After fifteen years of near-constant touring and six albums recorded largely overseas, The Paper Kites deliberately slowed everything down for their seventh studio album, If You Go There, I Hope You Find It, released January 23. Speaking with Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips, bassist Sam Rasmussen reflected on how returning home, both creatively and geographically shaped one of the band’s most intimate and grounded records to date.
MORE ABOUT THE ALBUM
Rather than decamping overseas for a month-long immersive recording retreat, the band chose to work close to home in Victoria. Rehearsals took place at their creative hub in the Yarra Valley, a converted airplane hangar on a friend’s farm, before recording sessions unfolded across several weeks at a studio near Melbourne. The process allowed the band to keep a more natural rhythm to life: school runs in the morning, focused studio time during the day, and home with family by night. For Rasmussen, that balance reflected exactly where the band is now, seasoned musicians in their late 30s, many of them parents, comfortable moving between domestic life and creative intensity.
That sense of stillness and perspective also informed the album’s emotional core. The title, If You Go There, I Hope You Find It, came from a fleeting moment, Christina Lacy writing the phrase on a fogged bus window but it quickly resonated with the whole band. Rasmussen described it as a reflection of the restlessness and searching he sees in friends, family, and the wider world: people making big life decisions, sometimes hopeful, sometimes painful. The title captures a quiet empathy, a wish that whatever path people choose, it brings them peace.
Sonically, the band leaned heavily into what they now see as one of their greatest strengths: the way they play together. Much of the album was recorded live, with full-band takes and even lead vocals captured in real time. Imperfections were embraced, with the focus shifting away from “right” and “wrong” toward feel, character and charm. Rasmussen says hearing the finished songs now instantly transports him back to specific moments in the room, a testament to how faithfully the recordings captured the band’s chemistry.
The album’s sequencing was treated with equal care. Opening track “Morning Gum,” which began life as a simple acoustic sketch, was expanded into a slow-building introduction that feels like a waking moment, a natural beginning for a record the band still views as a complete, start-to-finish listening experience.
For Rasmussen personally, the sessions were anchored by bass guitar, primarily an old Greco Höfner-style instrument alongside forays into percussion, keys, harmonium and found sounds, including the unlikely addition of a broom dragged across the studio floor. These textures, while sometimes playful, were always in service of the song.
As The Paper Kites prepare to take the album on the road through Europe, the UK and the US, Rasmussen acknowledges the challenges of translating such detailed recordings to the stage, but says the band prioritises serving the song first and solving logistics later. Touring remains both a privilege and a sacrifice, especially as parents but the deeper fulfilment now comes from the body of work they’re building.
Ultimately, Rasmussen hopes the album does what music has always done best for him: soundtrack moments in people’s lives. More than chart positions or sales, he wants listeners to take these songs, make them their own, and find meaning in them, wherever they may be headed.
https://www.thepaperkites.com.au/
Track listing:
1. Morning Gum
2. Change Of The Wind
3. When The Lavender Blooms
4. Stormwall
5. A Word I Needed More
6. Shake Off The Rain
7. Every Town
8. Strongly In Your Arms
9. Deep (In The Plans We Made)
10. Borne By You
Label copy / credits
RECORDED AT SING SING RECORDING STUDIOS MELBOURNE, VICTORIA IN MAY 2025 RECORDED BY MATT REDLICH
ASSISTED BY TOM KEATING & JAMES TAPLIN PRODUCED BY THE PAPER KITES & MATT REDLICH
MIXED BY JON LOW AT HUDSON VALLEY & BROOKLYN, NY
ALL SONGS WRITTEN BY SAM BENTLEY EXCEPT ‘STRONGLY IN YOUR ARMS’ WRITTEN BY SAM BENTLEY, CHRISTINA LACY, DAVID POWYS, SAMUEL RASMUSSEN & JOSH BENTLEY
‘EVERY TOWN’ WRITTEN BY SAM BENTLEY, CHRISTINA LACY, DAVID POWYS, SAMUEL RASMUSSEN & JOSH BENTLEY
ALL SONGS ARRANGED BY THE PAPER KITES
MASTERED BY STEVE FALLONE AT STERLING SOUND, NJ
MATT DIXON PLAYS PEDAL STEEL ON ‘EVERY TOWN’, ‘STRONGLY IN YOUR ARMS’ & ‘BORNE BY YOU’ CHARLOTTE JACKE PLAYS CELLO ON ‘BORNE BY YOU’ & ‘STORMWALL’
MEG COHEN PLAYS VIOLIN & VIOLA ON ‘MORNING GUM’, ‘BORNE BY YOU’ & ‘STORMWALL’
THE PAPER KITES ARE SAM BENTLEY (LEAD VOCALS, GUITARS, ORGAN, HARMONICA, ACCORDION) CHRISTINA LACY (VOCALS, PIANO, RHODES, WURLITZER, ORGAN) DAVID POWYS (VOCALS, GUITARS, BANJO, PERCUSSION) SAMUEL RASMUSSEN (BASS, KEYS, PERCUSSION) JOSH BENTLEY (DRUMS, PERCUSSION}