Music blog #6 August 2021 Rock Is Dead! Long Live Rock!
“It’s great to have a rock band in the studio again!”
It took a while for the significance of that statement to impact on me. It was 2012 and rock music had mutated into a multi-headed shape-shifter, a genre-bending creature that was barely recognizable as ‘rock’ to Old Skool musicians like myself who had grown up with the likes of Yes, Tull, Sabbath, Zeppelin and Purple in the mid-70s. Nevertheless, I naturally assumed that bands were still keeping recording studios in business as they always had done. Not so.
Bass, drums and guitars had become a rarity and the typical ‘client’ was now either a teenage girl with a guitar and a looper with dreams of being recognized by Simon Cowell as the new Dido, Adele or Amy Winehouse*, or someone who had done all the recording at home using a laptop and a virtual plug-ins who only required a studio to upload the parts, add a live vocal, mix and master them. Often only the latter.
[*When I asked a friend for his advice – the veteran frontman Andy Ellison formerly of Radio Stars and 60s power pop rockers John’s Children – how anyone could compete with them, he reassured me by saying that they may be young, but they all sounded pretty much the same. Perhaps, but I was never one to be complacent, approaching EVERY album as if it was my first and might be my last!]
No wonder so many studios had closed down or been forced to ‘downsize’ and tout for radio jingles, voice-overs for adverts and the like. A very sad state of affairs, I felt, reminiscent of the demise of local cinemas and the rise of the multi-plex. And a far cry from the early 80s when I made my first album ‘The Werewolf of London’ on a 8 track analogue TEAC with no automated mixing** and 2” tape that had to be edited with a razor blade and sticky tape!
[**get one element wrong and you were forced to run the whole mix again!]
Shortly afterwards I found myself managed by David Enthoven of E.G (Roxy Music, ELP and King Crimson) and his then business partner June Bolan (widow of Marc), but after 6 months or so they couldn’t get me a record contract with a major label because I didn’t have a band to play live. 30 years later I’d only need a guitar and a looper and they presumably would have had no problem getting me a gig supporting Ed Sheeran.
Back to the future…
After those sessions for the ‘Bates Motel’ album in a plush under-used 24-track studio in Cambridge using young local musicians and my 14-year-old son Joshua on bass, I formed a new band with local musicians Mick Crossley of Flyte Reaction and Violet the Cannibal (‘the hardest working drummer in the UK!’) and we found ourselves in rehearsal studios preparing a new album while other bands worked up a sweat prior to playing gigs in small local venues. Evidently rock’s demise had been greatly exaggerated, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that times and techniques HAD changed and I must change with them.
I had always kept an open mind and an open ear, though I had very specific ideas when it came to using certain instruments and prohibiting the use of others (no obvious synth sounds, thank you) and I periodically added new bands to my l-o-o-o-ng list of favourite groups – Rammstein, Muse, Moby, Snoop Dogg and Fat Boy Slim to name a few.
‘Traditional’ or Classic Rock bands were now playing to a shrinking audience and sales of CDs were rapidly diminishing too. Our only ‘platform’ at the time were the summer festivals in Greece and Italy (and that was before Brexit and the pandemic made the noughties seem like the ‘good old days’!!!!) I had the songs and now I had a kick ass band too (I was always extraordinarily fortunate in finding talented musicians) but I was damned (literally) if I was simply going to make ‘more of the same’ (which is the fate that befalls many bands who run out of ideas and enthusiasm.)
But how to stay fresh and feisty going into your fourth decade and 20 something album?
You can’t simply stick some-up-to-date synth sounds on top of your track or replace real drums with cool beats and hope it makes you sound contemporary (I don’t honestly think anyone would be that dumb, but you never know). Nor can you write the way a 20-year-old would today if you dismiss all bands after The Black Crows as snot-nosed wannabees! I still strum my way through most of my songs because I’m primarily a storyteller (well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it), but I know it dates me, so whenever I can, I deconstruct a track and try to string the song together using the constituent parts minus the guitar (or I rely on psych-guitar wiz Mick Crossley to “do something” that will make it sound cohesive without relying on conventional chords.)
Which brings me, finally, to the point of this posting - classic rock bands may not be the norm, but they needn’t be relics. No matter how cleverly rock and its countless variants are tricked up, revamped, refitted, de-constructed and given a fashionable make-over, the track still has to have a strong song at the heart of it, one that will pass ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ because the average listener can’t hum a vibe or a ‘sound collage’. They will overlook an inane lyric if they love the song, but only if that melody gets under their skin or is what the Germans call an ‘earworm’. Ok, that much is obvious, and I freely admit to being what is called a ‘niche’ artist with negligible commercial success which means I’m not qualified to give anyone advice – but one thing I have proven I hope, is longevity – or stubborn single-mindedness, if you prefer. And I believe I have earned the respect of those who like my music which is FAR more important to me than sales.
Furthermore, I have retained the same attitude to writing and recording that I had when I made my first album at the age of 19 by keeping to these principles (though I hadn’t consciously considered them as such until now) –
Believe what you are creating has value because it will have for those who respond to it and don’t give a thought to whether it will sell, be played on the radio or garner great reviews (although it might if you really believe in what you are creating)
Create your own world and live in it. That way you have an unlimited resource to draw inspiration from, you will be thematically consistent and your music will be distinctive and maybe even unique.
Approach every recording and performance as if it is your first and may be your last, if you are that way inclined! I know I said that earlier but it is worth saying twice!
Take yourself lightly but your music seriously and have FUN! Writing, recording, touring and performing are fun and if you don’t feel that down to your bones then brother, (or sister) you are in the wrong business.
Finally, treat everyone you work with respect and listen to their opinion even if you subsequently dismiss it or disagree. And share your success with them, or you will find yourself alone with a looper at the end of your ‘career’!
Long live rock!!!!
Music Blog #6 Presenting my prog (rock) credentials.
Until the recent release of 'Lair of the White Worm' the prog element on my albums was minimal, though curiously, others heard it http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=83882
It was only while working with the awesome 'metal' drummer Violet the Cannibal and psych guitar wiz Mick Crossley that I began to feel limited by the standard 3-5 minute song format and was tempted to see what they could do if given their head on a track that had potential to be developed into something more like a scene from a sword and sorcery movie.
But prog had been one of my earliest exposures to rock music if not a direct or obvious influence. The day two 14-year-old school friends and I decided to 'play' a new game (rock musician!) with an elder brother's guitars was the day I discovered how electrifying making music could be and the infinite potential it offered to paint in sound. Undaunted by the fact that I couldn't play an instrument but believing that you only needed to find someone who knew couple of chords, some imaginative (ie daft) words and the sheer gall (impudence) to have-a-go we launched into song writing with the same eager belief we had pretended to be the US Cavalry fighting the Sioux. By the end of the afternoon my pretentious 'poem' ('Black Castle' influenced by the Tolkien-type ramblings of Marc Bolan) had assumed some vague shape thanks to one friend's strumming, the other's rudimentary bass lines, my thumping with pencils on make-shift bongos [sawn-off wine glasses covered with plastic bags and sealed drum-tight with elastic bands] and a seat-of-my-pants blind faith attempt at 'singing'. It all could have ended in an embarrassing mess that very afternoon but it didn't - I don't know what it sounded like to anyone else (I seem to remember my partners in crime thought it mildly interesting, but I may be mistaken) but I was enthralled - away with the faeries as they Irish say - or addicted as intensely as if I had ingested magic mushrooms and not mushrooms on toast. I haven't come down since.
As for what we were listening to at the time - it was thanks to my bass playing school friend that I went home with a borrowed copy of 'Fragile' and was soon introduced to ELP and Focus, although Jethro Tull were my own personal 'find'. Despite his assurance that it wasn't worth my while learning guitar unless I could play like Clapton or Jan Akkerman, I bought an electric guitar and tried, though I soon exchanged it for an acoustic and concentrated on writing songs rather than mastering an instrument - after all, there were serious musicians out there I could presumably call upon if I had the songs and the voice to venture into a recording studio one day...
