At a time of global uncertainty, economic crisis and high profile acts of violence, Dublin’s A Band Called Paul and Arizona’s Joel I.D. join voices across the Atlantic once again to create “ALIVE” … an anthem for those who may find they need support on their journey back to mental health, so that we can build ourselves back stronger – not simply exist, but to feel ALIVE.
Written and recorded once again at a distance of 5,000 miles apart, “ALIVE” is a remarkable and unique progression from the hugely successful previous collaborations “Breaking Through” and “I Believe” from the Irish indie rock artist A Band Called Paul and American rapper Joel I.D.
Building in distinct phases, “ALIVE” evolves from a starting point resembling chamber music through a somewhat reflective harmonised vocal swing-jazz development into an exhilarating combination of indie rock and modern dance.
“Primero” is the debut album from Dublin indie artist A Band Called Paul. Originally released in February 2019, “Primero” was the calling card that announced the band to the world.
The album was written and recorded over a two-year period between 2017 and 2018 and was carefully crafted as an album in two respects … firstly, it is intended to be played from beginning to end in a single sitting (although, naturally, there’s nothing to stop you going directly to your favourite tracks!) and secondly, no two consecutive tracks are in same musical genre.
Tracks from the album range from the hard rock opening of “Promised Land” through the second track, the Latin Jazz “Hero Two” to the songs that follow which capture a variety of musical styles including indie pop, funk, stadium rock and electronica all the way up to the album’s epic 8-minutes-plus closer “And We Dance” which spans continents as it travels across electronica into Americana and on to African music.
Four singles were taken from “Primero” – “Hero Two”, “Freefall”, “In It For Money” and “Shimalay” – although, with the exception of “Hero Two”, each of them was reworked and/or remixed for its single release.
01. Promised Land (3’49”)
02. Hero Two (2’59”)
03. Shimalay (4’03”)
04. In It For Money (4’05”)
05. Roll On (3’23”)
06. Stay With Me (3’38”)
07. Lady Lie Low (4’56”)
08. Freefall (4’44”)
09. Pass It On (2’48”)
10. And We Dance (8’17”)
“Hero Two” swings at you as the first single release from Dublin’s A Band Called Paul.
From its opening plucked double-bass notes, through claves, maracas and guitar, the track builds up a moderately paced Latin Jazz groove before bursting out into a brass, keyboard and harmonica frenzy.
Full of humour and life, Hero Two is bound to crack a smile across the most weary of faces.
Cos, whatcha gonna do?
“From the build up of the strings, blending staccato attacks with sweeping parts, the two percussionists competing, the layered parts of the bass and drums, it’s just astonishing. Great work, great song, just brilliant!”
– Michael Lind of The Blindfold Experience
It’s a new departure for A Band Called Paul as we boss the bossanova – in an indie way – on our brand new release “SLOW TRAIN”.
It’s somewhat of an indie homage to Henry Mancini.
“Indie Lounge”, if you will.
With a texture of sweeping strings, fluttering woodwind and soulful saxophone sitting atop a swinging upright bass and loose bossanova drum groove, the retro feel of the track’s hook is blended with a distinctly indie layer of chunky hand percussion and some ripping guitar.
While browsing through the archives here, we came across this original demo version of our album track “Pass It On”.
This version has a completely different feel and arrangement to the final album version, being more jazzy swing in vibe and with lighter instrumentation. But we though there was something special about it and we decided to polish it up a little and release it.
Hope you like it as much as we do.