We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paul Childers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paul below.

Paul, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The ability to take a risk is the definition of creativity. Being creative in any way, shape, or form is always going to be risky business. That’s what makes it so intoxicating to people like me. When you have an idea or you have something that only you can say, you risk being ridiculed, pilloried, and criticized.

For me, that’s making albums. Pushing myself to dive deeper for meaning in all of this music. Sometimes it’s using chords and harmonies that challenge what people think pop music can be. Lyrical themes that can awaken a thought or desire that you didn’t know you had. Finding rhythms from all around the world and adopting them into my own little world of songwriting.

Living in Nashville and becoming a journeyman in the studios has taught me that there is a certain way of doing things when it comes to making full scale albums here. I now question that every single day. The most dangerous phrase ever said is, ‘This is how we’ve always done it….’ I now ask, ‘WHY?’ If you want fruit, you have to go out on the limb. If you want to create something new, you have to do something that’s never been done.

I’m now about to finish my third record and I honestly believe it’s the riskiest thing I’ve ever done.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist who revels in the idea that my music is hard to describe because it lives in so many different worlds. I’m a musical gadfly so nothing is off-limits. I started with Blues which lead me to Jazz and R&B. And then I moved to Music City and found an affinity with the classic music that’s been made here. All of that comes together to create the mélange that is me.

My band and I now get to tour the world and not only discover that music truly is the universal language, but learning about it from different cultures only pushes us to discover more.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Find the truth and make it beautiful…

That is the simple and salient point I have always tried to live by as a songwriter, musician, and guitar player. It’s so easy to get in your own way. It’s so easy to lose sight of the dream that was the original nucleus pushing you to take a chance. But if you can just be quiet and listen to the world around you. the truth will reveal itself. It’s in the stories from people we love and as well as complete strangers. It’s in the sounds that can only exist in nature. It’s that feeling in your gut that you’ve always known.

Anytime the lyrical or musical faucet runs dry, I know it’s because I’m not listening. Until you put your ear to the door, you’ll never know what’s behind it. When you’re really on the right track, the doors just start getting kicked open. That’s when it gets fun! That’s when you know you are exactly where you need to be.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The ability to take a risk is one of the scariest and most rewarding things offered to us in this life. Putting yourself on the line knowing you may be ridiculed, pilloried, and criticized is thrilling to me. How else can you know that what your creating is real? How else can truly touch someone with your words or your sound? How else can you find out that you’re not alone?

This new album for me will be a testament to that very idea. We’ve approached it in a completely different way and I feel like a completely different writer. What started as a therapeutic exercise turned into a project that was nowhere near my radar. There have been days of me thinking it’s my best work yet, and there have been days of me being convinced that I’ve lost the ability to make anything good. That’s the Faustian pact that one makes once they decide to lay it all out there with their art. But if you want fruit, you must go out the limb.

I’m way out on the limb for this project and that’s already been the reward within itself. For what follows, we must wait and see!

Contact Info:

• Website: paulchilders.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulchildersmusic/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulChildersMusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/childerspaul?lang=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PaulChilders

Image Credits
Andrew Oath