Local five-piece Paperboy have been playing together for around three years now. From their early origins in reggae and ska they have morphed into a more soulful group, maintaining those influences while forging a new, original and relatable style. Following a recording stint at London’s AIR Studios, and subsequent release of their single and live video ‘In the Morning’, Brightonsfinest caught up with them for a chat.

How do you feel about this single in terms of songwriting, compared to your earlier material?
We're happy with how the song shows how we’ve progressed. That progression is quite hard to define, but majorly we think it’s the result of our focus on tone and feel, along with our focus on arrangements and our determination to make the most out of what we had. Of course we’ll always have self criticisms, and we’re reluctant to call this our 'best', because that’s preference and mood dependant, but we think this song nicely lines us up to arrive in our musical destination, which is slightly further away from the youthfulness of our previous recording, towards a more serious sound in the future. The thing we’re most happy about in this song is how we’ve managed to create such a drastic change between the playfulness of the verse and the strength of the chorus. We're confident that our next release will be even better, but this single is arguably our best recording so far.

How did you land the recording session?
We won the two days by being voted the most popular band on the new music app, RifTalk. There were a ton of great bands on the app and it was definitely a surprising outcome.

How did it feel to record somewhere as prestigious as AIR? Were you intimidated or just loving it?
It was a real pleasure to work there. It would have been easy to get intimidated by the fact that such big names, like Coldplay and Lionel Richie, had been in that room before us and with the same engineer, but that's not really what we’re about. We just loved it.

How much do you think AIR influenced the sound of the record?
It definitely influenced the sound a lot. Not just in terms of clarity and quality but you can't help feeling different, and that feeling definitely finds its way into the song. The room’s so big that you never have to deal with another person trying to get involved in what you’re trying to do and you really have the space to remove yourself and create. That space can definitely be heard on the record as a nice natural reverb, but what you can’t ‘hear’, but can often sense in the records that come out of there is just how the whole atmosphere of the studio is geared towards creating something really special. Maybe it’s the surreal idea of being in an old church, maybe it’s the fact that George Martin would have been sat or stood exactly where we were, or maybe it was the cool colour scheme and the fact that the entire top of the room was windowed, but there’s definitely something special about that room, and we cant wait to get back in there.

What was the reception of the single like?
We've had very positive feedback so far and the fans seemed to love the video. We hope the momentum will continue by now making it available for purchase. The visuals definitely helped with audience engagement, but weirdly we didn't feel like it detracted from the song. We had the video edited in a way that would draw your attention to the parts played by different instruments at different times, and that was something that people seemed to really enjoy, purely because it helped them listen to the different levels of the recording.

Will you find it hard to go back to an ordinary studio after working with the staff at AIR?
In one sense, yes, because the sound and staff there are just incomparable. In another, no, because there's lots of good studios around and we like to keep things interesting. It's surprising how much a change of surrounding affects how you make music, and that's something we'll never want to forget. We often strip things back in rehearsals to a more acoustic type arrangement, purely because it makes you think different, and different rooms work in a similar way.

What’s your experience of releasing a single and video as an unsigned band?
It's quite hard work but all good fun. Finding the right team to support the single and the amount of emails that had to be sent were probably the hardest aspects, but it’s fun to see support pop up from people you never would have thought would be into your music.

Do you have more material to come, and when?
We do have a lot more material but only a few things we would consider good enough to record. We can't give you an exact time of when you'll hear them, but hopefully it'll be very very soon.

What is your writing process, and who is involved?
Our songwriting formula changes every time and we think if it didn't we'd produce similar stuff and probably get bored. The one thing that does stay consistent is that the lyrics and melody are written by our main men, Charlie and Natty. With Charlie being our lead vocalist it’s important that the vocals are well catered to his style, and that’s something that we feel really ties our music together and something that will stay consistent throughout our releases. Having said that, we're all involved in our own way. Each of us works our instrument in a way that only we could, and the songs wouldn't be what they are without all of us.

What’s going on with gigs at the moment, past and future?
No gigs booked in at the moment, we had to take a back seat on the live stuff so we could focus on our writing and playing, which we’re confident was the right decision for us. We've done some great shows in the past, including Bestival and a support for Gentleman’s Dub Club, and we're definitely looking to play some great shows in the future.

Where do you hope to be in a year?
That's a difficult question, we tend not to have definitive targets, because we like that we could take any direction in the industry. Ideally we would like be on the radar for labels like XL or Island, who are two massive labels that we have great respect for. Failing that, we’d like to have made some good contacts in smaller indie labels and we'll be working towards a record and publishing deal. The one thing we can definitely say is that a year from now we will be producing and releasing better songs.

Is there anyone on the scene you’d like to collaborate with?
We’re all up for colabs but, honestly, we don’t think that’s on the cards for a little while because we're still in the process of establishing ourselves. I think one person we would have loved to work with is Bill Withers, which obviously isn’t much of a possibility but we’re all massive fans and we like to think our music would work well together.