Paul Roland

This article is about the musician Paul Roland; for further meanings, see Paul Roland (disambiguation) .

Paul Roland 1995

Paul Roland (born September 6, 1959 in Canterbury , England) is a British musician, writer and journalist.

biography

Childhood and Adolescence (1959–1979)

Paul Roland comes from a family of artists (father a writer, mother an actress) who fostered artistic inclinations in him at an early age. Both parents are descended from immigrants from Russia , Latvia, and Ukraine .

Through his father he was introduced to numerous classics of fantastic literature . In addition, his enthusiasm for the supernatural was reinforced by several out-of- body experiences in childhood that were well understood by his parents, familiar with Eastern mysticism and meditation.

He discovered his love for music at an early age: his first compositions date from 1974, and at the age of 19 he released his first LP. The first thought to be a rock musician and thus to escape the undesirable perceived way from school, college and professional, came through his composed of rock music soundtrack of the film That'll be the day (dt .: Do not trust anyone over 18 ) by Neil Aspinall (the Beatles' road manager), Will Malone and Keith Moon (from The Who ). After graduating from school in 1978, however, he began training in an office in London, which he soon dropped out of. While working in a newsagents' shop, he met John Willians, a musician and, like him, a Marc Bolan fan. The two decided not to wait for the discovery of a major label , but to record a single on their own.

First career and retreat (1979–1997)

On July 7, 1979, Roland, John Willians and Simon Ballestrini recorded the 7 "single Oscar Automobile under the band name Weird Strings in Oakwood Studios, a small 8-track studio in Herne Bay . The edition of 1000 copies was completely sold and enabled them to finance further recordings.

The band Midnight Rags was founded and the first LP was released. Although Roland later rated this step as hasty, the publication received good reviews. So played z. For example, the British radio DJ John Peel two tracks on the album as well as the single Public Enemy on his show. In December 1980 the band first performed at Canterbury Technical College. In addition to Paul Roland himself, the cast only included John Daniels (guitar) and Brian Gould (keyboards).

After releasing a single under the pseudonym "Beau Brummel", Roland has been playing under his own name since 1982. After various maxis and singles, the first regular album Burnt Orchids was released in 1985 .

Under the management of David Enthoven and June Bolan (the widow of Marc Bolan) he was held back from recording in the early 1980s and initially built up as a film and music journalist. B. for the magazines Kerrang , Sounds and Record Mirror worked. While working for these magazines, he interviewed numerous well-known musicians, including Tony Iommi ( Black Sabbath ), Mark E. Smith ( The Fall ), Sting , Nico and Lemmy ( Motörhead ).

Successes tended to occur outside of Great Britain, especially in Germany, Italy and Greece. In 1987 Marian Gold from Alphaville offered him to finance the recording of an album in full if he got the release rights. However, Roland did not get involved, so that only the single Berlin was released in this way . In particular, the album Danse Macabre made it into the favorites lists of many European indie rock magazines in Germany, Denmark, Norway and Belgium. In Great Britain it was almost exclusively Bucketfull of Brains magazine that reported regularly on Roland.

In 1993 Paul married Roland. The marriage resulted in two sons. When he moved to Cheltenham , he also lost some contact with musical companions. With Sarabande he played his first album without Chris Randall, who was previously responsible for all musical arrangements.

In 1997 he ended his musical career after several record companies working with him went bankrupt and there was no way for him to maintain contact with the audience. In addition, there was the lack of success in his home country Great Britain and the USA, where it was actually not noticed at all. In later interviews he also spoke of feeling too old to be an independent musician. The growing, also financial success as a book author must have played just as much a role as the need to receive a regular income after starting a family that could be earned much better through freelance journalistic activities.

Comeback and second career (from 2002)

Various books were published in the following years. A concert originally planned as a one-off appearance in September 2002 at Rabenstein Castle in Brandenburg at the Herbstnächte IV festival led to his resumption of his musical career. With the albums that followed, he tried a new beginning, striving to avoid the "uncritical and comfortable self-satisfaction" of the past that he felt. He spoke several times of his "second career" or the "second half of his career". In fact, the compositions and especially the arrangements of the pieces since Pavane sound more professional, routine and less playful than on the older albums.

In 2004 Roland re-launched his own record label Gaslight Records for the release of Pavane , in order to re-release old works that had since disappeared from the market and to bring new records to the market.

At the same time, his success as an author of non-fiction and novels increased. He is also active as a teacher in self-awareness, meditation and Kabbalah courses (see section Books ).

