Winter Trek

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Who Can Resist Singing About Gold?	2:52	Play
2		Lips Locked and Loaded	3:54	Play
3		Feel Like Home	3:05	Play
4		Wake Up	4:54	Play
5		Sunshine	3:15	Play
6		Too Slow	3:40	Play
7		Better Off	3:07	Play
8		Any Other Way	3:20	Play
9		Song to Make You Love Me	3:18	Play
10		Lonely Evening	3:43	Play
11		Yellow Jacket	3:08	Play
12		Winter Trek	3:40	Play
13		Back to the Start	3:37	Play

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Description

Its been a relatively short, intense and very productive musical run for John Paul, a full-time student at Emerson College and one of the rare talents that can create an album from drums to guitar and piano to lyrics.

When he releases his new album, Winter Trek, this summer, itll be a follow-up to plenty of performance and recording. Hes been a member of Stillview, The Posters, and The Limericks.

John Paul started recording the new album in earnest after Tom Acousti, whod been a seven-time winner on Star Search in 1994, judged his band at a statewide Battle of the Bands in Maine. We started to talk and click together and he ended up producing half the tracks on the album last summer, he says. At first I recorded six songs with him for fun, but then they turned out real well so we went to BigSound Studios where producer Jon Wyman (Jeremiah Freed, As Fast As, Headstart!) recorded my drum and bass tracks.

His choices of collaborators on the album have been very deliberate. Being a drummer at heart, I wanted real good drum sounds and I knew Wyman was the man to create those sounds, he said. Mike Lambert worked with me on the other half of the album, he has recorded all my past bands (Stillview and The Posters) so I knew Id like to work with him as well.

John Paul and Lambert recorded the rest of the album over breaks from school. It took a long time to record because I played everything on the album, he says.

Thats quite an accomplishment considering that his musical career has only spanned 10 years. Beginning with drums in 4th grade, he added turntables a few years later; then guitar, bass, piano and vocals. I can also play a mean tambourine when needed, he says.

The first song he wrote and recorded was at 16, an homage to a cute girl with whom he thought he was in love. It was called Realwe listened to it in her car outside of her house with her mom looking through the kitchen window to make sure we didnt make out, says John Paul. I wrote and recorded all parts of the song from drums and bass to guitar and lyrics.

His songwriting has developed since that first effort. John Paul characterizes the sound as schizophrenic. In one song, I am making fun of pop culturein the next, I am talking about doing certain romantic things to girls, then hating my life and denouncing the female gender, he says. But Id like to think this is the beauty of my music: its not the same songs over and over, they tell different stories, and a listener will have a good time with this record.

Along the way, hes received plenty of recognition for his work. In 2003, his old band Stillview was in the Portland Phoenixs Top 10 for record sales for nine consecutive weeks. The next year, John Paul was honored as Best Drummer and Best Songwriter for Reindeer Records Rock Off 20, the statewide battle of the bands in Maine; and his second band, The Posters, won the national Got Milk! Contest for the State of Maine in 2004.

Fueled by this critical success and his own evolution as a musician, the audiences are getting bigger and biggerbut what about the dream gig? Under the lights, on the stage at Bostons TD Banknorth Garden. Id be opening for Death Cab for Cutie a few years from now once the world realizes how amazing that band is, he says. My whole family would be there and my brother would jump on stage to play a few songs with me at the end.

His brother gets most of the credit for keeping him on track with his musical career. I stopped playing music for a little bit right at the beginning of high school when my parents divorced, he says, but my brother moved back to my house and became a kind of father figure to me. He was at every show, whether it was in a band, acting in theater, whatever.

The impression he wants to leave with listeners is pretty straightforward. Id like them to think hes got a good sound, hes a little corky and cute on stage, maybe even a little shy, but man hes got his shit together., he says. Maybe theyll buy the CD with a bottle of wine and ride the emotional roller coaster with me.

What comes next? John Paul wants to work with a label that takes the time to develop talent. Too many bands are in one second and out the next, he says. The best part would be able to play out constantly and not have to worry about setting up your equipment or getting more people to a show to make a club happy.

If John Paul stays on the road hes on, the clubs are going to very happy indeed.