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Matthew Taylor : Have you been playing for a long time?

Paul Otten : I’ve been playing music in various bands for about 15-16 years.

MT: Did you play when you were a kid?

PO: I started playing, taught myself guitar when I was about 16. I played drums before that. Me and my brother played drums, my brother plays drums with me now. We went in and bought a drumset together and we both played drums and then I decided I was gonna do something else. We bought some cheap kit, I don’t remember what kind it was, from some lady playing at church who had broken her arms and couldn’t play anymore when I was about 14. I took some piano lessons for a couple of months in 6th grade or so. Then I just started playing guitar in bands, took up keyboards in another band, then stopped playing keyboards and played bass in another project I played with and recorded 2 CDs with them. Then I went back to playing guitar.

MT: Any bands you liked being in when you were younger?

PO: Yeah, I liked being in them all. I mean my first band, I wanted to be in because I was a fan of their songs. We never did anything huge with them but I liked their stuff. It was called Redwine. I was 17 the first time I played with them and they were all older than me.

MT: That had to be nerve-wracking.

PO: Yeah, I had only been playing guitar for 3 or 4 months. I wasn’t the singer, I think I sang one song but that was about it. It was a lot of fun. It was my first experience and that’s always the best.

MT: When did you and your brother start working together?

PO: I formed Porterhouse, that was the second band I was in, with the drummer from Redwine and his brother and then another guy we brought in on guitar. The original drummer and his brother left and we tried out a couple of drummers and I said, “why not try my drummer? He’s been playing in our basement forever.” And he was a perfect fit because we went through a lot of bad drummers. So Porterhouse became a 3-piece band and did another album.

MT: What was it like going to a 3-piece?

PO: I liked it. Lot more open spaces. I played bass, and I didn’t really want to play bass originally but it was kind of thrust on me. I was like, “well I’ll try it.” I actually liked it. I like the whole 3-piece line-up.

MT: So you were the singer in that band too?

BC: Yeah I was the singer.

MT: Sort of the Police thing.

PO: Yeah, I’ve always been big into the Police.

MT: What other bands have you been into other than the Police?

PO: Well, I grew up on the Beatles. I remember listening to them. I think they were the first actual music I heard when I was little, that I at least remember hearing. I was also into Peter Gabriel, went through my progressive period with Rush. Yeah, I’ve been listening to all kinds of different music. Now I’m really into bands like Death Cab [for Cutie, Postal Service, Ben Folds, Keane.

MT: So how did you get from being in Porterhouse to doing what you are now?

PO: During Porterhouse I went off and did some solo stuff, some acoustic gigs.

MT: Is that the stuff that would eventually wind up on “Bad Parade”?

PO: Yeah. “Drown Me” I started writing that back in ’93.

MT: That song is so beautiful! I love that song.

PO: I came up with that riff basically while listening to Peter Gabriel’s “Us” a lot.  I was influenced by that, but I couldn’t come up with anything lyrically or vocally, so I didn’t finish that until probably ’98. And then “Confusion Girl” was around the same time. When I broke from Porterhouse I was writing a lot on my own, just trying to do different stuff. In Porterhouse I was doing electric guitar rock. Not really hard, but the first album was more out of my element. We were doing the kind of punky-pop stuff, very early Police, which is cool but the heavier stuff isn’t really where I was at. I wanted to do my own thing and the guitarist kind of had a problem with that, so…

MT: So what’s it like working with your brother?

PO: It’s great! I was playing solo gigs up at Miami University.

MT: Wait, you were playing Miami?

PO: Miami University up in Oxford, Ohio. I was playing up there and asked him to sit in with me. So we started doing the duo, mixing in covers with originals.

MT: So does he write with you?

PO: No, I write all the songs myself and he adds the beats. He’s been talking about learning how to play guitar, but he doesn’t have much time anymore now that he has his twins.

MT: So you guys get along pretty well in the studio?

PO: Yeah, we get along fine. We have one of those relationships where we know what the other person is going to do. We don’t have to think about it onstage. We pretty much know where we’re going and it’s really easy. As far as in the studio, when I give him demos, I have a drum machine and I’ll come up with a beat. More melodies can come out when I write like that. I can usually come up with a beat and he’ll kind of play around with that and work with that and add his own flavor to it.

MT: Is that how the process usually goes?

PO: For this album, it did. He got a lot of guidance from Brian Lovely. It was the first time we worked with a producer.

MT: What was it like working with Brian?

PO: It was great. Great because when we recorded with Porterhouse, it was basically our own self-produced kind of thing. We didn’t want to listen to anyone else’s ideas. And for this one I was pretty open, I just wanted to work with a producer, give him the reins and help guide me through it.