Roland left the UK in 2006 and moved to Karlsruhe for four years .

In 2013, Roland's younger son Joshua played bass for the first time on the album Bates Motel . Since then he has appeared regularly on tours and recordings.

music

Paul Roland has developed a very idiosyncratic and unmistakable musical style in which numerous directions are united. The most formative influence can be found in psychedelic rock of the 1960s and glam rock of the 1970s, especially in his role models Marc Bolan (whom he calls his only real inspiration several times) and Syd Barrett . Older musical styles such as folk, jazz, blues and classic 50s rock'n'roll flow into his music as well as the only recognizable "modern" directions hard rock and heavy metal .

A special trademark of many pieces is the proportion of baroque chamber and orchestral music, many songs have string and wind ensembles in their arrangement in addition to or instead of the typical rock instrumentation. Roland also counts Georg Friedrich Händel and the film music composer Michael Nyman , whom he called his favorite composer several times, among his role models .

Often the lyrics of the albums determine the predominant style. Early albums with historical themes often sound baroque, while the Duel album, which is dominated by combat and war themes, is more martial and rocky, oriental themes ( Cairo ) such as Far Eastern themes ( In The Opium Den ) or Caribbean ( White Zombie ) are arranged with appropriate instruments.

Since Paul Roland published all of his albums on small independent labels, the great success as a musician always failed. In 1987 Danse Macabre was named album of the month by the German radio broadcaster WDR in the daily program Flip Zeit , without the further course of his career being followed by the editorial team. Roland achieved greater success above all in the dark wave scene of the 1990s.

During his career he worked with various prominent guest musicians, such as Folk singer Robyn Hitchcock (on The Werewolf Of London ), Nick Saloman from The Bevis Frond (on Roaring Boys, Strychnine and Sarabande ), Sterling Morrison from The Velvet Underground (on Danse Macabre ), Knox from The Vibrators (on Burnt Orchids and the EP Hot George ), Andy Ellison from Marc Bolan's first band John's Children (on the singles Hot George and Dr. Strange ), British psychedelic musician Nick Nicely (on A Cabinet Of Curiosities ), Derek Hefferman, the tour guitarist of the Virgin Prunes in the early 80s (on Duel and Live in Italy ), Joachim "Jojo" Brandt from The Convent (on Live in Germany 1995; Paul Roland was supporter for the band, whose guitarist Brandt in turn helped Roland out on his pre-appearance), Joran Elane, Markus Skroch and Nico Steckelberg from Elane (on Pavane and Nevermore ), Jim Leverton and Geoffrey Richardson from Caravan (on Re-Animator ), Ralf Jesek from In My Rosary (on Nevermore ) and Allan Jenkins from The Deep Freeze Mice ( upon request er and Twisted ).

In 2017 the tribute album Alice's Curiosities - A Tribute to Paul Roland was released .

He also worked several times for other musicians. On the one hand, he produced the album Reds for the Italian band The Gang in 1989 . He also composed a piece for the planned Reunions CD for the band John's Children, which was not published there, but on his own album Gargoyles under the title Aleister Crowley . He appears as a guest musician on various albums, such as Retro by In My Rosary or Plutonium Express by Knox.

Texts

A special aspect of music are the very distinctive texts, not least thanks to his parallel activity as a writer. These are mostly compressed stories that are presented in lyrical form. In terms of content, most of them revolve around eccentrics who often lived in the past, visionaries and slightly uncanny contemporaries, who are often portrayed as clichéd exaggerated. Literary influences from Charles Dickens , Edgar Allan Poe , but also Gothic novels and horror comics can be recognized. A constant recurring theme is an outsider who fanatically follows a task set (mostly by himself) and accepts tragic consequences for himself and his environment. Historical events and places are also often described, such as Berlin in the Roaring Twenties , Cairo at the turn of the century (19th / 20th century), pre-revolutionary Moscow or historical battles. The result is less exact descriptions than clichéd exaggerations and moods.

He expressly refuses to deal with contemporary topics or political texts.

Examples are the following figures: a 19th century poisoner ( The Crimes of Dr. Cream ), an opium addict ( In The Opium Den ), a missionary trying to convert a cannibal tribe ( The Curate Of Cheltenham ), a visionary who long before the Wright brothers build a flying machine ( Wyndham Hill ), pirates ( Captain Blood ), a Victorian femme fatale ( cousin Emilia ).