[PS the album 'ReAnimator' also has some progish tracks with mellotron] https://darkcompanionrecords.bandcamp.com/track/into-the-lair-of-the-white-worm-reprise
Recording A New Double Album With Mick Crossley
I have been trying to persuade Mick to put together a new album for some years now, as I knew he had a cache of unreleased tapes in his bunker studio and that Max Marchini of Dark Companion was as keen to hear these as I was, but being a modest fellow he proved rather reluctant. I had the impression that Mick was content to create his music for the sheer pleasure it gave him and that he had no inclination to release anything, despite the 5 star reviews his first release on DC (‘Magnetophon Distances’) had brought him. I also felt a twinge of guilt, I will admit, at having benefitted enormously from Mick’s presence on my albums without having reciprocated in any significant way.
In the end I had to use a little subterfuge by suggesting we record a ‘witchy’ dark folk album together in the hope that he would dig out his tapes and finish those that needed touching up before I had the chance to contribute the first song. And that’s exactly what happened. Within a couple of weeks I received about 20 tracks which I went through very carefully, selecting those that I thought I could add something to - something which he hadn’t envisaged (a Nik Turner-type sax a’ la Hawkwind, for example, or an oboe which I have had a curious penchant for ever since I heard Andy Mackay use one on ‘Out of the Blue’ by Roxy Music). But I didn’t only want to play on his tracks, I wanted to extend them by writing a new song that would abut with his (particularly his non-vocal tracks) and which could be crossfaded so that it would appear that either he or I had developed the original track and taken it further.
That was a particularly interesting challenge as I had to ‘reverse engineer’ my songs by writing in the same key and sticking to the same tempo. I think it all works pretty well and I’m sure Mick (when he is finally released from the sanitorium for stressed musicians) agrees.
Working WITH another artist on equal terms as opposed to inviting another artist to contribute to my album as a guest proved to be a very interesting and demanding experience and it has only increased my respect for Mick Crossley who I consider a criminally neglected genius. But the unexpected result of all this collaborative work, other than what I consider to be a damn fine double album, is that I was afforded a closer appreciation of all the elements that go into a Crossley production and the various stages he works through to arrive at a final mix that we could both agree on and something I hadn’t really noticed before – the way Mick integrates electronic sounds which I once thought an anathema to psychpop. I can honestly say that I have grown and discovered new aspects which I can now incorporate into my own music and – perhaps most surprising and pleasing – we are both still talking to each other!
PR, Cambridge March 2021
Music Blog #4 15 Oct 2020
Compiling the Mexican re-issue of ‘Duel’ this week has been a surreal experience. Not only is the very thought of my quintessentially English music being released in Latin America rather bizarre, but I was compelled to confront my (much) younger self by listening to an album I haven’t heard in many, many years. Yes, the band and I have played 2 or 3 of those songs in the intervening years, but I hadn’t actually listened to the album in its entirety since preparing the German reissue in 2009.
It must be a similar feeling to that which actors have when watching their old films or TV appearances. There is a peculiar sense of detachment in hearing yourself as others heard you and not as you are now. Listening to ‘Duel’ 30 years (!) later is like listening to one of my sons singing and not myself! To be perfectly honest I would give almost anything (are you listening Satan?) to be able to record that album today, now that my voice has strengthened and I have discovered an innate ability to come up with impromptu harmony vocals which I didn’t do back then, because the heavier songs could do with a stronger vocal – one with more presence than my 29 year old self could offer.
