There’s a classic series of commercials that features, for example, winning Super Bowl athletes. A narrator asks these athletes, after their big game wins, “what are you going to do next?” The athlete then answers that he’ll be going to a certain theme park where it is not unusual to see people wearing rodent ears. Since finishing … Read more
Last August 1st, I announced my intention to record and release a pop album by the end of the first half of 2016. I’ll get to more of the story in a minute, but, without further ado, here it is (playable in its entirety courtesy of CD Baby and YouTube): At the time, I’d begun … Read more
It’s now been seven months since I announced my intention to record a pop album and release it during the first half of 2016 and four months since my most recent public update on that project. As we enter the second quarter of 2016, it is getting down to the wire if I am to … Read more
Back in 2009, I released my first full-length album, Love Holds On, a collection of original songs written over a period of approximately thirteen years. Since then, I have released ten digital singles, nine of those with original songs and one an original arrangement of a classic hymn, and another full length album with original … Read more
In early March 2010, Vadim Efanov of the Russian music and technology company Virartech conducted an e-mail interview with songwriter Rick Paul for the “Advice for Musicians” section of Virartech’s web site. While the interview was conducted in English, it was translated into Russian for Virartech’s readers. Here is the original English language interview. VE: … Read more
I began threatening to record and release a full-length album of my songs somewhere around 1998. At that time, I’d been focusing on writing songs with the idea that other singers and bands would record them and take them out into the world. My recordings prior to that point were intended solely as song demos, … Read more
I’ve been noticing lately that the level of activity on MySpace seems to have tailed off significantly over the past year or so. Is it just me, or has the party peaked or even left the building? Meanwhile, after having been on Facebook for a half a year or more with virtually no activity, the … Read more
Back on August 4, 2007, in my “Summer Happenings” blog, I wrote: Speaking of the other side of the world, I’ve been collaborating with a Russian songwriter and producer, whose name is Alexei Ustinov, on a new song and recording to be released sometime later this year. Alexei is producing the instrumental tracks over in … Read more
A big part of my early musical development was influenced by hymns and other church music. Somewhere around seven years of age, after having taken piano lessons from my mother since the age of four, I started teaching myself to play songs I heard in the new folk masses at the Catholic church my family … Read more
While it might not technically be correct to call the first of August the halfway mark for Summer, it always feels like it is. We won’t be taking a vacation this year since my wife is in an intensive MBA course that considers September to be the right month for a break. Of course the … Read more