Paint Job x Roll The Dice
Roll The Dice, a masterclass in using every trick in the guitar rock manual but how and why? Let’s ask Frontman and Vocalist Trevor Zadro-Jones
Where does a song like Roll The Dice start? Take us into the laboratory of Paint Job?
When we wrote Roll The Dice, it was always intended to be an homage to the classic rock genre, but with our own little flairs of course. I think that's well demonstrated in Sam's beautiful guitar solo at the end!
Lyrics are clearly very important to you, some cryptic and some quite matter-of-fact, is there a cathartic or purging aspect to writing for you?
Lyric writing for me is basically a journal. I write anything and everything that means something to me and usually leave a lot of it up to interpretation, in case the listeners want to find their own meaning or relation to the song. Most of my songs have pretty dark undertones when you really listen to the words but this one is one of the rare happy tracks haha.
Most of the self-titled EP (Mid 2022), has a fairly straight forward approach to both the content and structure. While Roll The Dice wouldn’t be classed as “Prog” it is more nuanced than your previous works, is that intentional or was it just organically created through jamming?
This song started with the lyrics I wrote; about grabbing life by the balls and making every moment count. We had a pretty simple chord progression to go with it and Sam added the lead part and duelling guitar riff while we were jamming it out one night. From there I guess we each just added our own flavours till it became what you hear in the recording now. Since we formed as a band, I feel like we've been getting steadily more and more experimental. The Paint Job EP was a lot of our earliest music, as is Roll The Dice, but some of the stuff we're cooking up now is very different and really fun. Can't wait to get it out there.
Is Australia going to be big enough for your best intentions for Paint Job?
Mate, the Milky Way isn't big enough.
For the most part, the members are in the Upper Blue Mountains of N.S.W, what are the pros and cons of that isolation?
That sort of isolation definitely had an impact on my lyric writing, as I spent a lot of time as a teenager just sitting on cliffs or by streams alone. But yeah the music scene in the mountains is super diverse which gives us a lot to draw from locally. Unfortunately Alex lives near Penrith and I'm in Kensington now so weekly rehearsals can be a bit difficult, but we push through the fire and the flames.
When setting out to write lyrics, are they the product of direct influence or amalgamations of experience?
It depends on the song I guess. Roll The Dice was an amalgamation of shitty feelings I was having, that I decided I was sick of having. Each song we do is different, so it's hard to pinpoint.
What does 2023 have instore for Paint Job?
We're working on some new stuff that's quite different to anything you've heard from us so far. We're also hoping to do a little tour up to Melbourne and jump back in the studio as soon as possible.
Paint Job’s latest single Roll The Dice out now!
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