Paul Simpson (musician)

Paul Simpson is a musician, vocalist, lyricist and writer from Liverpool, England. His vocal and lyrical styles have been described as "haunting" and "doomed romantic", respectively. Musically, his contributions have crossed the genres of Synthpop, Post-punk, Neo-psychedelia, New wave and Ambient. He is not to be confused with Paul Simpson the prolific New York producer of Disco, Dance, and House records, or disc jockey Paul Simpson, host of the Volcano Worshipper's Hour on WRSU-FM and Chester's Blanket Fort on WPKN/WPKM.

Early career

His music career began in the late 1970s, commencing with the bedsit collaboration with Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch and others under the name 'A Shallow Madness'. This later transformed into the Cope-lead Teardrop Explodes, while McCulloch went on to form Echo & the Bunnymen. Around this time, Simpson shared a flat with Bunnymen drummer Pete de Freitas.

He left the Teardrops in 1979 to form his own band The Wild Swans in 1980. Between the two incarnations of the band, he was also co-founder of the duo Care with Ian Broudie, later of the Lightning Seeds.

Care broke up around 1984 and after a while, he and a Mark II version of The Wild Swans re-formed to record 1988's "Bringing Home The Ashes" and 1989's "Space Flower".

Speaking of his past, he recalls, with some humour, the early Teardrops and Wild Swans period where he often sported enormous baggy trousers and a foppish, 'Brideshead-Revisited' haircut. It was a look that was to become popular amongst the New Romantics and other songwriters with Pre-Raphaelite leanings, but on late 70s Merseyside, it more often than not just got him into a lot of fights.

Later career

Subsequent to a final parting of the ways for The Wild Swans in 1990, Simpson embarked on a variety of more-or-less solo projects, including 'The White Capsule' and 'Skyray'. For most of his later career, he has abstained from singing, preferring to compose instrumental pieces and channel his more literary talents into creative, sometimes auto-biographical writing, extracts from which occasionally appear on his web-site, sometimes in the form of a diary.

Trivia

*He is not pleased when 'music of the 70's/80s' TV shows feature only bands like ABBA, Slade and Spandau Ballet and fears that the truly influential reference points, such as Television, Joy Division and Patti Smith will be lost.

*In the fascinating world of oddball personalities who are noted for their vanity, he is intrigued by the work of Vincent Gallo, of Buffalo 66 fame.

References

* [http://www.skyray.co.uk Paul Simpson, Skyray homepage]
* [http://www.renascent.co.uk Renascent Records, Wild Swans History, Q&A, Images]

External links

* [http://www.lightning-seeds.co.uk Ian Broudie, Care, Lightning Seeds homepage]
* [http://www.noripcord.com/?q=node/306 Interview 1]
* [http://www.whisperinandhollerin.co.uk/chat/chat.asp?id=1392 Interview 2]
* [http://www.myspace.com/paul__simpson Paul Simpson on MySpace]