About two months ago, Paul Tarry released his debut single “Younger”. In the meantime the song has really grown on us. The nostalgic sound and theme about growing up struck a chord with us and many other people. This is the story of how he came to write his debut single.
Singer-songwriter Paul Tarry was born in Bromsgrove, UK in 1985, and is now based in Worcester. Paul has been playing music from the age of about 12. His dad was a musician as well, “so there was always guitars laying about the place and music being played”, Paul tells us.
“I started out as a bass player, I was in a funk band for a few years and then that eventually fizzled out about 6 years ago. It was then that I decided to start singing and writing.”
In recent years Paul liked the idea of ‘making it big’, but after growing up a little bit, having a full time job, getting married and having children his ideas have changed. Reasons that it has taken him longer to get to the point of releasing songs. And his first song is about that point in life; when responsibilities take over, and the dreaming and creativity are slowly moving to the background. Lyrics include “caught up in the game of life, but you want more” and “open that old window, breathe a little like you did before, daydream like you were younger”.
Despite the retro poprock sound of the song (close to James Morrison and The Script), and the melancholic feelings and thoughts the song evokes, the lyrics never ask to regret, go back and change. It’s not about having missed out, but about treasuring your youth, and about realizing it’s not too late to start dreaming again, to recapture your youthful spirit. And so does Paul. He still enjoys writing music without having worries of making it big getting in the way:
“I just like creating music that I like listening to, and trying to be as fruitful with writing as I can be really, love tapping into the magic of songwriting and not getting in its way.”
The accompanying music video is directed by Ella Cardinali, Ben Stancombe and Paul Tarry himself, with director of photography Charlie Tabberner. The video emphasizes the nostalgic atmosphere. It starts of with a record player and the sound of vinyl clicks. Images of Paul himself at the office and young kids playing in the woods, support the lyrics and the overall melancholic feeling.
The song was co-written with Christian J Hill, with whom he started to write songs about 10 months ago. On the first night of meeting to write a song, they wrote “Younger”. Upon releasing the track, it shot up the iTunes singer-songwriter charts to No. 1. Rightfully so, we think! Following this success, Paul and Christian then decided to form a songwriting partnership. So we can assume that there more beautiful pop rock songs coming our way. Yesterday he released his second song on Facebook, “Broken Record”. You can find it here.
For more information: Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify