wonderful antidote to the pressures of child-rearing.

Drummer Tim Lane (father of four) says: ''I guess I would be ecstatic if I could just get up in the morning and say to myself I have nothing to do today other than make beautiful music with people I like. That's a wonderful dream but it doesn't happen for many people.''

Which is why he's happy to work as a firefighter in Gisborne and hook up with the band every Monday for rehearsals. For Buck, a drug and alcohol counsellor, making music is a creative outlet.

''My job can be high-pressure, but it gives you a really nice perspective on life; what helps and what doesn't.

''You learn a lot about people, how they react to ups and downs of life, and I hope that reflects in the stories, in the music. It probably feeds what I am trying to do in as far as writing songs that hopefully people will listen to and relate to. Songs that say something about their life.''

Buck and Candy met when she was playing in all-girl trio Myrrh. ''I was the supportive groupie,'' Buck quips. When the band broke up, the pair started performing together, but, Candy says with a midwife's down-to-earth honesty, a duo can be really boring. ''I don't think we were as good as we could have been.'' (Her husband is more diplomatic: ''We hadn't found our groove.'') They knew Tim from way back so invited him to join, and then met bassist Tom Curry, more than 10 years their junior, through friends.

''We got him in because he brings the average age down,'' Buck jokes. ''And he's a beautiful singer.'' Eighteen months ago they decided it was time to go into a studio and approached Dave McCluney, of Atlantis Sound, who has worked with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Dave Graney, to name a few.

''The relationship worked nicely from the start,'' Buck says. ''What I really liked is that a lot of the background scenes have a really warm vinyl sound. There were a lot of instruments which were set up in the studio which we started playing. It felt very relaxed.''

The gospel sound was created by the Green Ginger Wine Choir, who are not really a choir at all, but ''our mates on grog''. Lane says: ''We had no money, so we dragged them in and tried to get the sound as if we had money to spend.''

He says it paid off: ''Rather than sounding like a choir, it sounds like a group of mates singing, with all the warmth. What I love about playing in bands is that a group of people come together and you get something bigger out of it. We got something greater than we could have hoped for. It was so much fun to do.''

So where does the name Paper Jane come from? ''We wanted something that sounded universal,'' Lane says, and Buck nods. ''Jane is an archetypal universal name.'' Paper suggests fragility. ''But Fragility Jane is out,'' Lane laughs.

The indie-sounding name will no doubt appeal to a younger fan base, but the music is clearly for Gen X. ''It's for people who like songs and songwriting, melody and instrumentation,'' Buck says. ''It's very melody-driven. It's taken eight years of songwriting to get to this point, but it's nice to look at it and go, 'I'm not ashamed of it, I'm happy with that.' Your biggest fear is that when you've finished you'll hate it, but I don't. I love it.''

The band's collective influences come from American singer-songwriters such as Ray Charles, Ryan Adams, Gillian Welch and Sufjan Stevens.

For Candy, who also plays the harp, mouth organ and slide resonator, one of her abiding childhood memories is listening to her mother's Elvis records - no sitar music or Bollywood classics from a family mourning the land they left behind. ''The only Indian thing about me is the head wobble.''

Despite being more suited to the over 30s, First Morning Song has earned the stamp of approval from the Edwards' eldest son, aged 12.

''He was listening to it and he said, 'Mum, this is actually really good.''' Now they are hoping bigger audiences will be as easy to crack.

Paper Jane launch their debut album, First Morning Song, at the Thornbury Theatre on December 6.