About Me
Terry Paul hails from Westmoreland in Jamaica. He has been singing since the tender age of 5. His musical fire was sparked by listening to the young Michael Jackson and all the other legendary Motown artistes. As his interest in music grew, so did his ability to adapt to various different musical genres. Living in Jamaica ensured that Terry developed an embedded Reggae and Dancehall roots which can be heard in everything he does. Terry was pushed to enter a talent contest at the age of 6 where he sang a popular Jamaican festival song and he won the competition with ease. This would be the first time that the public had a glimpse of the talent that is - Terry Paul.
Terry was then forced by his parents to ensure that his education came first, so the next few years would see Terry studying the sciences and the arts in High School and college whilst giving music a backseat. However, during this time, he never lost sight of his interest in Music, he quietly continued to learn as many songs as possible and tried to emulate lots of different vocal styles and this would lead to a chance encounter with one of Jamaica's premeire bands at the time, the 809 band, who Terry met at a hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica. He would sit in on rehearsal sessions learning about live performances and basically how music was put together. His interest in music production grew from that point onwards.
Terry then went to the UK where he hooked up with long time schoolmate Don Ricardo and together the 2 would practice even harder with Kidos Weise, Carl 'Admaral' Weise, Neville 'Tall Yout' Valentine and Clive ' Perchman' Weise as aprt of the 'Number 9 Crew'. A chance encounter with Mr. Patrick Donegan (the then UK Lovers Rock Producer Of The Year) of Progressive Sounds Studio would lead to Terry's first solo recording, a cover version of "Roni" by Bobby Brown. Terry credits his experience with Patrick as the era that taught him his own vocal style, how to arrange songs and the whole process of recording. The single received rave underground reviews and only wetted Terry's appetite for more. He then went on to record another cover version for Progressive Sounds 'Shower Me With Your Love', again the single received critical acclaim but only on the underground circuit due to lack of promotion. Terry grew very impatient that success was not happening fast enough and subsequently went onto hook up with a then very popular UK singer, Richie Davis on a track called "Cany Girl" where Terry provided a very catchy rap for the single. Again the single was very popular but Terry felt that he wanted more, he followed up by recording what would be his last single on the Progressive Sounds label, "Old Fashioned Love' which Terry penned and arranged himself. This proved to be the most successful of Terry's recordings under Progressive Sounds which only served to drive Terry's ambition to start recording on his own label and having more creative control over his work.
With the help of the well loved Jamaican actress, Lovena Brown, Terry then went onto producing and recording his first single on his own label - Boombastik Records entitled "Cry Blood Fe Yuh". The single was played exclusively by all underground stations, KISS FM and Choice FM and made it into the UK Top Twenty Reggae singles. Kiss FM's Reggae and veteran DJ, David Rodigan personally contacted Terry to congratulate him on the freshness of his sound and the superb record that he had made. The song was also exclusively featured by Rodigan in an interview with Super Cat to rave public reviews. Whilst the song became the song that everyone was talking about, once again, the industry reared its ugly head and Terry's song suffered as a result of Radio politics and distribution problems. Terry once again rallied and came back with another single on his own label "Love Songs Are Back Again" on a more up-tempo dancehall riddim, again, the single won rave reviews and made the UK Reggae Charts but did not make the Top Ten due to industry and distribution politics.
Terry became very disilluioned with the industry and would take a hiatus from the industry to focus on his writing and productions skills and to start his family. Terry still kept busy behind the scenes which led to him penning the soundtrack for several Blue Muntain Theatre Jamaican plays as with his new partner in crime Yannis "The Greek Prince Of Soul" under the Big Boss Studio Productions - together they worked on the soundtracks for 'Scrooge' and 'Its A Dancehall Ting' honing the stage vocal skills of comedy king Oliver Samuels O.D., Charles Tomlin, Lavern Archer, Christopher Daley, Audrey "Dancehall Queen" Reid and many more Jamaican Theatre stalwarts - the collaboration proved to be a very successful one as both Terry and Yannis again received great reviews from "The Stage" newspaper for the diversity and originality that they brought to the soundtracks. Terry also worked during this time with Audley Anderson of BBC1's Fame Academy assisting with song writing and vocal productions which led to Audley getting into the last 10 of the Fame Academy. After what would be another short break, Terry co-founded Caribbean Celebrities.Com with Lovena brown to help all Jamaican and Caribbean talent in the UK to showcase themselves on television and to produce programs for UK Television that accurately reflect Jamaica and the Caribbean - this culminated in a brand new Television Series which premeired on BENTV Sky Channel 148 in the UK in December 2006 called 'Christmas Connections 2006' where Terry also wrote and produced the theme song for the show 'Time Fi Lickle Christmas Greetings'. Terry was asked how does he find time to fit everything in and his reply was "I receive a lot of support and encouragement from my wife, this allows me the space to be creative and branch out into a lot of different things which I know i'm capable of achieving and I thank God for giving me the talent and the health and strength daily to just make even one more step".
To further explain his absence from the scene - In his own words Terry says "Sometimes you have to step back, watch the flex, learn and come again. I didn't like the wranglings in the industry, the fighting over distribution rights and certain deejays expecting to be paid to play a song and back then I had to rely on a lot of people to do what I wanted to do. I've now shed the load and i'm able to focus on what I want to do - i'm a better singer, musician and a more mature individual and I credit my learning experiences to my family and my kids. I believed back then and I still believe right now that deejays should play songs and ultimately this will decide if an artiste is credible or not but a lot of them seem to want to dictate who "buss" and who doesn't". So I have to big up all the people who made me stronger and stayed with me through the fire, Lovena Brown - love har to de max, Yannis - bro we still have a lot to do and my big breddrin in New York that knows where we coming from 'D' - big up bro and nuff love".
Terry has now returned with what will be his first new single in a long time and he is premeiring it exclusively on myspace for everyone. He asked us to lastly quote Bob Marley in saying "My music is fi de people, if de people cannot get my music and listen to it without fear and prejudice, then mi nuh want nutten fi do wid it". Take your first listen to Terry Paul's infectious new single "Crime Scene" - written and produced by the man himself.
Interview by Jack Jones (What's Hot Inc.) 2007