"An organized anachronistic, touching poet." ( Diedrich Diederichsen about Roland in Spex 7/87)

Books

poetry

In the 1980s, Paul Roland wrote short stories, which, however, were only distributed in his own work and occasionally advertised on music albums of the time. According to his own statement, he had already written poems and stories before, but they were not published.

Various fantasy novels followed ( The Guru of Greenwich Village , The Magician Of Grimm ). His style is influenced by classics of the horror novels and mystery literature such as Edgar Allan Poe , HG Wells , Arthur Make and Montague Rhodes James .

Non-fiction

Since 1995 he has appeared as an author of non-fiction books, mostly on the subjects of music, esotericism , Kabbalah , meditation and help in life. In addition, he works as a meditation teacher and, according to his own statements, has made several appearances on various British radio and TV programs. In his theoretical esoteric books he attempts to critically assess popular, so-called New Age topics such as the prophecies of Celestine or Findhorn and to place them in a historical context with classical teachings such as Neoplatonism , Gnosis or Theosophy . There are also more practice-oriented works that are mostly devoted to different aspects of the practice of meditation. His most successful books are Relaxation Through Meditation and Kabbalah Cards . Work on famous crimes and forensics followed .

Trivia

• When a reporter for the Argentine Nucleus Magazine asked to describe himself to readers who did not know him, he replied: “I was occasionally called England's 'psych-pop guru' and 'the male Kate Bush ' by my label colleague Robyn Hitchcock. The truth is somewhere in between. My music is certainly English at its core and has roots in the psychedelic 60s and early 70s, although I use many classical instruments to conjure up the Victorian and Edwardian country house garden party atmosphere that goes with my lyrics, which are mostly psychedelic or historical themes to have. Imagine early Marc Bolan with a little Syd Barrett and Colin Blunstone plus The Left Banke and you have me. "

• In the Greek Acropolis magazine he reported the following anecdote: “It was a brief but important experience to meet Ozzy Osbourne backstage at Wembley in 1982 , whom I asked for advice on how to be successful in the music business. His answer was, 'Stay away from the shit record labels'. He was right about that. "

• Despite his literary ambitions, Roland does not consider himself a great reader. The only exception was when he was around 30 years old. After breaking up with a friend, studying literature, he read about 100 books within a year as a kind of intellectual revenge.

• He describes his way of composing as follows: “I don't know how other authors work, but I've always written fragments rather than entire songs. (...) Only after I have put together ten or more individual parts (verses, refrains or middle pieces) do I look at what I have and try to connect the fragments. When the skeleton of a piece is in place, I write the missing passages (usually the middle section) and the text at the end (after using nonsense verses to get the melody). "

• He repeatedly mentions very different influences on his music, e.g. B. Metallica, Rammstein or the early Rod Stewart.

• In 1986 he interviewed the horror film star (and idol of his youth) Peter Cushing for a film magazine.

• He met the viola player Piers Mortimer, who accompanied him on many of the early records, through an advertisement in a specialist musician magazine. Later he once said that he would actually have preferred a violin rather than a viola that has become so typical of his pieces.

• He did not have any musical training.

• In his youth he wrote a Marc Bolan biography, from which he later distanced himself and which no longer appears in any of his books. He later wrote three more biographies about Bolan in 2008, 2012 and 2017.

• In the early 1980s he founded a record label called Moonlight , which did not release its own records, only other musicians. In favor of his own career, however, the company was soon closed.

• The single Sword & Sorcery was released on the Constrictor label, which was founded by the German musician Phillip Boa .

• The role model for cousin Emilia on Happy Families was the eccentric British butterfly hunter and world traveler Margaret Fountaine (1862-1940).

• The songs "Animal Crackers" and "Menagerie", which describe a man who regards every type of animal as food, had a historical model: the British surgeon and later fisheries commissioner under Queen Victoria Frank Buckland (1826–1880), however Eating all kinds of animal meat (from pince-nez to elephant's trunk) was a part of scientific research, which he pursued as a hobby.

• In an interview conducted in January 2008 with the German online magazine NonPop, he described himself as "Edgar Allan Poe of rock music".

Works

Discography (selection)

Due to numerous, often revised, new editions and country-specific special editions, the complete discography is very extensive. Only the albums in their original versions, noteworthy variations and selected singles and EPs are listed here. In particular, single releases or variants of albums that do not contain any new material are mentioned. In 2007 old works began to be re-released as a so-called reissue series by Roland's new record company Syborgmusic and, in parallel, the PRAS fan club released rarities. In the process, many of the pieces are revised, from slight sound improvements to additional soundtracks to partially completely new versions. The booklets contain autobiographical texts from the respective period.