But it is what it is, as some pop philosopher once said. Meaning that you can’t undo what is done, although I took the opportunity to double track some of the weaker and quieter vocals for the 2009 re-issue and this time I’ve made some subtle additions to the raw ‘live in the studio’ group tracks which are included among the bonus tracks [the rough diamond in this particular collection being the previously unreleased 11 min 26 sec semi-acoustic song ‘Carmilla’ of which someone who heard a preview said, “Paul Roland at his very best! I don't really know what a Pocket Symphony is, but could this be it?”]. But I couldn’t re-mix the album as I had discarded all my master tapes when I thought I was finished with music back in 2000 or whenever it was. And that’s not a bad thing. Although I have an irritating habit of ‘tinkering’ with my old albums whenever there is the offer of a re-issue, I wouldn’t like to be tempted to spend days and weeks re-mixing when I could be writing something new. I am continually writing and recording new songs and getting a buzz just thinking about creating something new. So, you could say that in my head I am the same 20-something fellow that made ‘Duel’ and as long as I feel that way, I shall keep at it.
P
WHITE ZOMBIE - BACK FROM THE DEAD!!!!
We are absolutely thrilled to announce we now have a final edit of the cult Bela Lugosi horror movie from 1932 with instrumental music from the 'White Zombie' album and the 'Voodoo Chants' CD. We tracked down a superb print of this seminal zombie flick and painstakingly edited the new music to fit, tweaking the original soundtrack to make dialogue more audible and to eliminate intrusive noises (no more screeching vultures and barking dogs!) Now we have atmospheric music in scenes where originally there was no music or dialogue. Would Bela approve? We hope so.
We are still hoping it might be screened 'outside competition', as they say, at an International film festival, but we do not expect it to get an official release. Instead, 100 copies will be made available to members of the PRAS from NOVEMBER 15th on a first come, first served basis. You can reserve a copy NOW by emailing the usual PRAS address, or using the CONTACT option on paulroland.info and we will tell you how to order.
If you are a reviewer for a horror/fantasy or film/DVD magazine or a webzine and you would like a preview copy please direct message us here, or email the usual PRAS address.
Here is the original trailer, horror fans.
Music Blog #3 7 sep 2020
The Secret of Sequencing
It’s not until I come to the end of an album that I realise what an enormous amount of ‘work’ and time went into it. And even then, it’s not really finished until the tracks have been correctly sequenced (ie put in the most effective order). Put a good track in the ‘wrong’ place and you can ruin it, or seriously lessen its impact. Try listening to a favourite album in an entirely random order and I guarantee it just won’t work it’s magic like it used to. The trick is knowing what is the ‘right’ place and I’ve discovered that is mainly a heightened sense of what ‘feels’ and ‘sounds’ inevitable.
I learnt much of what (little) I know of recording during the making of my first album, ‘The Werewolf Of London’ way back in 1979 (!) and it still guides me today. One of the ‘golden rules’ I picked up was that the first three tracks ‘sell’ the album and it still does, even in the age of streaming and ipods.
In the late 70s and early 80s an artist would take 3 songs to a record company or music publisher knowing they had only 3 shots at grabbing the A&R man’s attention (and it was always men back then) and less than a minute of each track before they fast forwarded your cassette to the next track, so better to start the song with a chorus or a really unusual intro.
If you were an indie artist, as I was, then it was just as important to make those first three tracks the strongest as you had the same 15 mins to convince Geoff Travis of Rough Trade or the buyer at Bonaparte in Croydon or whichever distributor/retailer you went to that he (and again it was always men who had the say) ought to buy 100 of your LP than the next guy in the queue.
I have a pretty good idea of what track will open and which one will close an album when I start recording but the fine tuning that is so critical to an album’s success only comes when all the remixing has been done. It’s largely a matter of trial and error – which is the main reason I change the track running order a couple of times before mastering and why all the studio engineers and label owners that I’ve worked with have grey hair, or none at all.
Generally you’ll find (should you care to do so) that every album will start with a strong statement, musically speaking and end with a climactic track (not necessarily an epic but something that brings down the curtain in style and says ‘now follow that!’) ‘Nevermore’ didn’t because I simply didn’t have that kind of track to close it with and it doesn’t end as it should. Had I had my time again I might have closed it with the three Captain Nemo songs, but then I wouldn’t have those to make the strong opening). Intimate acoustic albums don’t have to follow this ‘rule’ but even they will tend to start with 2 or three of the strongest cuts – as we used to say – and close with something that leaves you thinking, or crying or both.
