Great Mistakes is Paper Arms' 3rd full length album, recorded at Capitol Sounds Studios and mixed in the US by Brian McTernan (Texas Is The Reason, Balance & Composure, Thrice). Over the last 7 years, Paper Arms have acheived a great deal. Touring Australia relentlessly with some of punk rock’s biggest names, appearing on Australia’s Big Day Out, Soundwave and Hits & Pits festivals, signing to Melbourne’s Poison City Records, and later Germany’s Uncle M records, releasing two classic albums and touring Europe twice – sharing stages with the likes of Boysetsfire, Strike Anywhere and Chuck Ragan. But the feather in the band’s hat will come in 2015 While most people were relaxing over the Christmas break of 2014, Paper Arms were locked away in Adelaide’s Capitol Sound studios recording their 3rd full length album, Great Mistakes. It’s an album written in spite of the 800km distance that formed between the band and vocalist Josh Mann. It’s an album that was written in spite of the loss of a founding member. And it is an album that is hopelessly optimistic in spite of it all. If 2013’s often heartbreaking, ‘The Smoke Will Clear’ was a funeral, Great Mistakes is a celebratory wake. Running the gammut from punk-rock to grunge to spacey epics, the album sees the band taking their wide range of influences, and weaving them together as if they we always meant to be. With lyrics ranging from a final farewell to old love to a cathartic “fuck you” to Australia’s right wing Prime Minister, Great Mistakes is the album Paper Arms have been working towards since their first show in 2008. The smoke did clear and this is what they found.
