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

Hi Paul, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Writing, recording, and performing original songs with Brother Other has been the most meaningful project I’ve worked on. Brother Other started in 2018 as Matthew Saccoman and Paul Mauro. A few years earlier we were just two ordinary dads living in the same small town. As fate would have it, we met watching our kids practice on a soccer field in rural southern New England. Thankfully, we decided to introduce ourselves. It was clear the two of us had a lot more in common than long hair and beards. We were both schoolteachers, had two kids around the same age, and had spent our lives as musicians.
The more we got to know one another, the more we realized we had very similar backgrounds, influences, and tastes in music. After finally getting together to play music, we discovered our voices complimented each other in harmony. Our first show received a very positive and welcoming response. Brother Other was something special and deserved some room to grow. After performing a few shows, we agreed that we didn’t want to be just another cover act. This motivated us to begin writing our own material. Between the two of us, we had plenty of musical background and life experience to draw from.
We began to share our ideas and notes. To this day, we continue to work to meld songs together and write about the things we know the best – gratitude, humility, and the triumphs and tragedies of the human experience.
In early 2020 we began recording our songs at Dirt Floor Recording and Production in Haddam, CT. Our debut album “You and I and Everything” was released in October 2020. Recorded and Produced by Eric Michael Lichter and Engineered by Guido Falivene (Dirt Floor Recording and Production), it features 8 original tracks with a variety of instrumentation including stripped-down acoustic tracks as well as full-band arrangements.
We are currently recording several new songs in a strictly analog tape format at Red Room Recording and production in Torrington, CT with Mick Connoly and Lucinda Rowe.
We have been fortunate enough and grateful to be able to share our songs in venues and radio stations all across the Northeast.

Paul, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Both Matthew and Paul have each spent over 20 years as teachers. Matthew in special education, and Paul in instrumental music. Both have been involved in performing music professionally for their entire adult lives. While our original music has been categorized as folk/rock.Americana, you can hear a blend of various styles of music and the songs differ from each other in their own unique ways (instrumentation, feel, harmony, et.). We also have an extensive repertoire of cover songs from many genres and decades of popular music. We have performed hundreds of shows, public and private and have a reputation of professionalism-we are always on time, conscious of our appearance and attitude, and respectful of our clients wishes. We are also make sure our music is appropriate for the environment we are performing in and are careful to adjust our sound levels and dynamics.

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

When someone is truly listening to a song we’ve created, and afterwards they tell us how it meant something to them, reminded them of something important, or they were able to relate to it on a deeply personal level. That sort of human connection is why we do this.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Listen to your local musicians recordings, go to their shows, download their music, and buy their merch. Also, artists themselves should strive to be positive and supportive of each other. Where negativity exists from others who are overly competitive or jealous, a thriving creative scene will suffer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brotherothermusic.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/brother.other
• Facebook: facebook.com/brotherother
• Youtube: youtube.com/brotherother
• Other: bandcamp.com/brotherother

Image Credits
Kimberly Davis Photography Katie Kelly Photos