The latest album from new Chicagoan out on April 11
Not every musician undertakes a major move and an album release in the midst of a global pandemic, but then again, Brian Paddock has never been like every other musician.
“It’s a weird time,” Paddock says of the current climate locally, nationally and internationally since the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus. The pandemic resulted in the cancelation of the release show for his new album, “The Hero We Deserve,” out on Saturday, April 11. And amid the chaos, he and his wife Jessica, along with their two Boston terriers, recently moved from Knoxville to Chicago.
Despite the change of scenery and the obstacles and concerns arising from the health crisis, Paddock, like many other musicians, has chosen to look on the bright side of the quarantine and is reveling in how much creative work can be undertaken. “When you’re not having to focus on your job, [it’s amazing] how productive you can be creatively,” he says. “I can only imagine what it would be like to just always have that time and just keep on creating stuff.”
“My job I can do pretty much from anywhere,” Paddock says of his steady work in the healthcare industry and cites Jessica landing “her dream gig” in Chicago as reasons for the move. The couple arrived in the Windy City just a few days ago and is still unpacking. Paddock’s sister already lives there, and his father plans to move up there soon to join them.
“I’ve played here a couple times,” Paddock says, recounting his “run in the Midwest” on one of the tours he undertook with Handsome and the Humbles’ frontman Josh Smith. Hoping that his music will transition well from the South to the heartland, he acknowledges that he received a good review from a prominent local music blogger last time he was in Chicago. “It’s not Rolling Stone, but I got a little press,” he says.
Once Paddock gets more settled (and the quarantine ends), he’ll be looking for a new backing band and picking up some solo gigs. He will retain The American Gentlemen as the name of his backing band, but he already misses his Knoxville bandmates (Denny Myers, Gurnee Barrett and John T. Baker) and plans to play shows with them again, as well. “I really liked playing with those particular guys, and … I’d like to still get back there and do that or do something,” he says.
As documented in BLANK articles for his past releases, Paddock came late to performing his music, playing originals for the first time when he was in his early 30s – first at open-mic nights and later with his Americana rock band Shimmy and the Burns over a few well-received releases and short tours. He went solo more frequently as the vision for his sound and songcraft crystalized, and he eventually disbanded Shimmy and the Burns and formed The American Gentlemen to record and tour behind his first solo material (the “Villains” EP and full-length releases “Under New Management” and “Love is Weird”) That led to bookings opening for The Black Lillies and playing Rhythm N’ Blooms for the second time in 2019.
“This time, I got to make the decisions, and if people could not or did not want to play the show, I just played it solo,” Paddock says of the lead-up to “The Hero We Deserve.” As his songwriting and guitar-playing skills have sharpened, Paddock says he feels more comfortable leading his bands to successful collaborations that support his vision. “It was much more of … calling the shots within reason. On the last record, we really all produced it; this one was more of a solo record.”
“I would show up with a song, and then the whole band would [mess] around and see what works,” Paddock says. “This time, the songs were fairly formed when I brought them in.” He says he’d usually go to drummer Gurnee Barrett’s house first to find a song’s rhythmic dynamics. “It was very apparent to both of us what the drums should sound like to what I’d written,” he says. Later they’d meet up with the whole band, hit Baker’s Arbor Studio and track rhythm electric, bass and drums. “We didn’t keep most of those takes,” Paddock says. “But the final product was really close.”
The title for the new album is also the name of the last track, an older song in Paddock’s catalog that he says may become one of his more popular numbers despite its tongue-in-cheek nature and the offhand regard he paid it in the past. Paddock, who is known to labor over a single song for weeks, months or even years, had written it in minutes as almost a throwaway based on a conversation he’d had with a former bandmate about the latter’s emotional connection to comic-book culture during a debate about the various actors who play Batman. Paddock says of the song that “people always wanted to talk about it, which at the time really hurt my feelings” since he puts so much into his other songs. But including it on the record and even naming the record after it shows Paddock may be coming around to the idea of more fan-friendly, accessible and silly material.
The touring life appears to have broadened Paddock’s approach musically and lyrically, as well. He’d played in several different styles of bars and came to the conclusion the new one should be bouncier. It should swing and get a little funky so that it would be danceable when the songs were performed in a live environment. He and The American Gentlemen definitely made that happen throughout “The Hero We Deserve.” Also, Paddock writes about a more diverse variety of characters set in different locales (see “King of Fort Worth” and ”Ybor City”). And whatever Paddock’s been potentially stubborn about in the past in regards to songwriting (he claims he writes for himself first and sometimes only), he seems to have come to terms with that on album opener “Your Favorite Record” and the catchy “Hit Radio Song.”
“It was intended to be kind of tongue-in-cheek,” Paddock says of the latter track. “It would be absolutely awesome to have some kind of hit, but it’s not my intention. It’s kind of a musical pep talk for myself … kinda poking fun at myself. … Yeah, I don’t really care about making anybody’s favorite record, but … that would be awesome.”
For Paddock, it really seems that the intrinsic value of obsessing over making the music to his exact specifications may be his biggest motivator of all.
“My favorite thing to do is record – making records,” he says.
