Just releasing his Summery new single and video for "Jersey Girl," local native Steven Paul is ready to take the world by storm. His charismatic and Pop-centric performance enlightens as he makes his hometown of Tom's River, NJ proud. We recently had the chance to talk with Steven Paul about his upcoming endeavors which you can dig into, below!
You have a new single out right now, "Jersey Girl" What can you tell us about the new release? What fueled the inspiration?
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For starters, I'm so stoked to finally have this out into the world as I've waited pretty long for what I felt was the right time to release it. I wrote the song at 17 years old, I recorded it at 18, and I shot the video at 19! It's been a long process, but I know with a little patience and consistency it will all pay off. The inspiration behind the new release has been just to be true to who I am as not only an artist but also as someone who is growing up and learning things about themselves everyday.
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Was there any specific storyline you had for the song when writing?
Not too much, the song for the most part wrote itself but as I was writing it, I knew that it was about a girl I was friends with growing up. So I guess there was not too much of an actually storyline that I followed but more about situations and memories I was drawing inspiration from.
When writing music, what are your influences? How long does it typically take you to write a song? Do you keep coming back to the piece and revising?
My music influences not only come from a lot of different genres of music and artists but also things like movies & places too. As far as how long it typically takes me to write a song, all of the best songs I've written have been created in no more than 45 minutes. I think for me when I write I just try not to force anything and just let the words fall to the page as they may without any doubts or over thinking and in retrospect, experiencing all that just feels extremely natural. You can always go back to a song and revise then revise again and again to the point where its not even the same song but I've noticed in my experience when I have done all that, Ill usually go back to the first thing I've written and notice that it was better than anything I wrote after that. Sometimes its not as hard as I try to make it and that the first thing I write can be great without having to keep revisiting it and trying to make it something its not. When I think of 'revising' songs, I always think back to a story I heard about Michael Jackson's song, "Billie Jean" and how the song was mixed over 98 times and by the 99th time, they went back to the second mix of the song which then became the final version. Sometimes we search for something greater when the greatest is right in front of us.
What was the recording process like for the track? Did you self-produce? How long did it take to write and record the track as a whole?
The recording process was pretty quick for "Jersey Girl" just as it was as I was writing the song. Everything came together very naturally and I just tried to sit back and let everything fall into place. We started with a strong driving beat to the song then added guitar and synths. We just added on till we heard it all came together perfectly. I worked with a producer I was recently introduced to at the time, Steve DeAcutis, and we sat together and I guided him through what I was hearing and envisioned in my mind for the song. Again, it was a really great creative process we went through tearing out the layers to reveal a great 'statue' of what I envisioned. I would say altogether once the song came to a completion, it took within a couple days work to have the final version of 'Jersey Girl' that has been released to the world.
Do you have any plans on touring or a full record this year?
As there are no plans written in stone yet for a tour this year, I definitely will be working on my first EP and dropping my next single, "Do You Believe In Karma" which will be released later this year.
What do you hope to accomplish in 2017 with the new single and beyond?
Well there's definitely a lot I'd like to accomplish 'beyond' my song "Jersey Girl" of course, but Id say the next step would be releasing my next song and music video for the next single, "Do You Believe In Karma" and working on releasing my first EP later this year!
