I was fortunate enough to have an article written about my album for the 2009 Spring Edition of Australian Musician magazine. The generous Eva Roberts conducted the task…

Melbourne singer, songwriter and producer Simon Paul’s debut album For Broken Hearts & Lovers is a triumph, and the result of years of hard work and patience.

After working hands on in the music industry for the past 15 years, Simon took a similar approach to his album, working on even the most intricate parts himself until he had perfect the sound he wanted to introduce to the world.

The result is certainly a massive achievement. The album itself sounds like it has an orchestral backing. While it had more than 20 guest performers working on the record (Including appearances by Travis Demsey [The Living End] and John Foreman [Australian Idol] to name a few) a lot of the arrangements from vocals, guitar, bass, some piano, synth, lap steel, glitch to programming and the orchestral arranging was all done by Simon.

“It was intense. It was a lot of hard work,” he says. “There were about two songs of the 14 that had less than 150 layers in the sessions… I think one song has 36 layers of backing vocals.”

Needless to say, the meticulous production, layering and duplicating wasn’t a speedy process, but Simon knew this from the outset.

He admits the first ideas he had for producing an album was for the big concept sound, yet his initial thoughts were to make something that was a cross between a film score and a pop record.

“That didn’t play out as imagined, but this is essentially a permutation of that,” he says.

And this wasn’t the only thing that changed from his original ideas.

Simon admits that early on in the piece he had aspirations of being signed to a major label, having them pay for the album and all the support that came with it.

“But then I looked around at the opportunities I had and thought, I could probably do this on my own,” he says.

While the arrangements on the record sound beautiful, yet complex, Simon’s approach to song writing is relatively basic and low key – it all starts with the inspiration.

“The general process I go through with writing is that a song will come out of either something I’m playing on guitar, or maybe I have a lyrical idea, or playing a single chord on the piano.” he says.

“I’ll start with that chord pattern and start singing over it with a verse or chorus idea… and record that and then start layering it and layering more parts as it comes together.”

“Basically, I picked some sounds [for this album] that I liked, that were essentially my aural palette, and I made those sounds consistent through all of the songs.”

“I had every intention of blending lyrical ideas and melodic ideas through the phrasing of the songs, and even though I believe they stand up on their own, they still belong on this album [together].”

Now, the next step is launching the the first single and film clip from the album, the track ‘Burning Venus’ is anticipated for release in October.

Simon says his ultimate aim is to continue to connect with listeners and perform his live shows, which are a strong representation of the album’s sound.

By Eva Roberts

*I wish to clarify that, by “doing this on my own,” I was refering to the production of the album without funding from a major label. I was only able to create the album as a result of generous help provided by all who were involved in the process. I especially thank The Calculators (Adam Fischer & Chris Arkley-Smith) who co-produced and mixed the record with me. I am forever greatful.