Interview

EP: Can you please state your name and position in the band?
Jake: My name is Jake [Rolleston] and I sing for Paper Rival.

EP: For newer fans reading this, can you explain what happened with the band’s name change from Keating to Paper Rival?
Jake: There was a band in Canada named Keating and we were trying to avoid the troubles with sharing a name with another band. We decided to forego all the lawsuits and change our name.

EP: What’s the story behind the name Paper Rival?
Jake: It is a reference to the trouble we were going through with the name. They were our rival on paper; competing with them for the Purevolume name, Myspace name ect. We also wanted to have a purely original name that wouldn’t get confused with anyone else.

EP: The first time I’d heard of (saw) your band was on the Circa Survive tour in 2006. How was it for you, an unknown band, to score an opening slot with Circa Survive?
Jake: It was incredible. The way we got on that tour was one of us owned [Circa Survive’s] booking agent and we e-mailed [him]. And now he owns the label (Photo Finish Records) we’re on now. We knew about them and like their direction. When we got on the tour they were the most accommodating people on the earth and that tour couldn’t have gone better than it did and look forward to doing it again soon.

EP: You performed at Bamboozle Left in April and just finished Bamboozle this past weekend. How was the Bamboozle experience? Do you enjoy the outdoor setting or the intimacy of a small club better?
Jake: It was awesome. [Sarcastically] We absolutely love playing crowded festivals. Honestly, I’m not a fan of giant crowds but being packed in a small room feels better because of the intimacy of that setting.

EP: You’re from Nashville, Tennessee, a city well known for its musical history. How did that influence you growing up? What role does it play today?
Jake: Being from the South makes everything you do, even if you don’t want it to, come out more organic. Everything has this down-home, woodsy feel which we love. You really have to be on top of your game because there are so many good bands; the local, unsigned bands there are arguably better than any signed band that comes out of there. It keeps you inspired; living there is a constant inspiration.

EP: Are there any modern bands that influence you?
Jake: There are but to be honest none of us listen to music that’s comes out in the past two or three years. I really like The National, Why, Son Lux. Bands that really influence us are bands like R.E.M., Jane’s Addiction, Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Pixies, Fugazi. That is where we come from; the more organic, old way of doing things. Not that we’re old; we’re all pretty young but we come from a place where our parents brought us up listening to music like that.

EP: You will be releasing your debut full-length Dialog next month. What is the significance behind the name Dialog?
Jake: We thought it would be a good name because the lyrics are full of stories and it feels like you’re having a conversation with people. Even with the way the music wraps around the words. There is something very conversational about it; it’s a dialog with our band and the listener.
EP: Are there any lyrical themes you were trying to convey?
Jake: There was a slight theme for me which was family, and a friend I consider family, and living vicariously through others problems. Patrick [Damphier, guitarist]] ended up writing some of the words and I ended up liking a lot of it. I haven’t really asked his intentions and I don’t really want to ask because I’m getting something from it and that helps me believe in it when I’m singing it.

EP: What is the band’s songwriting process like?
Jake: Patrick or I will have a guitar part and some words. There’s been instances where Cody [McCall] will have a bass part that we thought would make a chorus work and we write around that. It’s a pretty familiar situation. We get together in a practice space with a seed and plant it and hopefully it blooms.

EP: In your upcoming article in Alternative Press magazine, you talk about a difficult childhood incident with his childhood friend Phillip. Do stories like that tend to influence the lyrics more so than the typical tales of broken hearts?
Jake: Definitely. What [Phillip] did broke my heart; [that situation] is no different. Other people in your life can break your heart. It doesn’t have to be a girl or a boy; it can be your best friend or your sibling.

EP: You released a self-titled EP last year. Were those songs written and recorded during or before Dialog?
Jake: They were written before. We were recording the record and we thought some of those songs would make great b-side material so we decided to take those songs and make an EP out of them. Once we learned we were had to change our band name it, we thought it would give the people who knew us an idea as to where we were going with the full length.

EP: Patrick produces all of the band’s work. What is the reason for that?
Jake: We would rather record with someone we know rather than someone we don’t know and tells us what to do. He knows what he’s doing and he knows what we want.
EP: Could you ever see yourselves working with another producer in the future?
Jake: A lot of the producers we love either aren’t working anymore or have such busy schedules that can’t do it for one reason or another.

EP: What are the band’s plans for the rest of the year?
Jake: Touring non-stop.

Thank you to Jake and Paper Rival for your time and thanks to TJ Tauriello for setting up the interview.