 |
| Paul Fleming |
'Baltic Fleet' is predominately the work of Merseyside born, Widnes-based, musician Paul
Fleming. His dad Steve, with his uncle and brother, had a band in the 1960s called 'Mark Peters and The Silhouettes' ( http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2016/03/mersey-beat-mark-peters-silhouettes.html ). Consequently he's been making music since he was a child. Paul says, "My dad was a
musician and I asked for my first piano lesson after watching him play.
I started out with hand me down synths from him and built up with
sequencers, drum machines and later on guitar and bass. I was writing
and producing my own music from about 13 years old."
Whilst on a World Tour playing keyboards for 'Echo and the Bunnymen' which he had done for about six years, Paul
began to write what would come to be his 2008 self-titled debut album, 'Baltic Fleet', using a
laptop and any instruments that came to hand whilst he toured. Taking its name from the famous Liverpool water front pub, 'Baltic Fleet' is written, produced and performed by Paul and the album also features
contributions from friends Simon Finley ('Sound Of Guns') on drums, Will Sergeant ( 'Echo & The Bunnymen') on guitar and
Pete Wilkinson on bass. After putting out a few releases independently, Paul signed up to Blow Up Records in April 2007,
and the same summer took his recordings into Studio B, The Premises in
Hackney for additional production, mixing and some heavy-duty valve and analogue processing with Nick Terry (Simian Mobile Disco).
The band only played one live show to promote the album at The Paradiso, Amsterdam with 'Florence and the Machine' and 'The Ting Tings'.Released to critical acclaim in 2008, the album was named No.29 in Rough Trade's top 50 albums of 2008 and was described by them as "a faultlees piece of instrumental music that captures the spirit of 'Eno', 'NEU!' all the way through to modern post-rock and chamber music."
As well as being influenced by his surroundings Paul is inspired by 'Joy Division', David Bowie, 'Daft Punk', 'Chemical Brothers', Brian Eno and Neu!.
 |
| Towers |
Paul came back home for the follow-up album, 'Towers',
predominantly recorded in a small studio overlooking the towers of the
famous Fiddlers Ferry power station – which appears on the cover. This second album offered more direct: analogue synthesisers
intertwined with distant guitars rolling over a backdrop of live and
electronic drums. Two years in the making, it tells a story of
life in between the silos of Liverpool and Manchester but with a foot in
both, a cultural no-man's land, in the shadows of industry. 'Towers'
was written and produced by Paul and again mixed by Nick Terry
at Malabar Studios, Oslo.
Gearing himself up for another journey, as he planned to take these songs on the road he said, "I've got a band
together, and we've been rehearsing for a while now. I get excited by
the idea of experimenting with sounds within the framework of the songs. We
played some new tracks at a few festivals last year, and I'll be
looking to do the same this year, along with a few low-key shows in the
build-up to the album's release. Hopefully
we'll get to enjoy 'Baltic Fleet' on our own doorstep", although a certain
local establishment has made Paul slightly wary: "I love playing in
Liverpool, only I'm a bit worried people might think I'm connected to
the pub!"
The ten songs that make up 'Towers', released in 2012 by Blow Up Records,
were nearly four years in the making, and Paul was excited to have
them finally finished and ready to unleash on the world: "I'm hoping to
sell more records, but the most important thing for me is to build a
career. I wouldn’t want to have one massive album then fall away
completely. 'Baltic Fleet' was never a bid for stardom."'Towers' was nominated for 'Album of the Year' in the Liverpool Music Awards and 'Baltic Fleet' won the Liverpool Echo 'GIT Award' with the local paper describing the album as "one of the finest records from Liverpool in years". Once more Rough Trade Shops made it their 'Album Of The Week' and 'Album Of The Month' while NME referred to its "Exceptional motorik beats".
 |
| The Dear One |
In 2016 came the release of the third album, 'The Dear One,' with Paul saying, "The friends that played live on the 'Towers' shows stayed
with me and I brought them into the recording process for this record. I
moved away from the industrial surroundings to a place a bit more
isolated and added more gear to the studio, synths, drum machines and
effects. I developed the way I was arranging and producing just trying
to move the sound forward."
'The Dear One' is set in the Pennine wilderness where an early 19th
century diary of the same name is discovered in a church providing the inspiration
for a psychedelic tinged electronic soundscape. Some considered it to be 'Baltic Fleet's' best record to date.
Deemed 'a big step forward' by Paul, the record is the sound of one
man throwing the shackles off.
No comments:
Post a Comment