Paul's On The Right Track! 29/10/12

Image compliments of GC Photographics

Local singer/songwriter and composer Paul Casey has just seen his album, Big World, take on an official UK release after being picked up by Right Track which distributes for Universal. Originally Paul had put the album out himself at the start of the year locally. He explains that although he’s thrilled, it doesn’t mean the hard work is over. “It’s great. I work with a publisher in America. Myself and her were constantly pushing to get the music places and we came across Right Track and they loved the album and it was one of those things that grew. That doesn’t mean that it’ll be successful, we really need to work it now and spend a lot of money to try and work it but we’ll get there.”

Big World is definitely not your run-of-the-mill album, in fact I would go so far as to say I’ve never heard anything like this produced locally before. Paul’s love of film music has turned this album into a bit of a concept piece with film music at its heart.

"There is a bit of a concept to it because I’m a massive film music fanatic. I love John Barry and John Williams, when I was growing up I never wanted to be a musician, I wanted to be Steven Spielberg when I was a kid. I just love film music; it’s all I listen to. The idea for this album was to make every song sound like a sound track. Every track had a composer in mind if you know what I mean. It was still a song, but a song with a big cinematic approach to it and because I record and produce everything myself I can get carried away and do all that. For me that’s the fun part."

The title track Big World on the album has seen its fair share of radio play already which has surprised Paul as he sees it as having broken all the rules of what makes a good “radio song”. It’s really weird too because the song Big World, it’s nearly six minutes long, it’s got no chorus, it’s got a two minute guitar solo, it’s everything that radio shouldn’t be and it’s the most played song I’ve ever had on radio here at home, it’s ridiculous. I’ve always tried to make the three and a half minute radio song and do all that but this has no chorus, 6 minutes with the 2 minute solo, very kind of Pink Floyd vibe to it. I’m a big Dave Gilmore fan; I love the guitar so it sounds like a soundtrack with Dave Gilmore guitar but with songs. A bit of a strange combination but it seems to work.

Paul has seen himself take some inspiration from cinematic releases such as Inception in 2010, which was scored by Hans Zimmer. Paul described it as something he wished he had of written himself but has managed to incorporate it somewhat into one of his tracks. “The first track has definitely a big Inception kind of vibe. This Big World was the starting point where I thought “this works” and then I made an album of it. Every song has a different wee angle; well that was the idea anyway.” The album has a very grand orchestral sound which makes it hard to envisage one man putting it all together. It would almost be like going to see Paul and his guitar on stage but with a massive orchestra in the shadows and I find it’s hard not to sing along.

For those who’d like to see Paul perform there is treat in store. “I put together a gig in the Millennium Forum for next year. I pitched the idea of me and my band, Bronagh Gallagher and her full band, she’s got a 9- piece soul band, and Paddy Nash and The Happy Enchiladas, so three full bands from the town and they went for it. The tickets will be out shortly for it. It’s on January 11th so it’ll be their first live music event for the City of Culture year, they’re really excited to do it and we’re excited too. I think because it’s three bands we’re talking £12-£15 pounds a ticket, not too sure. We need to keep it fairly low, I mean we’re three local acts. It should do well, the support seems to be there anyway.”

Throughout Paul’s career he has seen great support from the local people and the media but one individual has particularly impressed Paul when it comes to promoting local music. “I think Gerry Anderson is amazing. In Derry he’s the life of a lot of singer /songwriters because he does really really give you the opportunity, if he likes you, he will play you which is fantastic. His show is probably the biggest in Radio Ulster or at least one of the biggest. Whenever good friends of mine come to visit from different parts of the world and you tell them to listen to the show they just think it’s so mental ‘cause it’s so off the cuff and they love it. I’m always in with Gerry, all the time. He’s been massively supportive of what I’ve done over the years, I can’t thank him enough. I played a gig in Newtownards and I had never played Newtownards in my life and it was the only gig I ever sold out. When I got there everybody I spoke to said the reason they were there was because they heard the stuff on Gerry Anderson’s show, that’s the power of the show, it’s amazing.

For anyone looking to get a listen to the album, it is available in local music stores and online. The price will vary between around £7.99 and £9.99 so shop around coming up to the festive period.