MT: Does he push you to do a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t otherwise try?

PO: Yeah. There were a lot of different ideas. The song, “Beside Myself,” I had no idea it was going to turn out with a drum loop. It was pretty much written as an alt-country ditty with  acoustic guitar, maybe some acoustic bass.

MT: I know that several of your songs placed highly in a national VH-1 songwriting contest. What was it like getting interest from VH-1?

PO: It was very flattering! I was very surprised. I saw that contest and entered them in there. It was really cool. I couldn’t believe that both songs [“Everything Burns Out” and “Leave it Alone”] were in the same round.

MT: Two in the top 5, right?

PO: Yeah, and “Find Myself” in the same round was a runner-up. I was like, wow, I guess somebody really does like this stuff. It’s always good to hear how people you don’t know react to your music.

MT: And I understand you have a new music licensing deal with Universal. Did VH-1 lead to that?

PO: No, that was through Brian. Brian works with a guy named Mark Liggett who’s produced “Blessed Union of Souls.” “Saving Jane” is a new project of his that just got signed with Universal. He’s a local guy but he’s got a lot of connections. Brian was going to put some of his songs with Universal. They license them under different names, so I can still pursue whatever I want with them.

MT: Right, and if it gets on to a movie or a tv show…

PO: Yeah, it can’t hurt. Hopefully something will come about because of that. Actually, I’m going to start recording on Monday, an EP, about 5 or 6 songs.

MT: The follow-up to “Bad Parade”?

PO: Yeah, and I actually just met with Brian again and we were talking about doing some recording, but just for a couple of months. I like to put time limitations on myself when writing. When I write, I have the music and melody first and then I just need the words. What I do is just write what comes off the top of my head when I record a demo.

MT: So do you always come in with a demo?

PO: Usually yeah. There might be one that will come off at the studio, but because Brian’s time is limited, it’s hard to do anything other than that.

MT: So what would that be, like drum machine, guitar, vocals, keyboard bass, something like that?

PO: Yeah, or I have a couple of demos with me just on guitar or piano. Mainly these new songs are piano tunes. I’ve been engulfed in the piano.

MT: How much do you write on piano as opposed to guitar?

PO: Well, lately I hardly pick up my guitar when I start writing. I’ve been ignoring it. I think it feels bad.

MT: And that’s a new thing right?

PO: Yeah, before it was always guitar guitar guitar. Just the ideas are coming better on piano lately.

MT: Does it make you write differently? I mean, do you feel the difference?

PO: Yeah, I write more with riffs when I write on piano. You know, keyboard riffs. A couple of songs are written around that. The riffs are simplistic, but it seems to be working with that.

MT: A lot of times, you know, those simplistic riffs wind up being really powerful.

PO: Right, I mean “Leave it Alone” was kind of written that way. In piano songs, they tend to evolve better into something completely different than I started with. I’ll start with a basic idea, a typical rhythm pattern, or a poppy thing, and I can play with it, and it’s easier to play with on piano and make it something different. That’s the way I wrote “Leave it Alone”. That was a pretty much straight up bouncy little pop number idea I had and I kind of tried to free up the piano with spare chords and had a beat running through it, you know base it around a beat. That was basically the first song I did that with, basing it around a beat instead of around chords. There were a few songs on the album that were guitar songs that were made into piano songs. “Everything Burns Out” was a guitar song originally.

MT: When you take your demos into the studio, are you thinking about arranging beforehand? In other words, do you sort of carve a little place out for each part and instrument or do you just start filling in stuff until it sounds good? And is Brian coming up with these ideas or is it you?

PO: We both come up with them. And for these demos I worked a long time on the arrangements that I think are cool because we perform them live. But I go in with the understanding when I go in the studio with Brian, that I’m open to his interpretation of it. So, I’ll give him my arrangement with the understanding that if he can come up with something cool that I’ll run with it. “Leave it Alone” I worked for days and days on that arrangement and then when we got in the studio he brought the idea up for the ending part, and he thought of the idea of extending that at the end, so I thought that was a great part. It’s just little things like that that I would never think of on my own. Although I worked for six days straight, probably did seven or eight different arrangements for that song and then by the time I got to the studio, he came up with that I was like oh yeah, cool! Now that I’ve worked my ass off on that song [laughs]. But it’s always good to have an extra set of ears in the studio.

MT: Speaking of extra ears, who are your “musical barometers,” the people you trust to give you honest feedback and how much do their opinions and comments affect where you’re going to go with the song or do you not listen to anyone when you’re writing?