• (as Weird Strings ) Oscar Automobile (7 ", 1979)
• (as Midnight Rags ) Public Enemy (7 ", 1979)
• (as Midnight Rags ) The Werewolf Of London (on self-founded label Ace Records ; LP, 1980)
• (as Midnight Rags ) The Werewolf Of London (re-released by Armageddon Records with new tracks and remixes; LP, 1981)
• (as Beau Brummel ) Hot George (7 ", 1982)
• Dr. Strange (7 ", 1982)
• Blades Of Battenburg (12 ", 1983)
• Burnt Orchids (LP, 1985)
• Death Or Glory (12 ", 1986)
• House Of Dark Shadows (Compilation of earlier singles and EPs; CD / LP / MC, 1986)
• Gabrielle (12 ", 1987)
• Danse Macabre (CD / LP, 1987)
• A Cabinet Of Curiosities (CD / LP, 1987)
• Sword & Sorcery (7 ", 1987)
• Happy Families (CD / LP, 1988)
• Duel (CD / LP, 1989, re-release for the Greek market with bonus tracks; CD, 2002)
• Acoustic Radio Sessions 1986-88 (LP, 1989)
• Live In Italy ( Authorized Bootleg published in collaboration with Bucketfull of Brains magazine; CD / LP, 1990)
• The Haunted Pages (7 "+ book, 1990)
• Masque (CD / LP, 1990)
• Roaring Boys (CD / LP, 1991)
• Strychnine (CD, 1992)
• Sarabande (CD, 1994)
• Waxworks ( Best Of and Radio Sessions; CD, 1995)
• Live In Germany (CD, 1995); This album was dedicated to Jojo Brandt ( The Convent ), Roland had supported the band and band guitarist Brandt played in its opening act.
• Gargoyles (CD, 1997)
• Gaslight Tales ( Best Of Paul Roland ; CD, 2003)
• Pavane (CD / LP, 2004)
• Strychnine ... And Other Potent Poisons (+11 bonus tracks; CD / LP, 2005)
• Re-Animator (CD / LP, 2006; German version from 2007 with bonus pieces)
• The Werewolf Of London Reissue Series (PRAS, with unreleased material; CD, 2007)
• Nevermore (CD, 2008)
• Demos (PRAS, DCD, 2009; also contains a soundtrack to the silent film Häxan by Paul Roland)
• In Memoriam ( Best Of CD, 2010)
• Grimm (CD, 2011)
• Bates Motel (CD / LP, 2013)
• Witches (CD / LP, 2013)
• Professor Moriarty's Jukebox (CD, 2014)
• Bitter and Twisted (CD, 2015)
• White Zombie (CD, 2016)
• Voodoo Chants (PRAS, CD, 2017)
• 1313 Mocking Bird Lane (CD, 2019)

Videos

• Live in Germany 1995 (VHS, 1995)
• Live in Piacenza March 2014 (DVD, 2015)

bibliography

• Electric Warrior (Omnibus Press, 1982)
• The Curious Case Of Richard Fielding (self-distributed) (ca.1986)
• Revelations: Wisdom of the Ages (German: Secret knowledge from all cultures) (1995)
• Prophecies and Predictions (1996)
• Millennium Prophecies (German: The greatest prophecies, alternative title: Prophezeiungen zur Wendendendendendend) (1997)
• Complete Guide to Dreams (1997)
• Angels - A Piaktus Guide (1999)
• Kabbalah - A Piaktus Guide (1999)
• Teach Yourself ... Rock & Pop (1999)
• Jazz Singers (1999)
• New Age Living (2000)
• Investigating The Unexplained (2000)
• How to Meditate (German: Relaxation through Meditation) (2000)
• Chrysalis Guide to Rock & Pop (2001)
• Meditation (2002)
• Meditation Solutions (2002)
• How Psychic Are You? (2002)
• The Guru of Greenwich Village (n.d., approx. 2003)
• The Magician Of Grimm (published in A Cabinet of Curiosities magazine in 2003)
• Kabbalah Cards (German: Kabbala Karten) (2003)
• Explore Your Past Lives (2004)
• Contact Your Guardian Angel (2005)
• The Complete Kabbalah Course (2005)
• Understanding Dreams (2005)
• Crime Scenes (2006)
• I Remember Dying (2006)
• The Crimes of Jack The Ripper (2007)
• The Complete Book of Ghosts (German: Geister) (2007)
• Guitar Chords: All the chords you'll need… and more (2007)
• Nazis and the Occult (2007)
• Bolan Boogie (2008) ISBN 978-0-85965-411-1
• In The Minds Of Murderers (2008)
• Reincarnation (2008)
• Hauntings (2008)
• Illustrated History of the Nazis (2009)
• Cosmic Dancer - the Life and Times of Marc Bolan (2012) ISBN 978-0-9566834-0-3
• The Curious Case of HP Lovecraft (2014) ISBN 978-0-8596551-7-0
• Metal Guru: The Life And Music Of Marc Bolan (2017) ISBN 978-0-9571717-7-0
• Nazi Women of the Third Reich (2018) ISBN 978-1-78828-082-2
• Life Under Nazi Occupation: The Struggle to Survive During World War II (2020) ISBN 978-18385763-8-7

