An interview with Paul conducted by Big lunch guitarist Todd McMechen
Q.When did you first know that you wanted to be a musician?
I was forced to play the French horn, and I new very clearly that I didn't want to ba a musician at that time. But at age 16, my friend Ken (Ken's cabinet services) loaned me a guitar.
Q. ..and?
That was it.
Q. What was the first project that you really felt that you connected with as a producer?
Burnt Noodle, first record.
Q. That record stayed in our CD player for months. Great record. Beautiful underground stuff.
A. Thanks. There is this German women who works down at the Wildflour bakery in Freestone, she moved to England and brought the Burnt Noodle CD with her as her "California record." She ended up meeting some other Germans who already had the record.
Q. What was the deal with the Burnt Noodle CD in Europe?
A. I sent it out to a bunch of people and nothing happened. I was in Germany shopping a punk record I produced called "the Things you say" by the Lincolns, and I brought my one copy of the Noodle record to Dark Star record store in Hamburg . I asked the guy if he liked "stoner music" he said yeah, and he bought the copy. The buyer liked the CD and I sent them 25 copies at first, then shipments of 50 at a time. About 6 months later the head of Germany's Swamp Room records contacted me and said he loved the record and wanted to sell it in Europe. For a low budget art record it got some legs because it seemed to strike a chord with people. It was on compilations in Greece, and Spain and I just heard that it's still getting airplay in St. Petersburg Russia. It made it's way to South America as well.
Q. It's interesting how all of that improv from the
Northern California Coast managed to travel the world.
A. That band has a really high level of musicality, and that improve music was made completely free of commercial goals. I believe That if your art is pure, despite whether your popular or not, there are enough people who will smell something genuine and find you. We are lucky to have the internet.
Q. What is purity?
A. Put it this way, when we made that record, there wasn't a plan to sell records, we were just making music.
More later…