You may be asking, who is Paul Cowderoy? He’s the son of a sugar cane farmer from Northern New South Wales, Australia, who grew up listening to country music. In 2012 After Tonight, the first single from Paul’s debut album Now, made it to number 2 on the Kix Country Top 20 and on the Hot Country Top 50 (Australia’s country music channel). The next single released, Emerald Eyes hit number one and Need to Need You charted at 20 on the National charts. Continuing the success, in 2013 Paul won the Australian Country Music People’s Choice Award for Best Male Vocalist.
We caught up with Paul via email to ask him some questions. Paul was gracious enough to take time out of his very busy schedule to answer.
| SC: Your new album is coming out in June. It’s called, Wet Hessian Bag– hessian bag isn’t a common phrase in Canada, mind telling us where the title came from?PC: It’s what we used when we had the sugar cane fires. We would grab the old fertiliser bags and wet them from the water tank on the small tractors. They were used to put out any spot fires that had jumped from the main fire. It was a significant thing as a boy to finally be involved in a cane fire and getting to carry one.
SC: It looks like the new release will be a completely different kind of album from Now. It’s described on your web site as country/roots and blues oriented. And would you say, having Philip Allen, a Grammy winning producer, work with you on the album had a big impact on the sound? PC: Yeah, the last album was very much pop country where as this one is much more organic and raw. More roots oriented. It actually was all my doing. Phil just ran with the direction I wanted to go in. I wrote the songs along these lines. SC: You wrote about life/family balance in your blog post, this is one of the things I’ve chatted with other musicians with young families about, did you want to share with our readers how you keep things balanced? PC: I don’t think there is any formula to making it work. I just make sure that I’m spending quality time with my family when it’s available. Most people have lots of time with their kids but they still end up more focused on television, social media, games etc. Instead of actually listening, conversing and enjoying direct engagement. If I get this for a few hours a day I am happy. SC: I love that you’re writing on the site, will there be more posts coming up? PC: Yeah when I get the time. 🙂 SC: You mentioned restoring furniture, what is it about the process that “gets” you. PC: Taking something that people don’t want anymore and giving it life. Kind of like taking an idea for a song and crafting it, loving it into life. SC: You did very well in the International Songwriting Contest in 2012, will you be submitting a song for 2015. PC: Yeah for sure. I should have enough for the next couple of years. SC: Can we hope to hear from you here in Canada soon? PC: I hope so. I would love to tour your beautiful country within the next three years. I love how you have set up your music industry guidelines for overseas artists and songs. It’s hard for us outsiders due to the fantastic rules placed on Canadian content in Canada. You look after your own. I wish Australia did the same. SC: What’s the last thing you listened to and what format (cd, iTunes, etc – my last thing just happened to be “After Tonight by Paul Cowderoy on YouTube via your webpage). PC: Mine was iTunes and it was Codi Prevost‘s album All Kinds of Crazy from last year. He was just over here in Australia at our main country music festival. SC: Anything you want to share that I haven’t thought to ask? PC: Just about the new album coming out on June 19. And the debut one is available on iTunes 🙂 Paul’s Links Twitter: @PaulCowderoy |
Thanks again to Paul for taking the time to chat with us. The first single from the new album is available now on iTunes. The sound is different but I really like it. Here’s hoping he finds a way to get his music played in Canada. I’m a fan. Go check him out!
