LOS PACAMINOS  interview

SINT-TRUIDEN, Belgium - Paul Young, the charismatic English singer, scored a lot of hits in the 80's and early 90's. He even performed on Live Aid in 1985. In 1992, he gathered a few friends for a 180° degrees career switch: from now on, his band Los Pacaminos would be complementing his solo career. The band just released the very excellent 'A Fistful of Statins' (reviewed here). Last week, they rocked the crowd in Sint-Truiden, Belgium, as headliners during the second annual Countryfestival. Around 5pm, more than 6 hours before their gig, the friendly band held a press conference. We had the distinct pleasure to sit down and chat with Mr. Paul Young (vocals/guitars/harmonica/keyboards/bajo sexto), Mr. Jamie Moses (vocals/guitars/dobro) and Mr. Matt Irving (vocals/accordeon/keyboards). Take it away, boys!

Julian De Backer: "Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. First off, a question for Mr. Young. Your old band was called 'The Royal Family'. Mark Pinder was your drummer back then and he still is today. Matt Irving is also still around. What happened to the other Royal Family members?"

Paul Young: "Pino (Pino Paladino, ed.) is more famous than I am, he's played with everybody. Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon solo, The Who etcetera. Rev (The Reverend Ian Kewley, ed.) pretty much retired to France and The Wealthy Tarts (Kim Leslie and Maz Roberts, ed.) split. One went to New York and one stayed in the UK, because she's ... well, not married to Pino."

Jamie Moses: "Yes, she's married."

Paul: "Oh, did they get married in the end?"

Jamie: "We went to the wedding in Wales. I got pictures."

Paul: "I didn't go."

Jamie: "Yes, you did."

Paul: "Did I?"

Jamie: "Yeah."

(all other Pacaminos laugh)

Paul: "Did I have a lot to drink?"

Jamie: "Just one or two."

Paul: "Oh my God!"

Julian: "Too much tequila?"

Paul: "Yeah, I guess. So, anyway, they all went off in different directions. But the thing is: I knew Mark and Matt would understand the project, so I got in touch with them. Jamie was in a line-up, Steve was ..."

Jamie: "A police line-up!"

(all laugh)

Paul: "And Drew (Barfield, ed.) was writing songs for Paul Young albums, so I kept most of my friends. It just felt right, it's gotten very cohesive over the years."

Julian: "On the 'No Parlez' album, Mark Pinder's full credit is 'P.C. Mark Pinder'. What does the 'P.C.' stand for?"

Paul: "Police Constable"

Mark Pinder: "Cause I'm the sensible one."

Julian: "Oh really? I thought it was "politically correct", maybe."

Mark: "No no ..."

Paul: "No, he's politically incorrect."

Julian: "Who's the Demented Pixie you thank in the same liner notes?"

Paul: "Ah, that's Rev. He was the keyboard player. We called him the Demented Pixie, cause he's very, very short. And he gets angry very quickly."

Julian: "He was kind of demented, at the time?"

Paul: "Yeah."

Julian: "He still is today?"

Paul: "He's still short. And he gets even angrier now. Now he's old."

Julian: "I very much liked the recent album, "A Fistful of Statins". There's four singers in the band. How do you decide who gets to sing what song? How do you choose?"

Jamie: "It's not necessarily the person who writes it. Sometimes we all have a crack at it."

Mark: "Matt's singing 'Every Little Hero' ..."

Paul: "We all had a go at that one."

Jamie: "We've got such different voices. There's bound to be one voice that suits the song."

Julian: "Did you sometimes record a song, only to found out later than it suited Jamie's voice better, or Paul's voice?"

Paul: "No, we never changed it afterwards. We record the backing track, and when you put the vocals on top, someone will go: "Hmm, I don't think it suits me"."

Jamie: "Or you sing the chorus, I'll sing the verses."

Paul: "Yeah, we'll split."

Jamie: "Change around, swap around, exactly."

Julian: "I really like 'Battered and Broozed', it's my favourite of the album."

Jamie: "Oh, cheers."

Julian: "It has amassed the most plays in my iTunes library."

(all laugh)

Julian: "Does it come from real life? Is it just fictional?"

(all laugh even harder)

Jamie: "Yeah, well. It never got that bad. Because of the nature of the band, and the way we are. We have the Tequila Babes. You know the Tequila Babes?"

Julian: "No, I don't."

Jamie: "Every gig, we get the crew to choose a girl or two from the crowd. At a certain point in the set, they'll come on and serve us tequila. The band has that kind of image, the "we're all having a good time drinking band".