PO: Oh no, I listen to people. There’s a friend of mine, Jeff Redwine who’s the original drummer for my first band, Redwine. I write with him every once in awhile. He helped me with the lyrics on “Confusion Girl”. I trust him, he always gives me a straight up opinion. I trust Brian Lovely’s opinion and my brother’s opinion. His wife is pretty brutally honest too.

MT: It’s good to have that though you know?

PO: Yeah, I just found out recently that she didn’t care for the “Leave it Alone” intro. The first time she heard it she said, “what the hell is that?” I said, “I don’t know, it was what I wrote with and we decided to include it on there and I didn’t realize it was gonna come off sounding a little trite.

MT: Well, that’s her opinion [both laugh].

PO: We’re gonna talk about doing a remix of that one. I’ve got a couple of DJ friends, gonna give them the ball and see if they can come up with something cool.

MT: What, like a dance mix?

PO: Not a dance mix, just some kind of new loop that might be a little more contemporary.

MT: And, what, release it on the EP?

PO: Yeah, I might just put it on that EP, include it on it because I’ve gotten enough flak about the drum machines and I think it’s a good song and I don’t want people to be turned off by it.

MT: Well, you know, your brother sounds great. I mean he’s a very good drummer so it can go either way. But you know, the drum machine adds to a lot of your tracks too so…

PO: Yeah, I never thought I’d add a drum machine to tracks and then I started listening to Postal Service and, you know, and was just really influenced by that.

MT: Yeah, I mean they can definitely be used to good effect depending on the vibe you’re going for.

PO: Right. I didn’t have much experience with it before that. You know, trial and error. I don’t mind making mistakes. Better to make mistakes and learn from it. But you know, I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

MT: Yeah it sounds phenomenal, sounds great.

PO: I’m just hoping I can grow from it on the EP and I hope it’s something else that people will like and hopefully it’s not a duplicate of the first one.

MT: Are all of your songs based on real life experiences. Are they autobiographical?

PO: Some are and some aren’t. “Everything Burns Out” was basically written in reaction to my divorce. “Kimberly” is my ex-wife’s name and that was written when we were going through some problems. But a song like “Rudy,” that was just basically, I just wanted to write some goofy lyrics and have some fun with it.

MT: So Rudy didn’t exist???

PO: No, Rudy didn’t exist. It was just loosely based on people I knew, but Rudy was really just playing with words and trying to be goofy in a song. My little 5 year old nephew, that’s his favorite song.

MT: Aw man, Rudy is great, one of my favorite tracks! It’s funny and it’s got some great riffs, some great guitar playing on it.

PO: Yeah, Brian brought a lot of cool guitar riffs to that song. That was the first one that we worked on when we were recording. He brought like a Steely Dan flavor to it.

MT: Absolutely, I was just about to say you should send Donald Fagen a copy!

PO: You know I’ve never been a huge Steely Dan fan.

MT: Are you serious? Because I hear little flavors of it here and there throughout the album. Maybe I’m just reading into it…

PO: I think the thing I haven’t been a fan of is his voice. But musically, when I listen to it, I like a lot of the music. But Brian Lovely obviously has that Steely Dan background. But after I listened to it, I thought it was really cool what Brian was did with it. That was always a big song that we did live. That one has probably the biggest response live and that one was written in probably 2001. But no, it was just loosely based on people, but not about any one particular person.

MT: How about “Boo and Shane”? Are they real?

PO: “Boo and Shane” was made up, just a story song. Sometimes I like writing stories.

MT: That’s great because you can’t tell you made it up. It sounds completely heartfelt.

PO: It’s based on people everybody knows. There’s always a couple like that. I’ve known quite a few people like that so I just based it on them, but not on two people in particular.

MT: Now when you’re writing, what usually comes first, the lyrics, the melody, the chords, the beat, what?

PO: The music and then I’ll come up with the melody.

MT: So what’s the hardest?

PO: The lyrics are the hardest. I’m not a big fan of writing lyrics. It’s the hardest part. Sometimes the melody can be a pain in the butt, but the lyrics are always hard. “Leave it Alone” was kind of the first one that I started writing the lyrics free-form. I just came up with something to sing on the demo off the top of my head and then a lot of lyrics were drawn from that. That’s what I’ve been doing on all my demos lately. Usually a couple of lines, I’ll just repeat throughout the song so I can come up with harmonies.

MT: Speaking of which, the harmonies on this album are fantastic. I’m a huge fan of that layered multi-part harmony thing. Where did that come from for you?

PO: Well, definitely the Beatles.

MT: Right. Anyone else?

