I've been playing music since I was seven when I picked up my mother's nylon-string guitar with a neck that was too big for my hands and had to trudge to piano lessons a year later.
I worked my way into my first rock band when I was 14 and we played covers of the day - BTO, Bad Company, etc. At 17 I got hooked on the Sex Pistols and Clash and was playing clubs in Seattle at 18 and spent most of the next 10 years hitting the circuit playing original music from Vancouver, BC to San Diego, CA and everywhere in between with the New Flamingos, Lonesome City Kings with my friend Rick Smith , and finally The Cowboys , who were one of the most popular Seattle bands in the early-to-mid 80s, playing for big crowds and with national acts, and recording and releasing a few records. We split up, our sound and light guys went to work for Mother Love Bone and Pearl Jam, and I got more serious about a day job and started another band, Reckless X and got more serious about writing.
I also co-founded a folk/acoustic band called The Swine and we had a long-running self-produced cable show called "Swine Before Pearls" which featured political satire and musical guests. The Swine was also a long-running staple of Seattle's Folklife Festival in the '90s.
These days I continue to write, produce my own music in my studio, playing all instruments except drums, collaborate with other friends, including Carrie Cunningham . I've finally released the first album from this project and it's available online at CD Baby and at iTunes .
I've now put together a band to play the songs and record the next batch.
--Paul