literature

• Mike Taylor / Paul Roland: The Haunted Pages - Stories, Lyrics & Life. Stampa Alternativa, Rome, 1998
• Roberto Curti: Paul Roland: The Devil's Jukebox - An Expanded Biography. Unifaun Productions, 2018

Web links

• Paul Roland Homepage (focus on music)
• Paul Roland Homepage (focus on books)
• official blog
• Recordings from Paul Roland's private archive on YouTube
• Paul Roland at Allmusic (English)
• Paul Roland at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Spex 10/87
2. ^ Autobiography on Paul Roland homepage , 2003–2007
3. ↑ Paul Roland newsletter quotes on fansite
4. ↑ UK Magazine Interview, 2004 ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Autobiography in the booklet of The Werewolf Of London CD
6. ↑ a very successful music manager then and now, who looked after or still looks after Roxy Music, T. Rex, King Crimson and Robbie Williams, among others
7. ↑ Interview in Nobody's Land ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ^ Autobiography in the booklet of the CD Danse Macabre
9. ↑ Bam Caruso in Great Britain, Di Di Music in Greece and Pastel / Bouncing in Germany; New Rose in France was sold to the large chain Fnac and no longer showed any interest in so-called independent music
10. ↑ z. B. in Ascension Magazine 10/2005 ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , §6 
11. ↑ see in particular the interview made by the Internet magazine Der Hörspiegel immediately after the concert at Rabenstein Castle
12. ↑ Paul Roland in an interview. NonPop, January 31, 2008, accessed July 23, 2017 .  One of the reasons he gives there is the increasing xenophobia in England. According to this source, he intended to stay in Germany permanently. As a source for the return: Interview with Georg Howahl in Sonic Seducer Dec 2009 / Jan 2010.
13. ↑ for example in the 10/2005 issue of the Italian Ascension Magazine ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , §1 
14. ↑ although he spoke to Barrett in an interview with the Italian magazine Nobody's Land ( memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. referred to as "overrated" 
15. ↑ For technical reasons, the guitar parts that were recorded did not make it onto the final version of the album. For the reasons, see Ruta 66 Interview, 2004, §15 ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ z. B .: “All that 'we are the world' nonsense is so forced and full of empty earnestness. For goodness sake, if you have compassion for people or the environment do something practical to help, but please don't sing about it! ” Thomas Weiland: Radio Brandenburg and 'TIP' magazine interview. (No longer available online.) Paul Roland Online Interview Database, August 10, 1994, archived from the original on July 18, 2011 ; accessed on July 23, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ “If you want to be an original artist, you have to create your own world and live in it. Otherwise you are anchored in reality and reality doesn't interest or inspire me. For me, music is an escape - a fantasy. ”(Quoted from a 2008 interview with Mean Musik ).
18. ↑ The autobiography on Last Call Records from 2003, which is no longer available online
19. ↑ According to an interview with Mean Musik , he wrote his first short story at the age of 9.
20. ↑ Interview in Nobody's Land ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
21. ↑ Source: Paul Roland Newsletter of July 9, 2003
22. ↑ Nucleus Magazine Interview
23. ↑ Fan Club Magazine Cabinet Of Curiosities # 1
24. ↑ Interview in Bucketful Of Brains 7/85
25. ↑ Interview in Bucketful Of Brains 7/85
26. ↑ after an interview with Gothic Magazine No. 27 (1997), however, only at the age of 20
27. ^ Cabinet of Curiosities Magazine 1/1993
28. ^ See Buckland, Curiosities Of Natural History , Bompas, The Life of Frank Buckland and Paul Roland, The English Eccentrics .
29. ↑ Both editions were published by the Austrian Tosa-Verlag, translation, layout and content are identical.