If you only know the Paper Kites for their track “Bloom”—well, you’re like most people. It’s a jewel of a song, all rolling indie-folk acoustic guitars and delicately entwined vocal harmonies, and it is by far the Australian band’s most popular tune. Released in 2010, “Bloom” has been a slow burner—it took almost a decade for the single to achieve gold status in the U.S.—but it has racked up more than 200 million Spotify streams, and on YouTube the video is closing in on 23 million views.

The singular success of “Bloom” is even more remarkable when you hear how frontman and primary songwriter Sam Bentley defines the Paper Kites.

“We are an album band,” he says when the Straight rings him at home in the suburbs of Melbourne. “We’ve never been a band that just puts out a song without it being a part of something or alluding to something. And I understand bands that do that. I understand the whole streaming culture now, and that it is about getting your music out there, but I still believe that there are people who understand the art form of a record, particularly with the revival of vinyl.

“I’m not sure how it is over there, but in Australia CDs are all but done away with and it’s all vinyl in the music shops again,” Bentley says. “I think with that, people want a tangible thing that they can have in their homes to show their love for a certain record. That art form is coming back, and putting on something and listening to it from start to finish and really getting inside it and it becoming something that you feel speaks to only you, that’s definitely something that we really care about, and we’re very intentional about the way we craft everything.”

To get a clearer picture of just how much of an “album band” Bentley’s in, consider that the Paper Kites put out two of the darn things last year. The LPs are connected in many respects, from Gina Higgins’s film noir–esque cover paintings of lonely metropolitans to Bentley’s lyrical imaginings of the inner lives of others. Sonically, though, On the Train Ride Home is spare and stripped-down, while On the Corner Where You Live boasts a fuller sound, buoyed by atmospheric keyboards and shimmering electric guitars.

Bentley drew much of the inspiration for the albums’ songs by watching strangers and inventing back stories for them. When the Paper Kites aren’t on the road, he works at a movie theatre, which offers him both the opportunity to observe his fellow humans and the anonymity to do so inconspicuously.

“We have regulars that come in, and no one actually knows anything about them, even though we see them all the time, so there are many stories made up for those people,” he admits. “It’s great. I love working there. I love film, especially, and it’s a great place to be if you’re a film lover.

“No one has any idea what I do, out there,” Bentley notes. “I live way out in the suburbs, almost in a place called the Yarra Valley, which is wine country. And no one there knows that I play in a band or that I’m off touring all the time. It’s nice. It’s kind of like a Bruce Wayne day-and-night situation.”

The Paper Kites play the Vogue Theatre on Sunday (September 15) as part of the Westward Music Festival.