Which is a long, roundabout way of saying that I think ‘Lair of the White Worm’ has come together rather neatly and I couldn’t be more pleased with it. And now on to the next one…..
P
26 Aug 2020
GOOD NEWS!
Finally, after much re-writing, re-recording, re-mixing, re-sequencing, tweaking and general fiddling about, the NEW ALBUM, 'Lair of the White Worm' has been mastered, the cover designed and the whole project ready to be passed to the duplicating house for pressing and printing.
Release date should be early November and it will be available on coloured vinyl and CD from Dark Companion [a limited number of copies will be available nearer the release date from the PRAS]
Track listing is as follows -
1) Year of the Harlot, Year of the Whore
2) Interlude #1 [composed and performed by Nico Steckelberg]
3) Solemn Angel (The Tenderest Strain)
4) Master Boil And Mistress Sore
5) Prophetess, Sybil and Seer
6) Leda & The Swan
7) Interlude #2 [composed and performed by Nico Steckelberg]
8) Moonchild
9) Interlude #3 [composed and performed by Nico Steckelberg]
10) In Memory of a Time Traveller
11) Bewitched
12) Sister, Why Sit By The Window & Weep?
13) Madman's Lullaby
14) Into The Lair of the White Worm (baroque acoustic version)
15) Interlude #4 [composed and performed by Nico Steckelberg]
16) Into The Lair of the White Worm (reprise)
Paul Roland: Vocals, acoustic guitars, harpsichord, percussion Mick Crossley; Lead and rhythm guitars Joshua Roland: Bass Violet the Cannibal: Drums Joran Elane: Lead and backing vocals Anna Barbazza: Backing vocals Nico Steckelberg: Composer and performer on 4 interludes Woodwind and String arrangements by Paul Roland performed by the Wyndham Hill Ensemble.
WIN!WIN!WIN! 'THE LOCKDOWN SESSION' CD [15 tracks recorded by Paul, Mick Crossley of Flyte Reaction and Violet the Cannibal PLUS a taster track from the forthcoming M. R. James album - 'Room 13' home demo]
We have 3 copies of this limited edition PRAS members-only CD to give away. Only 100 copies of this CD are being made, so it's going to be a much sought after future collector's item!
Just answer this simple question using the CONTACT icon or click and don't forget to include your address so we can post your CD if you are one of the three lucky winners.
"Captain Nemo" from "THE LOCKDOWN SESSIONS"
Music Blog #2 17 Aug 2020
How To Fix iffy Performances!
I’ve just finished listening to the completed ‘Lockdown Session’, a 15 song live-in-the-studio semi-acoustic set I recorded a few weeks ago with Mick Crossley of Flyte Reaction and drummer/percussionist Violet the Cannibal. I’m pretty pleased with it and more so now that I have had such positive feedback from Mick, Violet, Matty the studio engineer and the legendary Jon Storey, former publisher of ‘Bucketful of Brains’. I say this because I very nearly junked it all and put the whole thing down to experience.
Sometimes spontaneity and the live vibe can make for a very exhilarating performance (our unrehearsed set at the Danish metal magic festival a couple of years ago was one such occasion), but occasionally you can trip yourself up and fall flat on your face if you don’t make adequate preparations or take the occasion seriously. I have always been of the opinion that people who come to see me deserve the best performance I can give and also my undivided attention, which is why I always speak to the audience, introduce the songs properly, tell a few atrocious jokes and look at their faces so that they feel (I hope) that I am playing for them. I don’t have any respect for bands who ignore the audience, or simply play one song after another without talking to the people who took the trouble to come and see them (sometimes having travelled a long way).
