interview with charles paul

charles had a really cool idea on saturday night. a cross-interview between the two of us. this is especially cool for me because i love asking the tough questions, and one of the things i miss about radio is being able to do that.
this is an interview with charles paul, also known as the man behind Chompers dubs and the Obakeh project. i asked him ten questions; he gave me ten answers:

1. what was your biggest accomplishment of 2004?
   Hmm, that’s a tough one. So many things happened in the last year. *pauses* I would have to say that there wasn’t one thing in particular that I’d claim as my biggest accomplishment, but rather a series of many accomplishments that amount to one big one. I mean, for starters, I have been able to find a voice through my music. Stylistically, the music I’ve made in the last 4 months or so has really started to become stylistically cohesive. Other accomplishments that I feel compelled to mention are; the decision to go back to school and continue with my studies; holding down two jobs, which was something I’d never done before. Actually, to be quite honest my biggest accomplishment of 2004 has been surviving what has been a very difficult year.
2. where do you see yourself in 2.37 years?
   Realistically, I’ll still be in school and in Victoria at that time. Hopefully I’ll have a vinyl release or two by then. Alternatively I may find myself in a larger city, but hopefully still working towards my degree.
3. where do you get the ideas for the little people that you draw?
   Where? Ummm, I dunno really. Sometimes I just put pen to paper and that’s what comes out. Other times, I look at something and try to imagine what it would look like through my eyes. And even further, sometimes I am merely copying something that I saw somewhere.
4. what is your ambition, and how do you plan on getting there?
   Oof. I wasn’t ready for that one. My ambition is a multi-headed goddess-beast. “She gives with one hand and then she takes with the other”[/kids_in_the_hall] I guess I have many ambitions. Most of them are to be proficient at expressing myself in a myriad of mediums such as; music, text, art, visual etc. I’d really like to be in a position to use those mediums to earn a living. I honestly couldn’t stick to one thing, I would start to feel limited by what I could say. Hardwork, discipline and dedication are the only things that I can use to get there. Unless there is some sort of secret udnerground rail-road I am not aware of?
5. have you forgotten anybody?
   Yes? I don’t know…
   

6. who was your first best friend, what was that persons name, and what earned them the title?
   Some kid named ‘Martin’ from California. When my mom brought down there, We stayed at my Uncle Michael’s. I must have been maybe four or five? Anyway, this kid’s parents came over and they brought him and we went to disneyland together. In all that excitement we became best friends. I’ve never seen or heard from/about him since. That was about 1983 I believe..
7. if you could be somewhere else right now, where would it be, regardless of time and space?
   Ooooh! Good one. So many possibilities! I’d like to witness Ney York in the 60’s, Edo period Japan( perfereably in a non christian denominitive faction) Can I choose to look different? Because that would make the Japan thing a bit easier. Even though it’s not too far off, I’d like to have witnessed first hand the rise of Electronic music in the Uk in the early 90’s. Geez, there are so many times and events I’d love to have seen first hand…
8. What is it about Japan/Asia that fascinates you?
   Ok, fair enough.
   Initially I was drawn to more contemporary aspects of Japanese media, mostly in the form of music and animation or movies, but deciding to invest more time in researching a culture on a less superficial context, I found a richness that I was immediately drawn to. I feel like I can kind of identify with the notions of tradition and routine. Asia in general is such an ancient civilisation, I think it’s among the first civilisations really, (i’m not sure of the dates to be honest) and because of that it’s developed such an intensely rich and colourful history. I am also quite drawn to much of the mythologies of asia, Ancient civilisations develop extremely rich histories and mythologies, the root of which forms much of the cultural norms today that I find so fascinating. *phew* Another richly rewarding facet of this interest is learning language. I am absolutley amazed by language. Japanese is my second language so far, demo mata, watashi no nihongo ga jouzu ja arimasen.

9. whats the stupidest thing you’ve ever done?
   Yeah… WE could go over that, Or, I can just say this; I don’t really believe that I’ve done incredibly stupid things, only things to learn from and to try not repeat. Most of my recent stupidisms fall under the ‘love’ category though. I’m kind of learning all of that stuff all over again.
10. whats the smartest thing you’ve ever done?
    Excercise a great deal of patience.

check out

• www.chompers-dubs.com
• Chompers artist page on the Pacific Front Recordings website

Charles is one of Pacific Front Recordings mainstays and an all-around good guy. part of the reason you see the degree of honesty that you see on my website is due in part to my own reading of his website and how clearly he writes there, not really too concerned with who is reading what, but rather more interested in getting it out of the head and written out somewhere. You’ll see Charles’ story of how he met me at the radio station when I was ego tripping at my prime time Saturday night radio show. My first impression of Charles was that he had incredibly good taste in music and that I wanted him to come back to the show many times to share his selections with us. I knew, right away, that this guy had something special going on in the music department — and that sentiment becomes truer and truer as time goes by.