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Rocking the Daisies announced on Wednesday, that British rock band Paper Sea are going to be headlining the festival this year. The 14th edition of the South African music and lifestyle experience will be taking place from 4 to 6 October at Cloof Wine Estate, Darling. The world-famous band is currently touring in Mexico and Channel24 gave them a call about this historic announcement and so much more. Channel24 connected with lead singer Andrew 'Andy' Sutcliffe (whose name is also recognisable as a member of the Van der Merwe and van Schalkwyk families) and spoke to him about coming to South Africa, making music, personal growth and critical reception among other things.
During a Skype call made from a hotel room in London, the talented Brit – who finds himself in Mexico on tour - said about coming to South Africa: "I have been before, it's arguably a second home, but it will be the first time for some of the band."
Looking forward to the live element Andy said: "In terms of culture, South Africa is one of the biggest places that we haven't been to so, it's going to be crazy, especially for people seeing us for the first time." Elaborating on his plans for when he gets to Mzansi the singer said: "The one nice thing is that I can skip the overly touristy bits of South Africa. I always enjoy becoming immersed in a city when I travel, and with a built-in tour guide, we'll have that opportunity."
Looking forward to the band's set at the local music festival, Andy said: "If you're a big Paper Sea fan, I want it to be an all-encompassing experience of the band. That's something that is hard to do at festivals because you're limited with time but it's what I want to do." Are the entertainers limited by the logistics of bringing an entire stage show across the world? Andy says: "Yes and no. I believe that design should be functional. You see all of these amazing looking shows but then they can't tour them, or it takes 19 hours to put it all up. And then you have to take it all down. That's not really good design to me." Adding about their own set-up: "For our own show, it was really important that it was scalable. So, all of the visual ideas that we had…we can at least do a version of them and still deliver the same idea. Which you can't do if your primary creative statement is floating on a stage in the middle of an arena." About putting on a show no matter what: "Even if we can't do that, it's also about that we started off as a small emo band who would put on a show no matter what. The most important thing is that people feel personally addressed."
On seeing hitting the stage, a different way, the singer said: "We see our whole history from the perspective of the fans, that is what makes the live show, cool. Because we're working in all of these fan favourites which maybe doesn't showcase us at most proficient but that they love. It's all about the fans."
If you're clamouring to know if you'll hear any of Paper Sea's forthcoming album, Notes on a Conditional Form, which is due for release later this year as well as whether or not you'll hear any of the unreleased work on stage at Rocking the Daisies 2019, you'll have to patient. Andy candidly admitted: "I would love to tell you all of that but unfortunately I don't even know. I have had to embrace this creatively unstructured time. Even with A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, I was releasing singles before the album was actually done. And the same thing is happening with Notes on a Conditional Form." He added honestly: "I look at some of the stuff I was saying about the first album (in this set of two) and it was complete rubbish. With this one I have my playlist of what I think will be on it (the new album) but most of them (songs) won't actually be on it."
About being in that kind of a flux situation, the lead singer said: "The lyrics have always come late, so the narrative structure has also always come late. So, I suppose I learnt how to let that happen. And I've had to wrap my head around the fact that with the right amount of work and setting up these things will fall into place." He mused: "So promoting records that aren't finished yet is a kind of new process for me."
the perfect and precious andy sutcliffe ig videos, pre-show 20/03/2019 (link)
one day i'll sit my children down and tell them the tale of the moment in suttauk history when andy sutcliffe tagged harlowe montauk in this and asked which of her cousins this was
