Paul Solecki

Paul Solecki is a songwriter, musician, sound engineer, and producer who recently relocated from Cork, Ireland to Munich, Germany.

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii on the second day of 1979, Paul moved to Rhode Island, California, Japan, and finally Olathe, Kansas with his family before going off to seek his fortune in Ireland. In Kansas, Paul started to play the guitar and mandolin and write songs with his friend Jim Kelly, and on May 18, 1993 they had their first gig as Carnivorous Grass. For the next four years they wrote songs and performed, eventually going electric and forming a full band. Paul and Jim celebrated their 15th anniversary of playing together with a gig in Cork on May 18th, 2008.

In 1997 Paul and drummer Ben Champion formed The Vetivers, a more serious band that released two CDs - 1999's Lights and 2002's Twelve O'Clock In All The World. In 2003, Paul moved to Ireland to study and continued writing songs. Two years later he released Paul and Me - a quiet acoustic collection of older unrecorded songs and a few new ones. He also started playing in a band again with The Great Egress, billed as the best band from Cork, Kansas, Finland and New Zealand in the world. The band released a DVD of their final gig in May 2007.

Paul helped to write and produce a CD for kids, 2009's Songs For Small People, with his class at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofe in Cork. Shortly afterwards Paul released another solo album called Every Inch of Sky, producing the album himself. Over the next couple of years Paul built up a home studio and began his career as a record producer, hosted an Open Mic night for a year and a half, and continued to play occasional live shows, even releasing a live album featuring songs from all his previous studio albums.

And just when everything was going great, he packed it all in and moved to Germany... (to be continued)

-December 30, 2011