Bio

WARNING: Narrative Ahead

Paul Sunglasses

I spent a bunch of time in high school being really bored and generally just waiting to get home and practice guitar, much to my parents’ and probably my neighbours’, and on one occasion, the cops’ collective despair. Though I excelled in Math, I usually got report cards that said “Paul would succeed if he only tried harder” - whatever that means. I was only interested in trying hard at sounding like Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page. I was told once that playing guitar makes you cool and gets you all the girls. That didn’t happen to me in high school, I wonder if I’m repressing bitterness?

Eventually, after taking some general arts courses at King’s College while practicing for auditions, I took my guitar skills and went to York University’s Music Programme and studied Jazz performance. I got sick of that after a year of 24-7 music and took off to Europe. That was heartbreaking and rewarding all at the same time. I came back slightly world wary, but also invigorated and ready to finish my degree. I went back to York hoping to really dig in this time - then the bastards went on strike. When I say bastards, I suppose I really did support the faculty and there aims, the bastards part is more reserved for a system that actually breeds the kind of labour unrest we see in post-secondary education.

In keeping with an emerging pattern, I got sick of it all and went to school in England at the University of York instead. Before doing that I joined a great band called Fly Fantastic and really started to feel my playing become cohesive, man I really enjoyed that band! England was great too. I actually got paid real money to play guitar while studying - what a dream. Of course, it was too good to be true and the administration at that school opted not to…er…extend my welcome past one year, so I came back…again.

This time, looking for a fresh start I enrolled at the University of Western Ontario and hooked up with Fly Fantastic again. The band folded, and I struggled through the dusty old “Western Art” music traditional education that made the Western music department so…unique, at the time. I had to get the hell out of there by year end, and instead of writing a paper on string quartets like any dutiful student would, I wrote a rant on the state of post-secondary music education for which I received a D. While at Western I began to play professionally around London. I met a lot of great musicians and really began to feel what the life of a professional could be like, musically at least. Of course, just when I probably should have stuck around and exploited my new contacts and continued playing the few regular gigs I had, I took off again, back to England.

And it was in England, working in a bar just to make ends meet, where I realised what living like a professional musician was like in the non-musical sense. I barely played music, had no money, had to count change in order to buy food. They also have these terrible meters inside your house which allow you to see how much you are paying for electricity as you use it. I used to watch it spin when I was cooking something in the oven; sandwiches became a staple. I got out of there as soon as possible, skipping out on rent - for which I am very sorry - but I needed the plane fare home!

Dejected and poor, I did manage to strike up some work of the musical kind, and things were going well enough that I could just play. For the first time, this felt pretty good. I capitalised on this opportunity: I got my chops in order and took a gig on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The music was brutal, the sunshine was great, but it really sealed my dislike for “America South” - the Caribbean. Or, to be more specific, the way everybody acts when they go there - basically they just act like idiots and buy as much useless junk as possible and then insult the people who they bought it from. Sickening.

Flush with some money (the ship does pay really well) I decided to invest once again in my education. (For those keeping count that’s 5 years of school, with 2 years off, and still no degree!) I went back to…wait for it…York! Figuring I could finish that year, I felt prettygood, my playing was really strong, I had a great apartment. And then the bastards went on strike AGAIN! I really thought I was going to firebomb the place. A friend of mine suggested that maybe my student number causes some labour meltdown in central computing - I wonder. I learned a lot that year including that there’s nothing like filling your free time whiling away a strike with a good ol’ fashioned messed up romantic relationship! I swear, it took my mind of the labour dispute entirely! The strike ended around about the same time as the relationship, I finished out my year (but not my degree) and swore (this time I mean it) that I would never go back to York again.

Full of confidence, I went back to Western to see if I could do my last few courses there. I spent a glorious summer making visual art (much of which appears on this website) and the fall really digging into popular music academia courtesy of Prof. Serge Lacasse (now at Laval). I was really inspired by him and thought about applying to grad school, but I had a few really great musical projects going and decided to ride that wave for the time being. Oh yeah, and I got my degree too! So that’s 7 1/2 years of school with 2 years off. Damn.

“Now what?”, I said. I’ll play music, all the time, professionally, and make a living. Whoaaa, easier said than done. In fact I spent 2 1/2 years putting everything I had into it, well maybe not everything. Regardless, maybe I just lack the stamina, or stubbornness to keep a music career afloat. Also, I play some pretty weird music sometimes, stuff people don’t really like hearing, so it’s pretty unreasonable to expect them to pay for something they don’t want. (That said, we did elect a Conservative government this year, so may we do want to pay for things we don’t want!) Perhaps I just couldn’t handle being out of school. I was like the guys in the Shawshank redemption - institutionalised - I didn’t know how to live on anything but a September to April schedule, I couldn’t adjust to not having ridiculous amounts of stimulation everyday, and let’s face it, I couldn’t stand playing shitty music for next to no money just to make rent.

I went back to school.

This time to Dalhousie in Halifax. I was determined, I had one thing on my mind, get to grad school or heave myself of the MacDonald bridge (the way to Dartmouth). At Dal I met some great professors who helped me immensely. And I also made some great friends in Halifax. After almost three years away from academia, I felt, well, at home, comfy, and safe. And I made it to grad school! But before doing that, I took off on a cruise ship to Alaska. This was truly amazing, the music thing was so secondary to the beauty of the landscape, the freshness of the air, and the kindness of the people. I long to return someday. I’d even go on a ship to do it, you can’t beat paid travel!

In 2005 I began my MA in Music Criticism at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. My time there was pretty intense as it was both an intellectual eye opener and also my first encounter with the real stresses of being a graduate student. Managing life and work, responsibilities to others and to myself proved quite the challenge. While my undergrad was largely based in performance,my MA studies really zeroed in on Internet technologies and how they are used by musicians and fans alike to communicate their tastes, desires, opinions, etc. I felt a paradigm shift coming on. I completed my MA thesis, Online Music Communities: Challenging Sexism, Capitalism, and Authority in Popular Music in September of 2007.

Immediately on the heels of defending my MA, I moved to Leeds, England where I am now a PhD student at the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds. My work here is based around discipline and regulation in and of online communities, and how these factors impact communities’ abilities to support or subvert contemporary ideological perspectives related to global capitalism and the free flow of knowledge and ideas.

For ages I had a commercial music website designed, more or less, to gain exposure, get gigs, and get noticed - ultimately to profit from a career in music. Well, some things have changed a little. For instance, I no longer have a third-person bio. Does anyone really believe that third-person bios on indie artist sites is really written by an objective third-person and not the artist themselves?

FAQs:

  • Yes, I have lots of experience in the service industry. In kitchens, waitering, bartending, and record stores (eeew!). I’m a musician, what did you expect!?
  • No, I have not “given up” guitar.
  • I love Country music and have been to the Grand Ol Opry. Twice.
  • Purple, Blue, and Grey are good.
  • If I am not listening to music I am usually reading.
  • Around the time I started getting into Country music, I also got into Hip Hop. It’s true.
  • I enjoy hanging out in pubs and have been known to enjoy a good piss up from time to time.