This is an interview I did for university. Paul Reid kindly agreed to give me an interview. It has been published on http://www.brummusicmonth.co.uk/wp/ . I wanted to publish it on my own blog too!
Katie: What’s the most recent thing you’ve been doing?
Paul: Been on tour with Bev, Beverley Knight,
K: What’s it like on tour?
P: Fantastic, always good with Bev, I’ve actually been working with Bev for 10 years so I’ve kinda seen her development over that time. To me she’s the best artist out there. Last 2 months I’ve been touring, promoting the new album. Touring’s always good because you’re playing in front of an audience and you’re getting an immediate response to the music. Especially when you’re playing with an artist like Bev it’s always a joy because you’re giving a performance to fans that come to our shows expecting something great and they’re never disappointed.
K: How did you get to be in Beverley’s band?
P: I don’t know! Sometimes I think back and I do ask myself that question, how did I get here? I do believe I’m really fortunate. I’m one of those musicians, I know I can play, but I don’t actually think I’m that great. It’s really weird, sometimes you get compliments from people and you don’t quite know how to take it. I do put a lot of pressure on myself to be good at what I do. I started as a local musician, just doing local gigs around town, soul bands and pop bands, and someone recognised me one day and said, this was another guitarist who was already playing with Beverley, he couldn’t do a tour and asked me if I’d step in and cover him for a couple of shows so I said yeah so I did a couple of shows and her management really liked me and asked me to be on the tour coming up, I wasn’t sure because I was covering for a friend, but if its fine with him then it’s fine with me. They asked him and he said it was fine then he called me and said ‘so you stole my gig!’ been there ever since really.
K: Do you listen to the same type of music you perform?
P: Not really, I listen to quite a wide range. I’m what they call a session musician so I have to be everything to everyone. Whoever calls me to do a job, it could be a rock band, and I have to be able to play from rock to jazz, from r’n’b to soul. Which is not always easy. That’s why I listen to different types of stuff, from rock, jazz, country.
K: Have you ever been star struck?
P: Not really. I do with footballers! Footballers are star stuck by us and we’re star struck by them! I’ve met a lot of famous people, most of the time I don’t know who they are! We did support Prince. This was amazing because Prince is well known that when he goes on tour he’ll do his show, he’ll do an after show, which is like another gig, these are really crazy, it’s just like a jam session which can go on for hours. We did the first show and he was there in the dark watching us, came on stage and shook everyone’s hand, we were stood there with our mouths open. He asked us if we would play at his after show party, we were like ‘yeah!’ Bev’s a massive Prince fan and she’s in tears because she can’t believe that he’s asked her to play at his concert and then he wants to have a jam session. So we had this jam session that took like four hours, ‘til 4 in the morning! Amazing. That was the only time I’ve ever been star struck. Prince is just an amazing musician
K: What has been your experience of the Birmingham music scene? Has it changed much over the years?
P: It has changed over the years. In Birmingham there is so much talent, it’s unbelievable, even in my industry in London there are a lot of midlands based musicians who play for the top artists. In pop bands and stuff there’s usually one or two midlands based musicians playing for them. We have got talent here. The only problem I’ve found with Birmingham is that there’s not many live venues anymore. There’s only the Jam House, that’s the only place I can think of that kinda tailors for live music. Is a shame because there’s some real good talent but there’s just nowhere to play anymore. We used to have Ronny Scott’s on Broad Street, I think it’s a strip club now, and that was a brilliant place.
K: What’s been your worst experience on stage?
P: Worst experience on stage was a festival, in front of thousands of people and I had to do a solo, I was coming up to the front of the stage and I step on my lead and it comes out of my guitar, and there’s nothing I can do!
K: Do you have any music qualifications or did you do music at school?
P: No. I taught myself to play guitar, I grew up playing in church actually, and that was it, to be honest I don’t know how I got by! I’ve done a few things in the London Symphony Orchestra and they shove music sheets in front of me, but as long as I know the key it is I can basically work it out but I’ve kinda blagged my way through. I’m not saying it’s a disadvantage but sometimes it is. But learning to read music I would definitely recommend because I do look after bands, I’m a music director too, so I always make sure I’ve got a keyboard player that understands music who can write things out for me.
K: Have you ever seen a ‘diva’ moment?
P: Yeah, they’re quite funny! Especially artists, pop artists. One pop band I did a tour with them. They were big at the time, winning awards, getting number ones. We go in for a week and work out the songs and we call the artist to come in, so they came in, it’s mainly the girls, so they came in with all the gossip magazines, like heat etc. and they were sitting there reading these magazines when they were supposed to be working things out for their tour, they were reading about themselves. I got really frustrated the one day and asked them ‘why are you here?’ ‘You’ve got a tour in 2 weeks and you don’t know the songs and your singing out of tune, you’re not focused. Put the magazines down, stand up and sing these songs’ and they were really taken aback and threw a strop. Once those lights go down, it’s all on them! True to form, the first night, went out on stage, and some forgot their lines, they were looking back. Their egos do take over sometimes.
K: Do you have any advice for upcoming musicians?
P: Just work at your art, try and be the best you can be. Learn a vast array of different styles, don’t pigeon hole yourself into one thing, you never know what kind of situation you’re going to be in. I did a jazz gig in London and jazz isn’t my strongest and once I saw the venue I knew I was in trouble because it was a proper jazz bar and the people were jazz fans and you can’t fool these people. I got through the gig but it taught me a lesson, I need to go behind closed doors and brush up on it.
Don’t limit yourself. Concentrate on being a musician first, everything else will come along. You can’t define a successful musician by him being on TV. There’s music everywhere, even adverts, someone’s got to do the music for them, people like that are very successful. They’re always in their studio or house but they’re still successful.
Because of the internet I can do sessions with people in America or France, people send me things and I can record my part and send it back to them. It’s a very small world now.
I honestly think Birmingham has the best musicians. When you get around the London music scene, they don’t respect anyone from outside London. But we’re just going to take over! When I first started doing sessions in London, it’s very cliquey, anybody outside those circles don’t get a look in. Back in the day it was like the mafia! You’d have other guitarists come in and stand there watching you, waiting for you to make a mistake. I just made a good impression and it’s got me where I am, I don’t have an agent or anything.
K: What’s next?
P: I’ve been doing some work with Alesha Dixon recently and I’ve got more with Bev, festival season, new album with Bev, that’s it really!
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