PAUL DRAPER :: EXCLUSIVE DRAPERVIEW.COM Q&A

Q. You seem to enjoy being in the studio mostly. Removed from the expectations and bureaucracy of being part of a regular touring band. Does this feel liberating and more importantly do you feel more excited and passionate about your own music, knowing you are calling all the shots without anyone else to please?

A. I've always loved working in the studio more than anything else, hence doing the production work. It's something I've always wanted to do alongside doing my own stuff. Some of the artists I've been working with and am going to be working with are Komakino, Catherine Anne Davies, Skin, blah blah blah. Over Christmas I've completely ripped my studio apart and am rewiring it, not adding more gear but streamlining it, as technology means I can do more stuff with software than hardware!

Q.Which of your current new tracks are you most excited about? Do you find it's always the latest new track or has there been a strong preference to any song throughout the recording of the album?

A. I always like the last track I've worked on coz I generally just keep going on a recording until I really like it then give up. I dont want to give titles of tracks away really coz I tend to have working titles right up to the last day when I replace the guide vocal with a finished one with the finalized lyrics and finish the mix

Q. Regardless of success with your solo work, as you are making music on your own terms, will you carry on making it for as long as you feel the passion to make it? And do you have any idea how many albums you would like to make before you call it a day?

A. I've no idea, I'm just doing my own stuff for my own pleasure. I'll never fall into the trap of making a record for a record company ever again. I'll make music on my own terms from now on and ill keep going. Whenever I fancy writing and releasing, I will!

Q. While recording and producing your songs, both now and in the past, how easy did/do you find the technical side of recording and mixing, with things like Compression, EQ, effects routing etc... or was that left to an engineer?

A. I learnt EQ and compression early on as compression, especially, is an important tool in music. In fact I became so obsessed with compression I've ended up collecting hardware and software compressors, what a saddo!

In the past I've always worked with engineer Mike Hunter, who's just played bass on the Paolo Nutini, or whatever you call him, record. Mike's a great bass player and a talented engineer. It frees me up to think on the creative side but as I've got more into running my own studio it's become more software based so I can engineer myself pretty easily and just call mike in periodically to rewire, tidy up and oversee things

Q. As far as hands on production, did you explicitly learn skills from others and from reading up on it or did you just pick it up naturally as you went along... twiddling a few knobs, adding a few instruments, reworking it towards your vision until it sounded right?

A. I learnt most of my production skills by reading and messing around in studios, but I picked up a lot of the technical side from working with killer engineers like Mike Hunter and Spike. The creative side of production cannot be taught, it's just applying ideas and being creative and having a feel for arranging and sonics

Q. Would you say you are a better producer today than you were in 1997? Has the experience you have gained over different albums and through producing other artists led you to be technically or musically better? Do you ever feel like you 'know too much' now and that it could stop your more instinctive side from doing the great stuff you did on 'Attack' and 'Six'?

Q. When you take a song from an idea to the finished article, through the many stages of the process which is the most enjoyable part for you? (e.g: the first listenable passage of pure music, the first time you hear the backing vocals working well with the lead vocal etc)

A. I find the recording process my favourite part of it all really. Writing is a difficult and lonely craft, and that's how I think of it, like being a craftsman, getting a block of stone and carving something out of it

Certain times in the writing and recording and even mixing process something will happen and it will lift or bring out the song, that helps a lot to get to the finish line and to not think you're just pissing in the wind. You instinctively feel a lift in what your doing and it gets closer to a finished thing. Although I'm never happy once something is finished, you just abandon something when you feel like you can't go any further with it

Q. You have mentioned recently your reluctance to use drum loops again, but how about sequencers for the electronic parts? Do you, for example, prefer to play any keyboard parts live onto the recording or do you use various methods to achieve the perfect end result?

A. I'm recording naturally at the moment, using technology but not loops. That was coz the band couldnt play at the start and the loops held everything together

Q. Even though you understandably don't look comfortable in some interviews I've seen, do you find any comedic value in any of them and the responses given by you or Chad for example? And do you or would you take offence at fans finding them of comedy value?

A. No, I think some of those interviews were hilarious, if I could have got out of all interviews I would have, but I did them reluctantly. It pissed people off really but it was just a gag

Q. Most musicians deny it by default but have you ever watched video clips of your old interviews or TV appearances?

A. Yeah, people show me them on youtube and say "what were you doing?" and I can't really explain. I wish I'd have played ball with the TV stations more, but I thought it was funny at the time, not realising it was pissing everyone off but at the time I didnt give a shit really. I just wanted to make the music and not do all the other crap, but it's part and parcel of the job, that's why the net's cool, coz you can hide behind it and just get on with music

Q. Can you name the point in time and the reason why you took up music? What was the first instrument you played and... did you ever get a keyboard as a Christmas present?

A. I was 10 and listening to the Beatles Red Album. I got an acoustic guitar and started recording songs, I've still got every one, all catologued in the vault, the early ones are crap obviously but there's a progression

Q. At school were you ever thought strange because of your love of music? Did you spend break times in the music room on the piano instead of on the field with "the lads" playing football? And have you ever found your love of football surprising, or has it been in your life as long as music has been?

A. Oh yeah, if you played music where I grew up you weren't liked, it was a hireachy of violence, the hardest was the coolest in that neanderthal atmosphere, but I didnt really care. I spent dinner hours in the music room playing with anyone who was there, but I played football as well, I gave up in my teens coz I couldnt be bothered in the end, but I've
always followed Everton