For that reason, I always rehearse every day for between 2 and 3 weeks before any live appearance and I memorise the lyrics while travelling as if I was taking an exam. I don’t always pass that exam because sometimes my mind can go blank or I get distracted, but thankfully that’s rare and at least I don’t then say to myself ‘If only I had rehearsed more’.
OK, so what has all this to do with the ‘Lockdown Session’? Simply this – we went into the studio because there was the opportunity to make a video and maybe use the audio for a PRAS members only CD if the video part didn’t work out. As we were being filmed we didn’t wear headphones so it really was a raw live performance and there was no click track (metronome) to keep us strictly to tempo (which I don’t always use when recording if I want to keep that spontaneous live vibe on record). So some of the performances were a bit ropey, as we say, (ragged) and I junked about 15 songs for that reason. Of the remainder about 6 were really good (for which I credit Mick entirely) and the balance (9 songs) were good in part, but had things I wasn’t very happy about.
And this is the reason for this blog – how to salvage something that is good on the whole, but needs fixing without the stitches being seen, so to speak.
I don’t think it will spoil your listening pleasure to know these little tricks, so I freely confess –
I added a light hi-hat tap to create a constant pulse even when the other instruments might have been wavering off the beat a little. The ear is fooled’ into following the hi-hat and makes allowances for the rest.
I also added non percussive sustained sounds (violin, cello, sax, flute, organ) which again diverts the ear from hearing any variations from the beat and I also added sweet, languid lines of melodic counterpoint to tempt the ear to focus on something other than the song.
I can still hear some dodgy moments, but as a souvenir of how Mick, Violet and I sound as a semi-acoustic trio its rather nice. I hope you agree.
P
Music Blog # 1 22 June 2020
When I decided to make my first single in July 1979 it was the most exciting thing I could imagine doing. I’d been waiting impatiently for five years since writing my first song to get into a studio, but it took the encouragement of recording a double sided single with a friend (John Willans, aka Danielz of Bolan tribute band T.Rextasy) to convince me to take a chance. It was the thrill of anticipation; trying to imagine what the song that I had written on an acoustic guitar and demoed on a portable cassette recorder would sound like when played by a band in a real studio.
[I’d recorded a batch of solo acoustic demos a year or so before, but that didn’t tell me what a real production would sound like]
Unfortunately, the buzz I felt when recording the vocals (“We sound like Blondie” I rashly thought!) was not captured in the finished article (the first and only Weird Strings single). It wasn’t just the awful homemade ‘sleeve’ or the thick vinyl which didn’t feel like a 7”single should, but the weedy, scrappy performance (due in no small part to John having to deputise on drums when the drummer fell asleep on his kit! (The latter had consumed a whole bottle of gin on the journey and was incapable of sitting upright, never mind playing).
The second attempt, my first solo single, ‘Public Enemy’, recorded a few months later, was only a modest improvement, but when it came to record my first album, ‘The Werewolf of London’, that autumn, the studio provided some serious musicians and we were in business.
Despite the patchy nature of that album, I finally experienced the thrill of recording; hearing a track come together from the raw acoustic sketch and recreating some very specific sounds that I heard in my head which I wanted to replicate on the record. Much of that thrill was due to the contribution made by the ‘real’ musicians on that and later records, their ideas for parts and sounds which I could not have imagined. And as each instrument was added to the backing track (drums, bass, rhythm guitar and guide vocal) a sound picture emerged and was coloured in. It was sonic alchemy and it is just as thrilling 41 years later as I now create the next album, ‘Morbid Beauty’, in collaboration with Mick Crossley, Violet the Cannibal and David Roche.
Writing songs has never lost its magic, as I never know what is likely to come out (it’s amazing how far you can go with a few chords, though I needed to learn a whole bunch of more ‘unusual’ sounding chords to write the M R James album a few years ago). For this new album I used the ‘intro’ and ‘fills’ from a drum machine to give me short and very different rhythm patterns to stimulate the core song and Violet noticed the difference in the new songs when I played them to her, so it had worked. I also decided that for this album I wouldn’t simply give the band the finished songs and ask them to play them a certain way while also adding their own ideas, but would instead provide only the core song and ask them to treat it any way they saw fit. I also invited them to develop the songs to extend them beyond the standard 3 minutes that I favoured and thought ideal for indie ‘pop’/’rock’. As a consequence, we would be equal partners in writing the songs and the album would be released under a group name and not be another Paul Roland album.
