Hello Folks, Paul Collins here! I am happy to have been asked to do a 5 part blog series for The Vinyl District. I want to start with a bit of a recap of my career in music for those of you who may not know me.
I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a musician, even before I knew how to play an instrument. When I heard “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Frankie Valli and “Lightning Strikes” by Lou Christie when I was just a tike in Saigon, Vietnam of all places I was hooked! Later on I fine-tuned my musical tastes by listening to WABC Radio in Long Island, NY every night as I went to sleep.
When I was 17 I left home and went to California to seek my fortune and that is where I met Jack Lee and Peter Case and we formed The Nerves and I was on my way! I never looked back and I have been making music ever since. It has been a blast and I have had the good fortune to be apart of some fantastic bands, The Nerves, one of the founders of the DIY movement in America and then the short lived transitional band with Pete Case, The Breakaways and then onto The Beat one of power pop’s most enduring groups!
I love playing music and as I started as a fan I never thought I would have the opportunity to tour and make records so for me it has really been a dream come true. Nowadays I am very busy recording, writing and touring after a long absence from America (I lived in Madrid, Spain for almost 8 years.)
I have a new record I just recorded with Jim Diamond at his studio Ghetto Recorders in Detroit, which will come out on Bomp/Alive Records in August. All in all it has been a fantastic trip, from rehearsing in burnt out basements to performing on world famous stages with world famous bands like The Jam, Eddie Money, Joe Jackson, The Cure, Devo, The Police, South Side Johnny all the way up to new bands like Gentlemen Jesse and Reigning Sound!
The one thing that has remained a constant for me is that I love music and I am a fan! I hope to see some of you out there when I tour the US this summer…if I do please come up and introduce yourself as that is why we do this…for the fans!
The Beat – Rock N Roll Girl (Mp3)
The Beat – Wait Up For Me (Mp3)
(Downloads authorized by the artist. Got that Google?)
