Everything Comes Together: The Paul & John Interview, Part One

Music lovers who appreciate highly melodic and memorable rock-based songs – the kind of instantly hummable tunes that stick in your head long after the song is over – should take heart: though the style (however you might label it) doesn’t top the music 2014 charts, the style is far from moribund. In fact, San Francisco’s Bay Area might be considered something of a “ground zero” for the upbeat (yet occasionally melancholy) form that some call “sunshine pop,” “power pop” or some other label that attempts to distill a description down to a couple of words. The Mystery Lawn label has quickly established itself as a reliable purveyor (or perhaps “curator”) of high quality music from a wide array of thoughtful, individualistic artists. Though each has their own distinct musical personality and vision, all Mystery Lawn acts share a love and appreciation (as well as an uncanny knack) for well-crafted melodies with substance.

The latest in the consistent line of highly regarded releases is the long-awaited debut from The Paul & John. The duo of singer/songwriter/guitarists Paul Myers and John Moremen released Inner Sunset this summer.

The duo are careful not to let critics lump all Mystery Lawn groups into a single, confined genre. “To me all of the [label’s] groups are very different from each other,” Moremen insists. Myers concedes that groups releasing their music on Mystery Lawn do have much in common, but believes they’re distinct as well. “I think that while John and I come at this approach to pop rock songwriting from oh-so-slightly different angles, the unified region of our Venn diagram is larger than the non-aligned regions,” he says. “By filtering it all through (label head/producer) Allen Clapp‘s ears (and gear) the sound is even more unified, and of course more Mystery Lawn.”

Moremen agrees: while he allows that “the one thing we have in common would be Allen’s influence, which is immeasurable.” Citing a shared predilection toward “big harmony vocals and broad sonic gestures like reverb-y guitars, and roomy drums,” Myers notes that “all of the acts on Allen’s label make records that sound like records…just maybe not records from today.” And to those who might tag The Paul & John’s music as “retro” – myself, I’d more likely call it timeless – Paul Myers says, “no one involved in Inner Sunset was self-consciously “retro” in our approach to the sonic design. It just so happens that our ideals are the accumulation of a lot of 70s and 60s records, and we’ve all been doing this for a long time.” Moremen admits that The Paul & John will occasionally “venture into Orange Peels territory a little, but that’s mainly because I play guitar and co-write the music in both groups.”

A unifying hallmark of the ten songs on Inner Sunset – from “Inner Sunrise,” the brief, Everly Brothers-styled acoustic opener, through the disc’s more rocking, full-band styled tunes, to the soaring, pastoral “Inner Sundown” that closes the album – is an unerring insistence upon memorable melodic lines. Or, as we used to call them, hooks. “We love hooks,” Myers readily admits. In his view, “A hook can be a compelling melody, an ear-grabbing riff, or even a life-altering chord change. So we do begin with some kind of initial hook, then refine, add to and arrange.” He considers song arrangement a critical component in songcraft. “The layout is built around nurturing and protecting the hooks. This is not a cynical thing,” he hastens to add. “We really do approach it based on what excites us as listeners.” Moremen approaches the subject from a subtly different perspective. “For the most part, we started [writing] the melody, or words and a melody. I find that the hooky bits just naturally present themselves as the tune is coming together.” In fact, he says, “I can’t remember a time when I’ve actually put a hook into a song, unless it’s a recurring riff or something like that.” But almost immediately, he amends his remark: “In the case of the song ‘Inner Sunset,’ it was completely rewritten, because we felt something was missing. I guess,” he allows, “in that case you could say we made it ‘hookier.’” The texture of Moremen’s hollowbody electric guitar solo on “Inner Sunset” is evocative of George Harrison‘s lead work circa A Hard Day’s Night; listeners can decide for themselves if that quality classifies as hooky.

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