Could you talk a little about P5? How did you come up with the band and its name? What about your previous bands and records?


Paul - The P5 came about after I left Teenage Fanclub in 2000. I had been left a guitar by Norman. I didn't really know how to play guitar, still don't !!, I started messing around with some chords and I suddenly came up with some songs. I had never written any songs before and I suddenly had 4. I didn't have the equipment to demo them so I didn't know what to do with them. I met an old frien who introduced me to Ryan Currie, a local musician who was playing in his own band. We just really understood each other and got on very well. Ryan then offered to help me get the songs recorded and it was during this time I realised what a great musician he was. We demoed Comin Home, I'll Lay You Down, Easy Chair and Field of Dreams. I let Norman hear them and he offered me equipment to record the songs properly. We set up the equipment and recorded these four songs again and more songs kept coming and we basically ended up with North Pole and decided to call our partnership The Primary 5 because the project was in it's primary stage and it was the fifth band I had been involved in, hence The Primary 5. It was great to write some songs after being in The Soup Dragons for about 5 years and recorded Lovegod & Hotwired with them, I'm Free being the first song I recorded with them and it went to No 4 in the UK charts. After The Soup Dragons split I was asked to join Teenage Fanclub. I have known Norman all my life, we're both from the same town, Bellshill, and I was in Teenage Fanclub for 7 years and recorded Grand Prix, Songs from Northern Britain and Howdy as well as Words of Wisdom & Hope with Jad Fair.






What is your creation process like? Do you compose your songs all by yourself? Who else has participated in the record?


Paul - I write the songs on my own, then hook up with Ryan. I'll have the chord progressions, melody, drum parts, bass lines, keyboard parts and other parts, which we both put together and hope that it all kind of makes some sense. I don't demo ideas, I kinda hope that if the idea is floating around my head after a week or so of coming up with it, then it's worth keeping.





How would you define P5 music for those who don't know it? What about your influences?


Paul - I just try and write catchy melodies and hope that they appeal to some people. I don't sit down and sweat over which genre the songs fall into. I just try and put down the ideas I have and try to write as honestly as I can. I try and write songs very quickly rather than have to really think about them, If I have to think about an idea too long, it loses it's flavour for me and usually ends up being rubbish. I don't sit down and try and write a song that sounds like someone else, say Gene Clark, if it ends up sounding like Gene Clark it isn't intentional, but I like a whole lot of music from different era's from Gram Parsons to The Shins, The Icicles, Green Peppers, Water School Band, The Band....the list is endless, but one thing has to be there for me and thats melody.





The CD was released through your own label. How did you come up with the idea of having your own label? Any plans besides releasing P5? Any other bands?


Paul - I just wanted to get the record out without having to do the rounds of record companies asking for them to release it, so I just did it myself and lost some money in the process but at least the record sounds the way I wanted it too, looks the way I wanted it to which isn't always the case when someone else puts it out saying that I don't want to put the next record out myself so the answer to you're question of putting other bands out on Bellbeat would be no, it was only for this one record.





Are you doing well with the album in the UK market? It has just been released by Microindie records in US.


Paul - The record done OK in the UK, nothing massive, but then I didn't have a big budget for promotion etc, so I'm happy the way it's gone and i'm looking forward to the next one now. Yeah Mike (Microindie) is a really cool guy and he's doing a great job with the record in the US, sao yeah, I'm pleased with that as well. I would love to do some shows over there though...any takers?????




I've been reading about a crisis in the music market, record labels getting together, labels closing down. On the other hand, I can see new bands and indie labels and people really interested in music popping up every day. What's your take on this?


Paul - There's been a crisis in the music industry for the last decade, I think it's just a way of label saying to people that they don't have any money to spend on them, but if something great comes along, they'll always have the money. Record companies are normally pretty mean when it comes to giving money out, they want things for nothing normally! I like it when people just go and record there music, press a thousand copies up and get them into some cool stores and go and play some shows and sell the records along with T-Shirts etc, thats being really honest and it's definitely where you find the best and most honest music and people in the music industry.





What do you think of the 'music scene' in Scotland and UK? Any new band you've been listening to?


Paul - The music scene in Scotland is doing OK I think. Bands like Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian and Idlewild as well as Travis and
Franz Ferdinand have been flying the flag for Scotland really well over the years and I think Scotland has a good reputation for good pop music. I'm not too familiar with the likes of Sons and Daughters and Aberfeldy but they are doing really well too. A great little label in Glasgow, Neon Tetra, is doing great things at a more grassroots level with things like Green Peppers and Ally Kerr, so yeah Glasgow has a great music scene at the moment. I'm not too keen on things like Razorlight, Kaiser Chiefs, but I'm sure they're very nice people.






Any plans for a new album or EP? New songs?


Paul - I've started writting for the next record and we'll hopefully start recording in September.





We had the chance to see Teenage Fanclub and Nice Man(Francis McDonald solo) down here in Brazil. Any chances of P5 playing down here?


Paul - If someone wants to pay for us to come and play in Brazil it wouyld be my pleasure to play, absolutely, I would like that very much.





Would you like to say something to your Brazilian fans?


Paul - "Thanks for buying North Pole and I would love to come to you're wonderful country to play, hopefully one day."





Paul, thanks for your disposal and patience.



P!O!P Tapes thanks his friend Cristiano Santos.


Click here for Microindie Records website >