Paul's Desibeli.net interview - English version

[Admin]

Desibeli.net currently has a new Paul interview which can be read at http://www.desibeli.net/juttu/1670 - it is in Finnish only, so the English version is below.

To find out about all of the other Paul Draper interviews that are now available online, please visit the news page at http://www.pauldraper.info/news.php


----


What have you been up to lately?

I've been recording some of my own songs for my own project and also doing some co-writing with a new british singer songwriter called Catherine Anne Davies. I've also been doing a bit of re-wriring in my studio set up!


Mansun's album Six celebrates it's 10th anniversary this year. Was Six more your album than the other Mansun albums? Did making of Six change the chemistry inside the band for better or for worse?

Each Mansun album had a different chemistry to be honest. Six was the album where I tried to introduce Chad to songwriting, his songs were Inverse Midas and Witness to a Murder. Lyrically I developed a lot and as a producer I made a leap creatively but essentially it has the band playing live in a room at its heart.


In your blog, you say that Six was recorded in the same order as the songs were written. Was it really that simple? Because to me it seems like everything is exactly in it's right place on the album.

It was indeed recorded chronologically, and was very complicated to work out how to fit it together so it sounded like a flowing piece of music with each track having a different flavour and character. I had no choice but to record it like that as I wrote the songs as I went along at the weekends between recording sessions. It took a lot of brainwork to make it flow and sound natural and to make each new piece of music sound new and unique from the bit before it.


It seems that when you we're writing and recording Six, you didn't really care about what people would think of it. Was it so and did you have to make any compromises while making Six?

I didn't compromise a thing when making Six, that was the point of the album. I've never cared what anybody thinks of me or my music to be honest!


What do you think was the high point of Mansun's career artistically? And when did you enjoy yourself the most playing in this band?

I think I reached my peak as a songwriter on the unfinished Kleptomania album which was my best collection of songs, so I peaked at the end. I enjoyed playing as a band the most during the recording of these songs in the studio.


Mansun still has devoted fans all around the globe despite breaking up over 5 years ago. In your opinion, what was the thing about Mansun that separated it from other bands? And why do you think the fans are still so active?

I think lyrically we were original and different and we built a fanbase by releasing a series of over a dozen EPs instead of singles we gave the fans 4 new songs all of equal quality on each EP release.The EPs are very collectable now due to this. We never thought of releasing b-sides, only 4 equal songs. We have a large catalogue of songs left behind now for people to discover, over 100 songs I wrote in about 6 years which was very draining.


Do you keep in touch with the other members of Mansun? What are they doing nowadays?

I see Andy sometimes, about 2 or 3 times a year, he is a drum teacher nowadays. I haven't seen Dom Chad for a few years and Steve 'Stove' King was sacked from the band for defrauding our accounts which led to the band splitting up.


If I have understood correctly, you're about to launch a solo career. After Mansun split up, did you ever feel like quitting with music?

No, I've always made music and always will, although my enthusiasm for making music was dimmed by the split of Mansun after the bass player was found to be stealing money from the bands accounts.


What kind of stuff can we expect from you in the future? Because of your trademark voice it must be quite hard to go to a completely opposite direction, but where are you going to musically?

Musically I've stripped down my sound and am making raw stripped down alternative rock at the moment, but that may change.


Who or what inspires you at the moment?

I'm enjoying Catherine Anne Davies' songwriting who I've been working with recently. Also I enjoyed the last Radiohead album and the new Kings of Leon album.