Paul: "It's a gentleman's drinking club. That's the only reason the band started."

Julian: "It's actually an excuse to go out and have some booze?"

Paul: "If you're in Alcoholics Anonymous, don't bother."

Jamie: "It's the kind of song that suits the nature and character  of the band."

Julian: "It's a great song. Very catchy."

Jamie: "Cheers."

Julian: "I find myself just singing on the street, and my friends will ask: "What are you singing?" ..."

(all laugh)

Julian: "I don't even drink, so singing 'Battered and Broozed' is a stretch."

(all laugh)

Julian: "I just like the song. I think that's the sign of a great song."

Paul: "That's the thing. When we put all the songs together for the album, we shocked ourselves at the quality (grinning)."

Julian: "Yeah, it is! It really is a very good album."

Paul: "There all good songs. And the funny thing is: they're not all by one person. Jamie wrote 'Battered and Broozed', maybe together with ..."

Jamie: "Yeah, some tweaks by others."

Paul: "They all come in from different angles, and they all got different qualities, but they all got great choruses."

Julian: "You guys are more than the sum of your parts, right? Solo, you're great. Together, you're even better."

Jamie: "Yeah, well, "sum of your parts", I like it. (to others) Write that down!"

Paul: "In the beginning, on the first album, it was pretty much me and Drew writing everything. Now, we've done it for so long, we've finally realized what it is we're doing. And so it all came together, so much better, on this album."

Julian: "And the opening track is pure Shadows."

Paul: "Yeah."

Jamie: "An epic Western theme."

Julian: "It really is epic. I hope some director is listening."

Jamie: "That'd be great."

Julian: "Would be good for your royalties."

Jamie: "We saw it as the backdrop to a big Western."

Julian: "'Unforgiven'-esque ..."

(all agree)

Paul: "I love instrumentals, because they put pictures in your head. When you're listening to music, you start to see things in your mind."

Julian: "Although it's quite funny: people will know Paul Young as a singer, first and foremost, but then you knock it out of the park with an instrumental."

Paul: "Yes, so I can't do that with Paul Young, but I can do it with the Pacaminos. Which is great."

Julian: "I do happen to know a 'Girl From Tennessee', who now lives in Texas. So I sent her the song, and I said: "This is a song for you". She loved it. She had never heard of 'Los Pacaminos'. She's American, and you guys are more famous in Europe. Where did the inspiration come from? I'd really like to tell her."

Matt Irving: "I came up with the chorus. It was just an idea."

Paul: "We hung on that "Dooooo yooouuu ... come from Tennessee?" bit. In the beginning, that part wasn't there. Then we decided to stop on those words. It sounded really nice."

Matt: "The idea is that she's just a country girl. This guy was from a metropolis."

Julian: "But did you actually meet a girl from Tennessee, before writing the song?"

Matt: "Not really, no. That's the whole point about it. Really, you can fabricate these stories."

Paul: "It's like writing little stories."

Matt: "A lot of the real classic songs written by English people ..."

Paul: "The case in point was: "Can English people play tex mex music, or write tex mex songs?", and I said: "Well, if you know 'South of the Border', that was written by an Irish and an English writer who have this beautiful Romantic view of what it's like to live in Mexico." And it's probably nothing like that, not if you live in the Sierra Madre where it could be pretty dangerous. But they saw a dream-like view of how wonderful it would be to be in Mexico, and wrote this lovely song. And that's what we do. We dream of being there, and it comes out in the songs."

Julian: "And it worked like a charm. Final question. 'Wherever I Lay My Hat, That's My Home' is the favourite song of the very famous Belgian journalist Ellen Vermorgen. Do you know any other prominent fans of your work?"

Paul: "Prominent fans? Yeah, Gerard Butler, the actor. Big Paul Young fan. When he was doing West End's theatre, I met him in a hotel during breakfast. His friends said: "Go on, sing that Paul Young song!". He had to go off, behind a post, to go and mumble. Then he came back, because he was trying to make it sound like me. It's even on YouTube! He does the same thing on an Italian TV show. They asked him to sing a few bars. Now he's a worldwide famous actor, but back then, he was just doing West End."

Jamie: "He's great, actually."

Julian: "He is. He came on the Graham Norton Show one time, and he had to announce every guest in his loud King Leonidas voice. This! Is! (name of guest). Hilarious. OK, guys, thank you very much for your time."

All: "Our pleasure."

Julian: "Looking forward to the concert. Bring the house down. Pack 'em in!"

Jamie: "Yeah, Pacaminos. That's the idea."


© 2014 Julian De Backer / live photo's: Alfons Maes ©