Christopher Paul Stelling
Exclusive Interview: Christopher Paul Stelling
February 18, 2012
by Chuck Norton
Before the end of 2011, New York-based singer-songwriter Christopher Paul Stelling and I corresponded for several weeks on number of topics via a few different platforms. We agreed to do an interview via email early in December. As happens with all good intentions, schedule and situations limited our dialog to less that we both intended.
We are still attempting to complete the interview, but with the release of his new album a few days away, I wanted to go ahead and post what is, essentially, the first part of our conversation.
I think what you’ll find is an engaging dialog from an artist whose upcoming album, Songs of Praise & Scorn, is a stunning debut. The first track released from the album was “Mourning Train to Memphis” which can be heard below.
His new album will be released on February 21, 2012. He will be on tour through the coming months in support of the album.
For more information on Stelling, visit his Web site.
DeadJournalist.com proudly brings you this exclusive interview with Christopher Paul Stelling.
It doesn’t seem like the holidays here – the high is suppose to be 70 today in Atlanta and work isn’t letting up for me – but the new year is only a few weeks away. What will you be doing for the next couple of weeks? Catching up or keeping your nose to the grindstone?
CPS: It’s in the 50′s in Brooklyn and we’ve only had one snow, which was a significant one, but it was before Halloween … so, yeah, the holiday spirit has yet to grasp me, but considering that I grew up in Florida I’m not sure this is that unfamiliar of a feeling.
I’ve been playing quite a bit … and putting out this record has been a full time gig lately. I quit a coffee shop job a while back so I could go on tour with the Loom. I’m somewhat half heartedly looking for work … it’s that time again, but i’m trying to wait until the holidays pass for that, and then work briefly before we leave on tour in mid-February.
The learning curb with putting out a record is fairly steep, there really is a lot that goes into it. It’s been fun, and stressful.
Thinking of the holidays, I haven’t seen the movie ‘Beautiful Girls’ in a while. I love that movie I should try to watch it sometime soon. That and some of Edward Burns early movies remind me of your album because they all have an undercurrent of dark, realism that, while omnipresent, tends to be neither glossed over or dramatized. Do you see any connection or is it my lack-of-sleep talking?
CPS: Sad to say that i am not familiar these films, I am vaguely, but not much. I’m not sure I find the darkness of the record to be very glossed over, or dramatized, but I agree in it’s there. But then again, we might be on the same page. Perhaps you mean it’s an undercurrent?
Christopher Paul Stelling - Songs of Praise & Scorn
I had the thought while listening to the test pressing the other day, that maybe in hindsight, this is the story of someone who is trying to see and accept it all for what it is, but is refusing to let it break his heart … trying to find solace in the fact that we are all having this dream together, and that no matter what, its beautiful none the less.
I think the darkness is more the obvious surface, but i find hope in these stories. By contrasting them, the extremes strengthen each other and find a middle ground.
I read once – I think it was in Goddard’s a Buddist bible or maybe in the writing of Trungpa, it was something buddist – it said basically when confronted with demons, one must “call them by their names, and they will vanish”. I think this at times may be a bit of whats going on here. I find it helpful. I write all of my fears and hopes into these songs, like putting water into a vessel … because holding it in my hands and my heart gets to be too much.
Hence the praise and scorn.
I see a landscape in them, there certainly is a film for me here. I see it every time I sing them. It’s maybe more about imagery for me than about music. i strive to find life to be dark, mysterious, vast, beautiful, and profoundly simple all at once and not deny any of it because this could very well be all there is.
