Paul Solecki is a songwriter, musician, and producer currently living in Cork, Ireland. His new studio album Every Inch of Sky has just been released, and features a dynamic mix of songs about love, science, and beating up Jesus.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii on the second day of 1979, Paul moved to Rhode Island, California, Japan, and finally Olathe, Kansas with his family before going off to seek his fortune in Ireland. In Kansas, Paul started to play the guitar and mandolin and write songs with his friend Jim Kelly, and on May 18, 1993 they had their first gig as Carnivorous Grass. For the next four years they wrote songs and performed, eventually going electric and forming a full band. Paul and Jim are still good friends and celebrated their 15th anniversary of playing together with a gig in Cork on May 18th, 2008.
In 1997 Paul and drummer Ben Champion formed The Vetivers, a more serious band that released two CDs - 1999's Lights and 2002's Twelve O'Clock In All The World. In 2003, Paul moved to Ireland to study and continued writing songs. Two years later he released Paul and Me - a quiet acoustic collection of older unrecorded songs and a few new ones. He also started playing in a band again with The Great Egress, billed as the best band from Cork, Kansas, Finland and New Zealand in the world. The band released a DVD of their final gig in May 2007.
In Cork, Paul switched his studies from anthropology to music. His class at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofe in produced a CD for kids called Songs For Small People, and over three years he recorded Every Inch of Sky there, producing the album himself. One track, Everybody Looks Funny, was recorded at Ray Barron's studio, where Paul and Me was recorded, and features two members of Perfidia: Paul Frost on double bass and Joe Noonan on fiddle. The album is a good mix of upbeat pop in the style of Teenage Fanclub and R.E.M. and acoustic singer songwriter fare influenced by the likes of Loudon Wainwright III, Lyle Lovett, and John Prine. The songs are mostly short and simple but the instrumentation and arrangement is complex and inventive. Every Inch of Sky is Paul's best work yet.
