Greg Paulus is a talented musician, originally from Minnesota, who plays the trumpet like an angel. He is back on Freerange Records in a collaboration with Hyperballads’ Taylor Bense with an EP entitled ‘Heat Makes Sense’ and including a big remix by The Martinez Brothers.
Here, we sit down with the charming and very charismatic New Yorker to talk about his new EP, his greatest achievements, his super talented and very inspirational late father, and about the tight-knit muso community in Brooklyn.
WWD: Thank you for talking to us at When We Dip.
Thanks for having me!
WWD: Where are you right now and how are you spending the day?
I’m doing great, it’s a beautiful day in Williamsburg, sun is out, everyone happy, nice cool breeze. I’m currently at my brother’s awesome apartment, both of us getting some work done! Later on, I’ll go back out for a nice walk then hit the studio later to prep for a weekend of gigs in Medellin, Colombia.
WWD: I guess Brooklyn summertime is in full swing. How’s is the view from your window?
Full swing indeed! Boat parties, park parties, club parties, it’s on every day! Current view is quite lovely, looking at the colossus that is the Williamsburg bridge. JMZ train zipping back and forth.
WWD: Such a great music community in Brooklyn! Razor-N-Tape, Wolf + Lamb, Soul Clap, No Regular Play, Underground System, 79.5. Do you all know each other, and do you all hang out?
Yes we do! Razor-N-Tape guys are good friends, I hang with Wolf + Lamb upstate as much as I can, and Soul Clap all over the place, love Underground System and 79.5, see them and hang out all the time. So yes a lovely community here 🙂
WWD: You are soon to release your ‘Heat Makes Sense EP’ on Freerange Records, but this isn’t your first outing on the London label. How did you initially link up with Freerange?
I had been talking to Jamie (Jimster) back when NRP was in full swing, and we had always talked about doing something. We played a gig together in the DR and really clicked so I sent over some of my solo stuff and Jamie really dug it, so we put out the City Movements EP. I collaborated a bit on that with Taylor Bense and Teddy Stuart of Samples from Mars. I was so happy with the quality of everything with Freerange and the professionalism that I couldn’t wait to get together again.
What was your first release with Jamie & Tom?
The City Movements EP was the first release.
WWD: Didn’t you play trumpet on a recent Jimpster track too?
Yes, the track is called Soul Spectral, it’s just lovely so it was easy to get some horns sounding nice on there.
WWD: Do you play any other instruments? Do you sing?
Yes! I always sang and played trumpet for our No Regular Play live shows. I started putting vocals on the tracks a while back because I didn’t know any singers that fit the vibe and it’s also easier to do everything yourself sometimes haha! I remember I had never sung the vocals on our tracks, and we were sound checking at Fabric, and I had had a couple beers and was jet lagged so I just tried it and it sounded ok! So, I sang on every gig after that. Some better than others lol but I learned so much just throwing myself into the fire. I also play piano and keyboards, used to play a Moog synth and some percussion in Matthew Dear’s band and I’ve always added a lot of live percussion into my tracks over the years.
WWD: Are you classically trained as a musician, and where did you learn you craft?
I’ve been playing trumpet for 30 years now, really dating myself there lol. I studied with a couple brilliant teachers when I was young, a jazz trumpet teacher, a Classical trumpet teacher and a couple amazing players/teachers at the Walker West Music Academy in St. Paul, MN. I went to the Stanford Jazz Residency a couple years in high school where I learned so much from total legends and met friends for life that are now basically the premier musicians around. I learned so much from them, because we all ended up in college together at the Manhattan School of Music. I also have to mention Roy Hargrove, he really showed us how to play, how to act on stage, just everything.
WWD: Can I ask you to tell our readers about your father and his influence on your career?
Thanks for asking! My father was a classical composer who wrote close to 800 works for chorus, opera and orchestras like NY Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and for soloists from the greatest virtuosi to Doc Severinson of Jonny Carson fame. Music was always playing in the house, from classical to Prince to Sade. His studio was in the house so his influence of harmony, melody, rhythm was absolutely immense. He was my best friend and greatest collaborator – we wrote a 40-minute piece for the Minnesota Orchestra in 2011 called TimePiece, that fused Jazz, Classical and Electronic Music. It was the greatest moment of my life. I’m legally not allowed to sell the recording, but hit me on insta if anyone is curious 🙂
WWD: Tell us a little about your work with No Regular Play.
No Regular Play is my project with my best buddy from age 8, Nick DeBruyn. When he moved to New York in 2006, we had no idea what we were doing but using my music skills and his amazing ear and taste for greatness we started teaching ourselves how to produce and try to imitate Ricardo Villalobos and Matthew Dear tracks. Eventually we found our own sound and signed quickly to Wolf + Lamb and subsequently a bunch of other labels. I tallied it up and we played close to 50 countries in 15 years. A dream we could have never anticipated! Eternally grateful to have played our music all over, a highlight was definitely playing my fav Dizzy Gillespie song “A Night in Tunisia” one night in Tunisia lol!
