Paul Collins started out in the 70s as the drummer for legendary power-pop group The Nerves and then fronting his own band The Beat banging out rock & roll anthems like “Rock N Roll Girl.” After a string of solo albums in the 90s and into the 2000s, the rock and roller was at it again doing what he does best—writing great music now as the Paul Collins Beat. Fusion got to speak to Collins early one morning while on tour with his band.
Is this your first time in El Paso? (Collins and his band were headed towards El Paso to play Lowbrow)
This is my first ever show in El Paso, so I’m really stoked. I’ve been through El Paso you know, driving and stuff, but I’ve never done a show there. We are very excited. Leo Lara of Nalgadas (El Paso band) hooked us up with the show. We played with Leo in Las Cruces (at The Trainyard) last year and you know, that’s kind of how we do stuff; we talk to them (bands), we become friends and then they set up shows for us. So it’s pretty cool.
What music are you guys listening to in the van?
There’s four of us so each driver gets to put on the music that he wants to play. It could be anything. Logan Barton (bass) comes from San Bernardino sometimes he’s playing more punk-y stuff. Tim Schweiger (lead guitar) comes from Milwaukee he’s got eclectic taste, huge Michael Jackson fan, Johnny Phillip (drums) who’s also from Milwaukee he’s got some label Good Land Records so he plays a lot of different stuff, a little bit of everything. I don’t actually put much on when I’m driving, I just like it silent haha.
When was the first time you heard the term power-pop?
Well, the first time I heard it was back in the day when I was still in The Nerves, I think. We didn’t really like it when we first heard it because it kind of sounded like it was wimpy and stuff, and we were you know, thought of ourselves as a straight up rock and roll band. In the beginning those terms kind of worked against the band because people in radio weren’t going to play power-pop. It didn’t help us, I think it hurt us more. Today it’s totally different you know, 20 years later power-pop means something completely different. To me power -pop embraces the essence, the fundamental elements of rock & roll which is good songs, great melodies great guitar hooks and harmonies, stuff like that. Now at days it means something completely different and I embrace it. I work with a lot of power-pop bands, pop-punk bands, garage rock bands…basically guitar driven melodic music, rock & roll!
When you started writing songs, who were your influences?
My musical influences really come from the very late fifties, but mainly from the 60s which was the golden age for rock & roll, and that was everything from like Elvis Presley, Beatles, The Stones, Kinks, The Who and the American sound… The Monkees, The Beach Boys, the Motown sound, stuff out of Nashville…I was listening to Glen Campbell and Johnny Cash, Burt Bacharach, just all these bands… The Buckinghams, the New York sound, sound out of Detroit, you know all these different sounds.
When we started writing, we really wanted to write very short compact songs where everything was distilled down to the bare essentials. Our model was all that great music, great melodies, great words. We would pay a lot of attention to the lyrics, and guitar parts and harmonies. And that’s what I’m still trying to do. It’s not easy to write those kind of pop rock & roll songs that are 2 and 3 minutes long, and are really good and really getting the point across in that amount of time. You really have to know what you are doing. It’s still a very big challenge for me to do that.
Have you been doing a lot of writing lately?
Yeah, actually I hit a dry patch for a while and when I got done with this record (new record Feel the Noise out in September!) the flood gates opened and I pretty much have my next record already written which I’m very excited about. Songwriters, when you’re writing songs you feel like it’s going great. I’m very happy now.
How was it playing the Brooklyn power-pop fest?
That was pretty cool. I really wanted for a long time to get the chance to play with Dwight Twilley and Shoes; it was great to see those guys and to meet them. It was cool. I’m definitely glad that they asked us to be a part of it.
What do you think of the internet and download culture and what it’s done to music?
Here’s my take: I spend pretty much all my time playing with young up and coming bands, which I really like, it gives me a lot of energy and it keeps me you know, kind of get the way people think and operate today, which is completely different from the way when I was growing up, which obviously every generation is completely different, that’s the way it should be. I think for me personally, I’m a DIY musician I book all my tours online, I get a lot of gigs through Facebook or through other online mediums. To me the internet is great. I’m not a big huge artist who sells millions of records, so I’m happy that people discover my music online. On my website (thepaulcollinsbeat.com) you could download stuff— songs, videos or live stuff, which is cool. That’s how you spread the word.
I think what’s more important is that bands on our level, I live in the DIY world, we’re playing in the clubs, we’re struggling to make ends meet, I think the fans of this kind of music need to know that yeah, it’s great to share all this music, but it’s also very important that you support the bands whether it be buying tickets to shows, which is usually $10 or less, and buying stuff at merch tables.
What do you think about rock and roll today?
I think that rock & roll it’s kind of hurting in some ways, but in other ways it’s still fresh and alive. As long as there’s kids out there that want to pick up electric guitars, plug into amps and crank up and write songs and play this kind of music, then it’s fine. On the charts and stuff rock and roll has been obliterated by all this other stuff which personally, it’s not my bag. But on the subculture level rock and roll is great, it’s fine.
I want you to know too that I got a new record coming out in September called Feel the Noise, which I’m really excited by that. I did it in Detroit with Jim Diamond again. It’s coming out on Alive Records, and I hope everybody will take it when it comes out.