That kept me excited and added a healthy degree of the unexpected. And yesterday (21 June, 2020) I recorded the lead vocals for the first 5 songs and experienced the very same buzz I had felt back in 1979. This time it was because I added impromptu harmonies, so even I didn’t know what was going to come out until I did it. I’ve been doing that on the last few albums that I’ve recorded and it means that not only is my music developing, but its still fresh and exciting to make. And hopefully that means it will be fresh and exciting to listen to. I hope you agree.
‘Morbid Beauty’ should be released in Spring 2021.
‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…’ (‘A Tale of Two Cities’)
Dickens was a pretty shrewd judge of people, to say the least, and a man of prodigious imagination. But even he could not have foreseen the ‘challenging’ times we now find ourselves living through. What has all that to do with the launch of my new music site, I hear you ask? Quite a bit, I reply.
The current pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in people; personally I think the best are predominant, and many are proving to be surprisingly resourceful and to have put their enforced confinement to good use and made the best of a bad situation.
Here at Roland Towers we pulled up the drawbridge and drained the moat, the ultimate in self-isolation. But we too have not been idle, oh no.
With concerts postponed (including a major festival in Italy this summer as well as the premiere of my Grimm Fantasy for Orchestra), recording sessions cancelled (to complete the next band album ‘Morbid Beauty’) and releases put back to the autumn of 2020 (namely ‘Lair of the White Worm’ and the M.R. James project to spring 2021), I thought it would be senseless to write more songs only to have albums backing up like so many automobiles on an assembly line.
So, instead I channelled my creative energies into writing fiction and I’m very pleased I did so. I’m now a third of the way through my second novel – an Edwardian horror-mystery and have begun a second collection of short stories. The latter are my first attempts at Science Fiction, a genre I hadn’t explored before, so writing it was an entirely new and thrilling experience.
Which brings us rather circuitously back to this new site.
Alberto Crossio had been encouraging me for some time to update a site he created many, many years ago and with the demise of the German website I was keen to have an active new site that could also serve as a platform for a regularly updated blog on the subject of writing and recording. We were both keen that this new site should also function as an on-line source for ALL my lyrics and chords.
After weeks of typing up every single lyric, compiling and checking every album track listing and writing comments on all the songs, we were confident we had assembled the makings of a really interesting and useful online ‘library’. But how to make it look attractive, appealing and user-friendly? Fortunately, we had the very man for the task. Mikael Runnstrom who also created my author site (www.paulroland.net) contributed all his expertise to design a sister site in the same stylish manner.
So, here, for the first time, you will find the LYRICS to EVERY song I have released (including those I’m not so proud of!) and in time ALL the CHORDS will be added. You will also find my personal COMMENTS to EVERY song plus INTERVIEWS, RECENT REVIEWS, VIDEOS and a COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY with every track listed and full credits.
This site will also give me the opportunity to publish a short BLOG every couple of weeks under the heading ‘NEWS’.
We hope you like what you find here and will come back for updates every 2 weeks or so.
P + M + A
Paul Roland - lair of the white worm (RELEASED 2020)
I learnt much of what (little) I know of recording during the making of my first album, ‘The Werewolf Of London’ way back in 1979 (!) and it still guides me today. One of the ‘golden rules’ I picked up was that the first three tracks ‘sell’ the album and it still does, even in the age of streaming and ipods. 
Finally, after much re-writing, re-recording, re-mixing, re-sequencing, tweaking and general fiddling about, the NEW ALBUM, 'Lair of the White Worm' has been mastered, the cover designed and the whole project ready to be passed to the duplicating house for pressing and printing.