WWD: Talk to us about your involvement with Wolf + Lamb over the years?
I met Zev at Mutek, and we became fast friends with both of them. We quickly moved into the Marcy Hotel and made music together, released, travelled, and helped them throw the legendary parties. We would bartend, dj, take out the trash, play live, run the door. It was a true utopia haha everyone pitched in to make the parties a success, it will be hard to beat those times!
WWD: You have a residency at La Mescalaria Milagrosa. The venue is hidden behind a Mexican deli’s freezer door is that right? Tell us about the venue and what happens there.
Our favorite restaurant in town created our favorite lil bar/club right next door! After the pandemic, the owner, our dear friend Felipe said “people need to hear live music again! Why don’t you put together a band and play every Wednesday! It really took off. It’s been almost 2 years now and we’ve only missed 3 Wednesday’s I think! It’s a beautiful room, all wood, Klipsch/MacIntosh sound, a million different mezcals and the best musicians have joined, including Jason Lindner (International legend and David Bowie collaborator) and Axel Tosca (Incredible Cuban player and Louie Vega collaborator). We’ll be releasing live recordings soon!
WWD: What do you consider your greatest achievement in your career?
Definitely writing TimePiece with my father for the Minnesota Orchestra. Having NRP be honored by Lincoln Center was also a treasured moment.
WWD: What are your next ambitions in music?
Dishing out some more big dance tracks is always in there haha. I would like to do more crossover work with jazz/classical/electronic. After my dad passed that was kind of put on hold. I have an ambient record coming out of his choral works, I’d like to get more into that. And a new live project is in the works!
WWD: I see you are performing your live at Houghton in the UK. Not so many from the USA on the line up so a really great booking for you! How did that come about?
Craig Richards is a long-time dear friend, as NRP we played at Fabric in Room 1 a bunch and after we would always end up hanging in the hotel until the flight lol. Craig was always thinking of a way to get me involved at Houghton, then he saw my band play and was like “this is it!” We played last year, and it was a smash so now we’re kind of the house band for the festival. We play every day of the fest so it’s just a blast. Quite an honor for us! Thank you Craig!!!
WWD: Tell us a little about your live set up and what it will be at Houghton.
Jason Lindner on keys (grand piano, Rhodes, and Dave Smith synths), Michael Feinberg on electric bass, and Timothy Angulo on drum set. We just improvise and go crazy! Somehow we end up landing on some tunes by Herbie Hancock or something similar, but we usually just start without much talk.
WWD: It’s probably one of the best festivals I’ve ever been too! What do you love about Houghton?
The music is phenomenal! Our drummer Tim said last year that every bit of music he heard was completely fresh. The festival grounds are great, absolutely sweet stages everywhere, and it’s so so great to see all my dear friends from the UK and all over that I don’t often see.
WWD: Are you playing at any more festivals this summer?
That’s the only one for the band, I may be Djing a few. Also, we played the inaugural Beam Jazz Festival in Bangkok about a month ago that was super fun.
WWD: On your forthcoming release- ‘Heat Makes Sense’ – you are collaborating with Taylor Bense. He’s out of Hyperballad studios right? Tell us about this collaboration. Have you worked on stuff together before?
Taylor and I have been making music for years. We make all sorts of genres and really work well together. We often work all night long, jamming, composing, editing, total night owl vibes.
WWD: Can you walk us through the EP a little..
‘Heat Makes Sense’ is something we’ve been crafting for years, some of our best ever and so glad Jimpster dug it. Track two is with Stimulus and Malik, two brilliant MCs from Brooklyn that I’ve known since my early days in New York, when they used to let me sit in on the Real Live Show sessions that were the stuff of legends. We had just a tiny amount of time together for “Switch” and basically made it in an hour, then we worked on it tons after, but the main vibe was there in a heartbeat! Marino is with our dear friend on vocals who goes by Big $exy. We have an EP with him coming out this fall on Soul Clap Records. And lastly, the Martinez Brothers and great buddies of mine I’ve known forever, they are fantastic musicians, great people and have always had my back and stayed in contact no matter how busy they get! I was feeling pretty down before a gig on New Years Eve, and out of the blue they were like “wait did we send you this edit we did of “Do You Love Me?” Totally brought me out of the dumps. I just love it! They made it slap for the big clubs!
WWD: What else do you have cooking that you can share?
LP with Taylor on Soul Clap records, an album of mine on Seth Troxler’s new label Slacker 85, a couple dance singles I’ve been testing out for release, an EP with Teddy Stuart with a Live A/V show to go with it, and live recordings from Milagrosa.
WWD: You have worked with and collaborated with a lot of different people. Who would be your dream collaboration?
Herbie Hancock and Q-Tip
WWD: When you are not performing, touring, or recording, where would we find you and what would you be doing?
Haven’t been having much time or desire for anything else, except hanging with my old friends at a good bar – anything from a dive to a nice cocktail spot. Also, I might get back into golf since I’m getting old lol.
WWD: Thank you for your valuable time.
Thank you for the great well-informed questions!!