"The only reason I play the guitar is because of Chris Rea"!
FT: Your relationship with Chris Rea and love for his music are well-documented. The story of you sending Chris a demo tape of your work, and Chris phoning you back, offering advice, and asking you to come to London, with you going on to tour as a member of his band, writing the wonderful ‘Peace Bridge’ with you, is well documented. It is a wonderful story. Can I ask why, out of all the artists you could have offered the demo tape to, why Chris Rea?
PC: I grew up listening to my Da’s music. What he was listening to really influenced what I was into. My brother was more into heavy rock, He got a guitar around the same time as me, we were only kids really, I think I was about 11. Me da was listening to all the usual stuff – Dire Straits, Clapton, Fleetwood Mac. But Chris Rea, I don’t know why, but he just struck a chord with me. I loved the voice, and I loved the different sounds of his guitar. I knew it wasn’t like a normal guitar. He was playing with a bottleneck, which was really different. And then, his lyrics were just so grounded, I could really relate to them. The things that he was singing about and feeling, I suppose, I was feeling them as well. I could really relate to it, and it just started from there. I just became a huge fan. I was at college at the time, everybody else was walking around with folders saying Nirvana or Metallica, and there was me with ‘Chris Rea’ on my folder! All the other guys would say ‘That’s what me Da listens to’ and I would say, ‘Yeah, that’s why I listen to him’!
FT: And Chris Rea was never really seen as that cool or hip?
PC: Yeah, he was a ‘square peg in a round hole’ as his song goes. I suppose that kind of fits me too. I listen to music from that era; I’m stuck in the 80s!
FT: You can hear that influence in your music. That big resonant guitar sound, on ‘Big World’, and lyrically, there is a link there too. ‘Blow away the clouds’, to me, has a similar chilled, nonchalant flow to ‘On the beach’. There’s that same vibe.
PC: As a little aside, I remember when I wrote ‘Blow away the clouds’ and sent it to Chris, and he phoned me up to say he loved it. Then, when I was next over in his studio, working with him, he was walking around his studio, singing it, which was a massive buzz! Chris Rea singing one on my songs (Laughs). He always supported what I did, from when I first started working with him.
The only reason I play the guitar is because of Chris Rea.
FT: Wow. That is something! And no one else really interested you to that extent? It was Chris Rea and that sound?
PC: I was still listening to Knopfler and Dave Gilmore, and I love their playing, but for some reason, It was Chris Rea that did it for me, and that was it. He was so different, and the songs he was writing. ‘Shamrock Diaries’ is my bible; It’s my go-to, every time. Those early albums. ‘Shamrock Diaries’, ‘Wired to the Moon’, and ‘On the Beach’ are just phenomenal.
FT: ‘Rea-magined’ is a great title for the project, were there any others suggested?
PC: Liam Bradley, who drums with me, suggested it, and I had always toyed with the idea of doing an evening of Chris’s music, but wasn’t sure how we would go about it. We work with a lady in London called Sam Wright, who is an amazing PR person, who said it has to have Chris’s name in it, and off the top of her head, she came up with ‘Rea-magined’, and I just thought, that’s it. I thought there might be an album in it as well, so I’ve started recording songs of Chris’s, and I’m reimagining them, in a way that I would approach them. So they are really different versions from his originals, but when we do this gig, in the Jazz Festival, we are going to stay true to Chris’s version of the songs.
FT: When do you think the album might be released, Paul?
PC: Maybe, towards the end of summer? There’s a good amount of material already done. And I’m still working on it, but at the minute, we are concentrating on the gig.
FT: So what songs can we expect on the night? Will it be all the hits, or some deeper cuts?
PC: It will be the hits, but with some lesser-known songs. There are songs that he hadn’t played live in a while, like ‘Steel River’, ‘Ace of Hearts’, ‘Bombolinio’, we’re going to give it a go. There’s a great live version of ‘It’s all gone’ from Montrose, so we’re going to do that version. One song I can’t wait to play is ‘Looking for a rainbow’, from the ‘Road to hell’ album. The first concert I ever went to was Chris Rea. Me ma got the ticket, and it was £12.50! It was the ‘Road to hell’ tour in the King’s Hall in Belfast. And I always remember him finishing the gig, with ‘Looking for a rainbow’. It was just epic, it was massive! It blew me away. Me ma gave me a fiver for the day, and I really wanted the programme, but it was £6.00!