PO: The Flying Burrito Brothers, Everly Brothers, REM, and Ben Folds Five who are phenomenal live with 3-part harmonies. I’ve seen them every time they’ve come to town. They pull off these 3-part harmonies and background parts that were just unreal. I mean he doesn’t have like a classically awesome voice, but he has his own voice and he does really well with harmonies. It’s bands like that got me turned onto harmonies. Oh, and the Police too. I mean Sting always had really good harmonies.

MT: OK, so now I have a couple of goofy questions for you.

PO: Go ahead, shoot!

MT: Favorite desert island album?

PO: The Beatles “Revolver,” or “Whatever and Ever Amen” by Ben Folds Five. Another phenomenal album is the Counting Crows first one [“August and Everything After”], that’s just a great album. Really well produced, well played, good songs.

MT: OK, desert island food?

PO: My favorite food would have to be a steak.

MT: And since you have to have a guitar on your island what kind would it be?

PO: A Martin Dreadnaught [acoustic].

MT: All right, what is the craziest thing that has ever happened at one of your gigs? Surely you have a battle story you can tell.

PO: Well, let’s see, I’ve had a lot of people falling over our equipment! I did a show last Sunday, when I was playing a Ben Folds song, and this guy Marvin he popped up on the drums and we did like a 30 minute jam, just me and him.

MT: This was one of your friends?

PO: No, I had just met the guy. He plays in another band locally. He plays like every instrument known to man apparently. He’s one of those guys who can do everything. And we locked that up. He just jumped in, in the middle of the song, and we ended up jamming on it for like 30 minutes.

MT: And this was unplanned?

PO: Oh yeah, totally unplanned! It was pretty cool. For me it was crazy because I’m not known to do 30 minute jams. It was a lot of fun. There was a crazy gig in Oxford too, where we were supposed to play Millette Hall, which is their big arena. We were supposed to play for some sorority beginning of the year thing where they get all these sororities together. But we thought it was going to be small. They had just blocked off like a tiny corner of the place. So we plugged in our little sound system and then probably about 1,000 sorority girls piled in. So suddenly we’re playing for 1,000 sorority girls with a little sound system, so that was interesting. But that was pretty cool because we kept looking up and all these people were screaming! We also had to play the halftime for the Miami basketball games, I mean for the university games. I figured we’d be out in the hallway, playing for people going to the bathroom or whatever and we ended up being on the court as the halftime show at a college basketball game.

MT: That had to be cool.

PO: Yeah, that was a little overwhelming too because I think there were probably twelve to thirteen thousand people there. That was very intense.

MT: Was that the most people you’d ever played in front of at the time?

PO: That probably is, yeah. We’ve played some pretty good sized gigs, but nothing with that many people. So that was kind of intense for me as far as being a showman, seeing if I would crack under the pressure.

MT: How did it go?

PO: We held it together pretty well, especially with our little sound system! [laughs]

MT: OK, let me hit you with this one: any guilty musical pleasures you want to share? You know those bands you don’t like to admit you like?

PO: Ummm Genesis. When I grew up I listened to Genesis and the first couple Phil Collins albums. Genesis lost me on “Invisible Touch,” but I thought Phil’s first two albums were great.

MT: Yeah, Face Value and Hello, I Must Be Going Now are incredible.

PO: The guy is a phenomenal drummer. I’ve always been attracted to bands with good drummers. Then, of course, I got into early Genesis with Peter Gabriel.

MT: Come on, there’s got to be one or two more lurking in there somewhere right?

PO: Um, I did grow up with early rap. I was a breakdancer. I grew up in the early 80’s so I had the cardboard and the parachute pants and was into all that stuff.

MT: And what would you be breaking to at the time?

PO: Well, I had the soundtrack for Breakin’ and of Beat Street and later discovered that the Beat Street record had a poster with all the different breakdancers listed in it. And I was a big Michael Jackson fan. I had the Off the Wall and Thriller records.

MT: Absolutely! So what’s coming up after the EP. Are you going to start working on another album or have you even thought that far?

PO: I might work on doing a series of EPs and then release them closer together because the way I see it everything is going to digital downloads and releasing a full length album takes more time and the more songs you can get out there the better. Because people, if they’re getting it digitally, they won’t even download the whole album. So, I think the quicker I can get stuff out to people the better and it’s a cheaper way to finance it. But who knows, I might end up wanting to put a whole album together down the road, but for now I’m working on these EPs and getting them out there.

MT: Well, “Bad Parade” is great. I wish you all the luck in the world with that.

PO: Thanks. We definitely are trying to branch out a little bit more since we’ve only been playing regionally, but we want to get around. We’re talking about adding another player. We’re in the hunt for a lead guitarist who can sing, which is really tricky to find.

MT: Well, good luck with that and thanks a for talking with us Paul!

PO:Thanks!