The Paper Scissors

Overview

If you’re planning on heading to Oxford Art Factory to see The Paper Scissors play on Friday night, one thing you probably won’t find being emitted from the stage is the homely twang of an Australian accent. Jai Pynes seems to be making a conscious attempt to progressively neutralise his vowel sounds with every album the band releases, and we’re loathe to admit that its making their music sound really, really good.

Granted the guys spent a few months travelling around the US writing songs before returning to our shores to play them, so the spacey vibes and ambiguous vocal origins could maybe be put down to lingering jetlag. If that is indeed the cause, bands should deprive themselves of sleep more often — it’s not like extensive travel has ever been known to dampen the ability of Jai Pyne, Xavier Naughton and Ivan Lisyak to invest their live shows with seizure-like movements and the occasional vein-swelling howl. As long as they don’t drop that penchant for pretending they all have ADHD in the process of delivering more controlled, long-form epic rock soundscapes, then we don’t really care if they sound like Americans.