PAUL UBANA JONES

Rip It Up, Issue 179, 1 June 1992, Page 4

PAUL ÜBANA JONES

On a national tour at the moment is Paul Übana Jones, just as his new album The Things Which Touch Me So is released in New Zealand and a different new album is released in the USA on Flying Fish Records. Both were recorded this year. Confusing?

How much have you worked in America? "I've been there essentially for promotion stuff and now I've got a new management there, Folk Law Productions, they've been setting me up with some nice festivals and I've opened up a few gigs for Taj-Mahal and the Pentangle who have the same management agency as what I've just found so there's good access to good gigs with good promotion. They're based in Santa Monica, just outside LA." Did they obtain your Flying Fish deal? Yes, we went direct with them, it seemed that was the way to move at

the time and so we did that outside the Pagan domain. But there's no reason why we can't tie everything up with Pagan at a later date." Is your album with Flying Fish similar to your Pagan albums? "Ifs just 14 completely different songs with about two covers, 12 originals, different material to whafs being released just now. Ifs still me, ifs still my direction, ifs just another part of my repertoire. Ifs the Afro blues feel thafs in me anyway." Do you find it difficult at the moment dealing with two different records coming out simultaneously in two different countries? "I find it quite exciting actually. I ►

► mean, I have to tour that in the States and Canada and that's good forme. I'll be 40 in Canada, I'll have a male menopause on my own." Was the new Pagan album done since your Flying Fish album? "The Pagan album was done just before I got on the plane and went to America to do this other thing. In . actual fact the Pagan album was finished on the Tuesday or Wednesday of the week and I was on the plane on the Friday, at the end of April." - With your choice of songs on this album, are they songs by artists you admire a lot or are they just stand out songs? "Well, the Pagan one there's a Dylan cover who I've loved for many years, particularly his earlier stuff, up to Blonde On Blonde and the song I've chosen was from Highway 61. 1 love this period of Dylan very much and Bobby Womack I've always loved, and I've always loved 'lt's All Over Now' and Bert Janch's 'Running From Home'. It's been drastically changed, I've done a virtual re-arrangement but the essence, the message of youth looking for a new direction, that break away from the chains of home in teenage years, it's a good theme, it's a good song, I feel." How did working with Annie Crummer come about? "It was one of those magical moments where Nigel Stone the engineer on the session was working on a project with Annie and she had come to the studio. She phoned him beforehand and he said Paul Übana's in the studio and I sort of shouted 'Hey, come and voice' in a joking fashion and she came along and listened to what was being ; done, loved the feel of it, and V- 4 ; decided to hang around and put her magical vocals over the top." Did you do the first album with Nigel Stone? "No, that was with Nick Morgan at Airforce. Nick did a great job and Nigel Stone's carried on from there. Nigel put his character and personality in the sound and I'm really pleased with the sound we've come up with." Are large studios necessary with your format? "I needed quite a lot of space to get the sound that I want and Airforce was good at the time." So the room's important. "I think so, the ambience, to get that feel. When they finally dim those lights down, the magic's there and you can go away, cut into the

song and it feels good." Do you feel NZ's changed over the last five years? "I'd be quite blind if I said it isn't, and I do see right across the spectrum of NZ and in playing I touch the universities and high schools, YMCA, Maraes, kids. My music brings me right through these avenues and I see changes." Positive or negative? "Oh both. What we're going through now is this whole period of questions, turn around, festering and erupting in all different little pockets of society. That's what we're seeing and it's happening and we have to address it and deal with it. 'Yesterday I arrived from Nelson and I stopped in Ohakune after seven hours of driving around and I was refused entry into a motel because of my colour and how I looked, my hair, so it's there and one has to deal with it and one can't say it doesn't exist." That happens a lot with rock musicians. "She didn't even know I was a musician. I arrived at 9.20 at night, never been there before and somebody phoned up for me and said there's someone that wants to check in, cos the office was closed, and she said 'okay I'll be down'. When she actually saw me suddenly there was no vacancies and then when I questioned her she sort of erupted and said 'lt's the way you look, your hair' and gesticulating about the colour of my face. So it's quite blatant and one has to deal withit." Stereotyping should be on the. decline not the increase. "But I think historically, when there's gross unemployment and violence, people start to stereotype in order to feel safety. A huge switch over to the right side of things. Which means mediocrity and anything different gets a hammering, even more so." Is part of the attraction for you bringing you family up in New Zealand, our distance from the , problems of London? * "No, we never came here to escape, we just came here for r' another perspective, which we've certainly been getting. And it's still a good place to be for us and our family. There's no escape, the only escape is within yourself. We haven't run away from Europe because of nuclear holocaust or anything like that. We came here to have a change in life, a new direction." MURRAYCAMMICK