An off-the-cuff comment on social media has sparked this unlikely collaboration between Glasgow based English musician “GLU” and Dublin’s “A Band Called Paul”.
“I’d posted this rather risqué little tweet trying to drum up support for my single”, recalls Paul, “when I got this equally risqué reply back from a complete stranger that made me laugh. We started some banter, which led to direct messages and checking each other out. Before we knew it were talking about a collaboration together”.
The spontaneous relationship also came as a surprise to GLU. “He gave some of my electronic tracks a listen and really enjoyed them, so I suggested I send over an instrumental track that I’d written mainly on bass guitar. He absolutely nailed lyrics and a vocal take in no time, adding more percussion and a trashy drum track on what has now become the chorus of the song. I loved it.”
The easy union between the pair can be heard in the seemingly effortless way the shared song “Long Way Down” builds from a gentle, emotive introduction to a powerhouse finish of what Paul describes as “throwing musical furniture”.
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This is a release about which I’m really excited, cos I got to unleash my full, unashamed 1980s tastes into it. With a twist. There’s some madness in there, of course … me screaming into my phone, playing the steering wheel of my car again etc. Normal day at the office. But by and large it’s just a driven, rocking piece of fun.
If I were to admit to the song having a specific message to it, I’d describe it as a rallying call to reject the shallowness of capitalism and social media in favour of something more profound and meaningful in which to believe.
I had decided to release this track with no fanfare, no fuss and no promo, believing it to be very much a standalone oddity. Releasing it exclusively on Bandcamp, I said it probably won’t make it to streaming platforms and it definitely isn’t being sent out to radio or press. Following the overwhelmingly positive response I’ve had to it since, maybe I underestimated its potential. Now I find myself backtracking and allowing it to become a legitimate release in its own right.
The track itself captures a brief period of absolute insanity for me … a place and time to which I’ve no desire to return. But I did find it a cathartic process to produce this “experimental” track, to put it mildly, in the immediate aftermath.
It lay dormant for about 12 months, before I rediscovered it and listened back. There was something in it, but it’s definitely an outlier in terms of my other material.
I hope somebody somewhere also finds something in it.
“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”)
An energetic slice of electronica to a thumping reggae-style groove, “Freefall (Single Version)” is the second single from the debut album “Primero” by Dublin-based A Band Called Paul.
The mood of “Freefall” aims to capture the conflicted mental state experienced during withdrawal from an addictive substance. The release is accompanied by an equally visceral and moderately disturbing music video which can be viewed on this page.
It’s stadium rock.
With a twist. Of course.
“Shimalay” is the latest single to be taken from A Band Called Paul’s debut album “Primero” (2019). The track has been remixed and edited for this release.
Prior to breaking into full-on stadium rock at the second verse, the track starts with a wild assortment of unusual sounds to establish the groove including drumming on the steering wheel of a car, the rattling of a key ring, body percussion and an array of close-mic vocal sounds.