A Night with Papercity Skyline

By Supergina

I arrived at Papercity Skyline’s practice spot half an hour ahead of schedule, only to greet Alex and Jeremy who had also showed up early and were waiting outside. In the half hour we waited for the rest of the band, Alex introduced me to a beverage called Joose, a 9.9% alcoholic energy drink. It wasn’t bad, and the whole band likes it, minus their singer, Jerry. TJ and Jonny showed up and I asked them what they’ve been up to, and to let me know about the van problems they’ve spent the last month trying to work out, which has left them unable to play too many shows. They joked about carrying all their gear to a gig if they had to. As Jerry then strolled up, fashionably late, the rest of the guys let me in on a mystery of the band: how Jerry gets to practice. No one really knows.

Looking around their practice room, they had a massive medieval sword hanging from the wall, pictures of hot chicks, gear, a small fridge, a whiteboard and their “mood lights.” As they get into the practice room, the jokes simmer down. All their energy becomes focused on the music and their movements. They stretch together, telling me that it prevents pulled muscles. I laugh until I see them start playing. They moved themselves around the room with intensity that I would expect from a live show. For fear of them just trying to impress me, I asked them if they always practiced like that…and… really? I mean… really? They were serious and told me that their energy of the live show is one of the most important aspects of their band, so practicing with that passion is important to them. They hurricaned through their five-song set, plus two new ones – and I had to watch myself from getting stepped on more than once. During practice they all had a few beers and a Joose, except Jerry who drank a cola of some kind. For the record, he likes Pepsi. The courteous gentlemen that they are shared one of their last beers with me. Such nice metal guys.

Their brand of metal puts together similar influences of other bands but shakes it up a little differently. I have to say that I am somewhat biased as my weakness is harmonizing guitars. They let me know that the addition of their new singer (who came from a more poppy background) has helped put a twist on the music. He has been in the band less than a year, while Papercity Skyline has been around for two and a half years. They are happy with where the band is now with writing style. Everyone writes songs, so anyone at any time can bring something to the table. They will very frequently record scratch demos with one mic in the room so that they can go home and work on the song. Jerry writes all the vocal parts, including the harmonies and the screams. Some of their slightly better recordings can be found on their myspace at myspace.com/papercityskyline.

The two guitarists, TJ and Jeremy, play out of mesa boogie dual-rectifier rack mounts. They wanted to make sure that everyone knew that the rack mounts are the best – by far. Their bass player, Jonny, said that if he could afford it he would have a symphony of Samoan dudes to hum all of his notes for him… or… all mesa boogie gear and a musicman 5-string stingray.

In the time I spent with them, I had to ask the band my favorite question, which is what they might want in their dressing room before every show. Well, they got creative on me, to say the least. Some of the things they said they would demand in their dressing room were: Joose (of course), a Best of Bobby Darin CD, five lubricated sports bras with attached snorkels, two naked male midgets with oversized boxing gloves in a tiny boxing ring, a box of turquoise razzleberry scented anal beads and a few other things that are too metal to print.

All in all I had a really fun time hanging out with the band and getting some insight on what makes them tick. As we parted ways, they gave me the porn star handshake, which was an elbow bump. They mentioned something about scabies and I took that as a cue that the interview was over. If you’re interested in seeing how these guys throw down, they’ve probably got a show or two posted on their myspace by now – go check them out!