FT: So we can look forward to the ‘Rea-magined’ album, hopefully later this year, but your own Music has, understandably, taken a back seat during this project. When can we expect some original Paul Casey material?
PC: I was actually working on a lot of material. I have the bones of an album kind of sitting, which I had to set aside while we get this gig off and running, but yeah, I’m always recording. I’m always, always writing songs and getting ideas down, so there could be an album of my own stuff towards the end of the year. Because it’s what I do, it’s all I can do (laughs)
FT: You say that, Paul, but you’re writing, playing, recording, producing other artists, and the video work! How do you fit it all in?
PC: Well, I’m quite lucky, because first of all, I have a wife who is totally understanding of what I do, which is half the battle. I was always recording at home, and about ten years ago, we decided to build a studio onto the house, so I have a purpose-built studio here now. I just work here every day, and I also do a lot of work with other artists. I love working in Music. Even when you’re working with others, you might hear something that can filter into your music. You know you’re always being inspired. I work with a couple of great artists. Paddy Nash, locally from Derry, but there’s a load of other great guys who have come in lately, James Bradley, who’s been coming into my studio for 5/6 years, and Donal Convery, from Maghera, who’s another great songwriter. I just enjoy working with others. It’s good craic, and fun and easy. That’s the way I always approach it. When I enjoy it, it’s great.
FT: I was just going to ask, what is the music scene like in Derry now? A lot of big artists seem to bypass Belfast on European or British tours, and I thought Derry was doubly disadvantaged by artists for similar reasons. The North West wasn’t seen as an attractive proposition for quite a while. But that seems to be changing for the better?
PC: One thing that really helped Derry was the culture year, I think that was maybe 2013? A lot of events and people came to Derry that year. We were kind of put on the map. Derry has always been known as a musical city anyway. Back in the day, when I was cutting my teeth, you walked into any bar in Waterloo Street, and there was always a great band playing. The year of Culture did a lot. And the whole thing with ‘Derry Girls’ obviously helped too. I was actually in Derry Girls!
FT: Seriously?
PC: I was in the last episode, the big special. Bronagh Gallagher is a great friend of mine, and we used to do stuff, way back in the day. Bronagh phoned me one morning. She was on a train, so she couldn’t mention the name of the show, so she was like, ‘Do you know that show, that is about our city’? And I’m like ’yeah, yeah’, and she says, ‘Well, I’m filming it today’. So Bronagh was filming a scene with her and her band, and Conor Brady, a fantastic guitar player from Dublin, this was during the Covid outbreak, he had tested positive for Covid, and Bronagh asked me, could I come down to Belfast that night and play with the band on a song. And me, being me, I was like’ A,h I don’t know’. I get very nervous about these things, like I said earlier. But my two kids were like ‘Daddy, you have to do it’, so I had to do it, and it ended up being the best craic! It was such a brilliant day, we got down, did the rehearsal, stayed in Belfast that night, and then shot the whole thing the next day. Bronagh’s band, cast, and crew sitting round, sharing stories. I’m so glad I did it.
FT: My own renewed interest and love for Derry has been rekindled by going to a number of gigs promoted by Kieran Dunlop at Music Capital.
PC: Kieran is doing great things, he’s bringing lots of music, and fair play to him, he’s one of the few that’s bringing really original bands, even from America, to these parts, and I tip my hat to him big time. Kieran has actually given me a few gigs, and I’ve done a few things with him. He has always been great, always grafting away. I hope his success continues, because he deserves it.
FT: I think he has created a happy blend of attracting wonderful artists, who I really respect, the likes of Rumer, Judie Tzuke, Hothouse Flowers, Crash Test Dummies, in wonderful settings, , but also bringing through young local artists and providing them with a platform.
PC: As support, which is a brilliant thing to do. Like I say, I can’t compliment him enough on what he’s doing. Because he is one of the very few who is doing it. Sometimes he takes a hit, which is part of the game, but he keeps doing it, for the love of music, and he wants to put Derry on the map, and fair play to him.
FT: Good luck with both albums, Paul, and I’m so looking forward to the gig in the Forum.
PC: Thank you, and hopefully see you at the gig!
Tickets for Rea-magined: Paul Casey plays the music of Chris Rea on the 5th of May are available now via: millemmiunforum.co.uk