Venue’s George Hawes-Gatt caught up with Emma Panas, lead singer from London pop-duo Paper Crows.
When did you and Duncan McDougall (production) first meet and start making music together?
We met three and a half years ago at Kilburn Music School in London. We instantly connected and became really good mates. At the time I was doing solo stuff and so was Duncan. As time progressed, we realised we had similar music tastes and so started writing together. It was all really "organic" as much as we hate to use that word.
Who are your main inspirations/influences?
I was very inspired by Kate Bush because she's such an incredibly talented lyricist. We both love Massive Attack and Duncan is a huge fan of Craig Armstrong. We are constantly seeking inspiration from all different sorts of music, whether it be that one day we are listening to happy hardcore and the next we're listening to jazz. It really depends on our mood!
If you could support any artist right now, who would it be?
We just found out Sigur Ros are playing Bestival. We'd love to support them just to be able to watch their show every night.
Your cover of The Smashing Pumpkins song "Disarm" was featured on their Facebook page. That must have been a pleasant surprise for you?
It was incredible, we felt extremely humbled. We suddenly saw our Facebook fans shooting up and weren't sure why, we then got an email saying they'd posted it and were truly in shock! Duncan is a massive fan, and we wanted to do our own take on the song and pay it tribute. The response has been amazing and we are really pleased that people like it.
You’ve got a new EP out soon, when will it be released?
We have indeed. It's due for release in April with four tracks on it, and will be released on FFRR which is an imprint of Warner. We're really excited to get some more music out there for everyone to hear.
Following the release of your EP, can we expect a live date in Norwich?
Most definitely! We love playing live, it's one of our favourite things about being in music. We supported Fenech Soler back in September and played the Waterfront in Norwich, it's a wicked venue and the crowd were really up for it so hopefully we will be back there soon.