For todays artist interview, Who Music Magazine welcome Paul K. An artist who is just releasing his new LP. An interesting mixture of sounds and ideas we have been loving. Enjoy our quick chat.
Hi there ! Where can we find you right now? How did you start your day?
Hi, you can find me sat in my studio working on some videos to accompany the new album! I started my day at 5:30am walking my dogs and listening to the news!
When did the idea for your new record take shape?
The idea took shape about 2 years ago with a track called Pareidolia. It sparked an idea and it all evolved from there. I wrote about 20 tracks for the album then narrowed it down to the final 13 that made it to the release
How would you define the sound of your latest work? What is the concept behind it?
The sound is focussed on an electronic core but the tracks very from experimental ambient to dream pop and electronic rock.
«The Space Between» is about the human condition and the need for answers. It is the natural follow up album to “The Fermi Paradox” album I released a couple of years ago. It’s a story about an astronaut who has volunteered for a one way journey through space to pass through the Heliopause and is set maybe 30/50 years in the future. He is accompanied only by an AI robot that becomes sentient during the journey. When the astronaut eventually dies the AI takes over and continues into space alone. Each track plots the journey from liftoff looking back at the Earth to the debilitating effect of years alone in space and is also related to the love and loss the astronaut has felt in his life so, as with most of my work, the lyrics exist on multiple layers and meanings. He records his life story to the ship’s memory and the AI takes on the persona of the astronaut and continues into the abyss of space alone.
I’ve always had a fascination with space travel and technology and I think it’s a good time to explore this theme with the recent advances in both space travel and what effect AI will have on the human race in the future. I think we need to start thinking about how we will survive as a race and maybe AI offers us a way to live on beyond our physical lifetime!
Who is inspiring you most right now?
I’m inspired more by a mix of sounds and genre’s. Right now I’m listening to Hinako Omori and Nick Cave on rotation!
Where would you say your sound sits, firmly in one genre or a mixture?
Definitely a mixture. While it will always be electronic based I use a lot of organic instrumentation as well and live we have a string quintet. I try and use whatever sounds and style suit the track I’m writing at the time
How do you see the music scene at the moment?
I think the amount of good self released music you can now find online away from mainstream acts is really inspiring. I think there are issues with being paid a decent return from streaming services for what could be two years or more of work to create and album and that needs to be addressed. In general I think that creatively music is in an interesting period but from a business perspective it’s getting harder and harder to make a living from music alone unless you are big mainstream act.
Tell us something about your current or future projects?
I’m planning some live shows for the new album and will also feature some tracks from the last four albums which we had to postpone during the pandemic. I’m also working on my next album and experimenting with some new pieces of tech that I want to feature on the new tracks.
