What’s your songwriting process?

I’ll think of a melody whilst walking somewhere. Hum it into my phone badly and then try to decipher it when I get home. Sometimes I’ll sit down at the piano, put my hands on the keys then shut my eyes to see if a new chord happens, something unexpected. Or I’ll try different shapes with my hands. Sometimes they happen very quickly and sometimes nothing happens. It’s very weird. Or I’ll try a new tuning on the guitar. Something usually happens when I do that.

Since 2022 you’ve put out three studio albums, covering a wide range of genres from chamber pop to folk. Is there a genre which you feel is your ‘creative home’?

No. I don’t feel I’m particularly slick at any specific genre. Each song I write tends to react to the one before it. If I write a quiet acoustic number then I’ll try to react to it by doing a synth-pop tune or something louder with drums. I do end up coming back to the guitar mostly, so that tends to dictate the sound.

Your 2022 album The Hauntings was partly inspired by the writers Denis Johnson, Shirley Jackson and Muriel Spark. Do you draw much inspiration from literature, and if so in what ways does it come into your songwriting?

Yes, certain characters from books often come to mind when I write. I also nick lots of phrases and sentences from fiction, journalism, dialogue from films. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Often I’ll build a song around a phrase like ‘a fool and three quarters’, which is from a weird novel called ‘Men in Miami Hotels’ by Charlie Smith, or ‘everybody loves a bit of rough’, which is a line from a film review of Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon. I love neatness and economy in songs and fiction, where you can say little and express a lot. You get a lot of that in short stories, hence my fondness for writers like Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, John Cheever and Elmore Leonard.

Unlike many independent artists, you don't have a website, press kit and the rest of it. From the outside it looks like you’re perfectly happy making the music you want to and putting it out when you wish, irrespective of anything else. Is that accurate?

I’m 54 this year and gave up any interest in success at a commercial level long ago. Once I lost that interest, and I had a young family, the songs started to really flow because I wasn’t thinking about any audience and a whole new world opened up in terms of creativity. Before then I was still playing in bands where even if there was a sniff of interest I’d be thinking ‘this could be it’. I have to say, I did write a lot of shit [back then]. Obviously it would be wonderful if some success were to occur, but as long as I’m writing and creating I’m happy.

What plans do you have for the future in terms of songwriting, releases or live shows?

I do about two live shows a year. Plus the odd open mic. A new project I’ve got going is purely instrumental and all synth-based. It’s a series of themes for films that don’t exist. The working title is If I Was John Carpenter.

Thanks for taking the time to speak to us, Paul.

My pleasure!