Paul Tully: New Man from Strabane! 3/6/13

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Paul Tully of Strabane is proving to be another great talent well worth keeping an eye on. His singer songwriter style and great lyrics are to be showcased in his coming EP this Summer. With a single also due out next month things are really starting to become exciting for Paul musically. His song writing didn’t initially take off until Paul began playing piano and guitar he says,  

 “Just started playing when I was about 14 or 15 in local bands back in Strabane, kept playing from there, started writing songs and then that broke. I kept writing songs and been doing that ever since. At school, there’s a lot of brass band in Strabane so I started playing trombone, done piano, I got into that way. Started to gain interest in guitar and that kind of thing then and started writing songs from there.”

With most multi-instrumentalists there can be a preference of which instrument to write with and it seems Paul is no different.  “At the minute I like sitting down at the piano but it’ll change, it just depends what’s coming out at the time and then if there’s a good song there you’d work on it then, it’s usually the piano, sitting down at the piano. Whenever there’s an ad during the break of a show I’ll sit there and see if something comes out. It’s one of the two, sometimes it’s the guitar, sometimes the piano, at the minute it’s the piano. The trombone got neglected a while ago, after school finished I did it for a few more years and I haven’t done it since. You have to do stuff at the weekends ya know and I’d rather be rocking out than playing in a brass band, came down to that eventually.”

Paul sums-up his musical style using some other massively successful singer/songwriters as examples of influences that have encouraged him along the way. “It’s just sort of acoustic music, it’s very Ryan Adams, Glen Hansard, they’d be the biggest influences for myself, I don’t know if that comes through, for me, that’s who I’d look up to. Damien Rice too, when that ‘O’ album came out that was a big turning point, I think everybody listened to that. That’s what made me think, ‘I want to go down that path’ so that’s how I’ve ended up writing the kind of music I do. At the minute I’m into the likes of Tom Waits stuff on the Piano so I be looking at him and seeing what he’s doing. Things like, I haven’t done it yet but he’d change up his voice and stuff like that. I haven’t got that far yet but if the songs start getting monotonous or you feel like you want to go somewhere else, why not? Change it up a bit.”

Something that has been picked up early from his idols by Paul is the importance of being adaptable as a performer and not being afraid to change things up. “It’s always an avenue to look at when you see these guys change it up, you write a certain type of song and all right, that might be good and they sound good or whatever and you’re happy with them but after while you might want to change it up. If it’s only you with a piano, it’s only you on your own. So it’s things like and that seeing what they’re writing about and they’re always writing about their own experiences. I just try and be honest with myself, if you can honest about yourself and your life and try and write songs about that people can relate to it. If people can relate to something it’s happy days, if they can’t relate I don’t think there’s much point.”

In his writing Paul expresses a lot of emotion and delves into the stories of his own life experiences as many writers do. Not so much now, but when he was younger Paul was sometimes weary of sharing that part of himself with others. “When I was younger, I used to a lot. I think everybody goes through that a bit but then once I got over that the song just seemed to grab people a bit more. If you’re really lying it on the line, don’t get me wrong, you can’t be too specific but I try and be as honest as I can without being too specific, keeping it general again there’s more for people to relate to. People might like it or not but that’s the way I’m feeling, if that song seems right doing it that way rather than sugar coating it with a pile of nice adjectives, the hardest thing is getting the simple language.”

A great deal of the aim for his music is the achievement of good honest and simplistic lyrics in order to make the music more accessible but also more relatable. “That song, Reign Down Your Love On Me, very honest. I suppose when you’re younger you’re reckless and you do things you don’t intend to because you’re young, you burn bridges, do some stupid things. The first line is ‘Forgive me for all the things I’ve done’. That was just wrote down on a note book, on the iphone, or on a book when I was away and then I just put some music to it. I think people can relate to that, I've got my own specific thing but you say that opening line it can mean a while lot of different things to different people, and I think that’s important to connect with somebody otherwise what’s the point?”

For anyone who’d like to take a listen, and I advise you do, links are available from www.facebook.com/paultullymusic  for Soundcloud where you can hear the already mentioned ‘Reign Down Your Love On Me’ amongst many other tracks. However, Paul is holding his cards close to his chest on the remainder of the EP so you’ll have to sit tight and grab a copy later in June or July. “My friend, Peter Doherty in Strabane, we sit down, we might not have the world’s best equipment but Pete’s a whizz at that, he’s great. It’s all about getting the vibe and if you get what you want to say across. You can get lost in all the technology of it. I think if you have something to say it’s best to get it across. I think there will be 4 or 5, maybe 5 or 6, you get your money’s worth anyway. There’s one more track to record and then another we guitar and voice song but the single ‘Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine’ that’s getting finished up now, should be out next much because it’s nearly finished, we just have to get covers and all that sorted.”

Paul will be performing at a few up and coming festivals locally but they are to be confirmed so watch online for further updates.