The Beat Surrender

One of the best young talents around at the moment in my eyes has to be Paul Steel, a star in the making with oodles of talent who should hopefully explode (not literally) next year with the release of his full debut album Moon Rock, which follows on from his mini album April & I released earlier this year.

We took the chance just before Christmas shopping got in the way of website stuff to talk to Brightons finest, fresh on the back of his recent tour with Electric Soft Parade.

Things have really kicked on quite nicely for you this year with the critical success of your April & I mini album, the ‘Your Loss’ single was well received and of course you’ve been busy touring.

It’s been fun with lots of new experiences. The whole ‘April & I’ thing was just a dream come true cause I’d always wanted to do somekind of lo-fi symphonic concept album and to have it as my debut release was pretty awesome. There’s more to come from April and co though.

How have you found the touring, you’ve played a mixture of your own shows and support slots with the likes of Electric Soft Parade?

Touring’s been interesting. It’s taken myself and band to some really cool places like Japan, Germany and Dundee!!!! and we’ve had some fun. The ESP tour was definitely the best. Their latest album is a belter and to be able to play and then go watch one of the best albums of the year played live every night was a pleasure plus one half.

Have you found it hard to be going on as a supporting act after playing some small headline shows earlier in the year?

No, a lot easier. We haven’t gotten to the point where we can pull a decent crowd around the country yet so to be able to support a band with a good following has been great for us and we’ve been able to pick up more fans. Plus, we get to play our show, relax, pop on our pyjamas and watch the headline band free of charge. I’d like to watch Kiss in my pyjamas. Maybe they’ll take us on tour next year. I’ll do their face paints if they want.

I saw your recent gig at Leeds Faversham (supporting ESP) and you seemed to be really enjoying yourself on stage despite the relatively small crowd, is it hard to get yourself ‘up’ for those kind of shows?

I have a stupid hair which covers my stupid face so I don’t ever really see whether there is a big crowd there or not so I just imagine I’m at Shea Stadium in 1965 and go a bit weird. I’d feel awful giving a smaller crowd any less of a fun time.

Ray Gun was an obvious highlight of your live set and a future single I believe, does it have the same epic sound on record and crazy finish as it did live?

It has no sound on record yet. I’m working on it.. maybe.

I understand you are having trouble fitting it on to your debut album at the moment, is that a case of it being too different and not fitting in or are you so confident and pleased with the other songs on the album that you don’t need it?

No trouble really. Writing Ray Gun was an excercise in extreme commercial pop writing and I think it stands pretty well on it’s own. The album already has a lot of straight out upbeat pop songs and alot of songs that are more orchestral with more focus on the beauty of production and arrangement so I think throwing Ray Gun on for the sake of it would upset the balance. I’d love for it to be able to showcase a new format and way of releasing music.

How is the album coming along and does it have a theme to it in the same way as April & I did?

The albums been finished for a good while. It’s called ‘Moon Rock’. I took it to L.A. in May for Tony Hoffer (who’s done Beck, Supergrass, Grandaddy etc) to mix it. We recorded a live orchestra out there which was probably the highlight of my life so far! Most of the songs and even a lot of the recordings were done before I even wrote ‘April & I’ and I didn’t have the confidence or desire to write the songs around any concept at the time. Where ‘April & I’ was a 27 minute symphonic piece, ‘Moon Rock’ is more of a collection of several 4 minute symphonic pieces but I think they work together nicely.

Are you prepared for if things go really ballistic with the release of your album next year and the fact that you could lose some of your anonymity?

Not really! I’ve fortunately avoided having my face plastered round the album artwork and stuff so I think I’ll get away with it. As long as my music gets the exposure it needs and I can still eat at spud’u’like without any bother I’ll be happy. It’s all about the spud’u’like spork. It’s a spork for a lifetime.

The singer songwriter market has become flooded in the last couple of years, yet you seem to have had no problem in distinguishing your own sound and setting yourself apart from the rest, is that something you were conscious of?

I don’t really know what’s going on with pop music at the moment. I don’t really know what ‘singer-songwriter’ means?!? I just do what I like..

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