They’ve described themselves as a mix of rock, reggae and roots, but Papaya Tree should really just be defined as a whole lot of fun. With pounding drums and a lilting, eery guitar, occasionally shredded to pieces by a killer horns section, their debut single Bamboo Schooner is a track which packs in all their influences and strengths to come up with a wild and electrifying first release.
They say that the band formed through a series of unlikely events involving a schoolyard, a butcher and a university, but they are now in the unique position of having members from pretty much every far flung corner of Sydney city.
Their first track off the blocks Bamboo Schooner is a great time, a mix of many sounds, and a dope introduction to the band as a whole.
It’s music for a good time, where even the most stationary Susan can’t help but get up and move to the infectious world that Papaya Tree creates.
“We have been touring for a while now and we feel as though we’ve surpassed the limits that bands have if they don’t have music out.” Papaya Tree shared, “We polished our sound to the extent where we felt any recorded tracks we had didn’t compare to our live show.”
“We had a couple of mixes before we finally got to where we wanted the song to be. Further it had to have all the bells and whistles; an out there video clip and fantastic album art – it is a special song to us and we weren’t going to just chuck it online, it needed to be pampered.”
For a band without anything released before, if Bamboo Schooner doesn’t get them off the ground then we don’t know what will. They’ve also gone far enough as to make a tight AF music video to go with the single. You ain’t going to forget this one in a hurry.
Papaya Tree’s influences are far from few and anyone with an ear for a danceable unifying sound, these boys are making music just for you. As Lee from the band has said:
“Papaya Tree is like this melting pot of musical tastes that normally shouldn’t go together, which is a bit different from just saying ‘it’s a jazz band’ or ‘I’m in a funk band’. Everyone brings something different to the table.”
“Ali in his drumming taps in to his fusion jazz background which he is a freak at, Zac and Jord draw horn lines from early 90’s RnB and The Cat Empire, Jack changes like the weather with what he likes but to channel Parcels and Chic when he’s writing for guitar, Joe is basically the third Gallagher brother and a sucker for pop music and personally I take inspiration in my playing and story telling from more roots based artists like the John Butler Trio and Fat Freddy’s Drop.”
Papaya Tree are groovy and ready to get down and funky. With bright pop undertones and considered lyricism, this is a band worth knowing about.
