Interview with Blues guitarist Paul Cowley. An interview by email in writing.

JazzBluesNews.com: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off? When did you realize that this was a passion you could make a living out of?

Paul Cowley: – I was born & grew up in Birmingham United Kingdom. All early musical exposure was via the radio – popular music of the day – nothing too specialist but I always liked songs that told a story.

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Festivals 2023

Music has been important throughout my life but I was in my forties when I started playing seriously, inspired principally by the discovery of country blues.

I’m still figuring out the making of a living!

JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?

PC: – It has become more relaxed / confident & articulate!
Constant playing / listening, absorbing influences, adapting them & incorporating them into my own sound.

JBN: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?

PC: – I try to play twice a day at least 4 hours in total. I have to balance it with other commitments. I work on new material, maintaining the repertoire, keeping my hands moving.

JBN: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?

PC: – I’m more organised as I get older. I try to be more & more effective with the use of my time.

There could be talk or advertising about your CD

JBN: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

PC: – I’m in the soul camp! The more intellectual / overthought music is, generally the less I like it but obviously it has to be stimulating to a degree on an intellectual level.

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?

PC: – I am. I think if you manage that, you have really succeeded as a musician.

JBN: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of standard tunes are half a century old?

PC: – Expose them to it at a young age, in school for example.

JBN: – John Coltrane once said that music was his spirit. How do you perceive the spirit and the meaning of life?

PC: – Life is precious, fleeting & wonderful. We should value every second of it, maximise our individual potential. It’s meaning – that is beyond me!

JBN: – If you could change one single thing in the musical world and that would become reality, what would that be?

PC: – I would like music to be properly valued on many levels. I would like to face less genre discrimination.

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Association 2023

JBN: – Whom do you find yourself listening to these days?

PC: – Tampa Red, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Corey Harris, Bill Frisell, all sorts really!

JBN: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine: where and why would you really want to go?

PC: – I’d like to go back to the late 1950’s early 60’s to be part of and involved in the Folk / Blues revival.

By editorial։ Since its inception in 2012, JazzBluesNews.com has become the leading Jazz and Blues platform in Europe, United States, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Nordic countries, Afro – Eurasia.

An archive of more than 5500 + quality articles and new content published every day, our website continues to create a sustainable legacy. Our extensive, readership is passionate about music and Blues and Jazz in particular.

Every day more than 68,000 visitors log on to JazzBluesNews.com for their daily dose of jazz generating 1,000,000+ page views per month.

In addition, JazzBluesNews.com has a strong social media footprint with an post followers of over 62,000 on Facebook Jazz & Blues Group – JazzSimonBlues.

We manage a number of Twitter, LinkedIn accounts which total over 42,000 followers and our content consistently achieves over 325,000 impressions per month.

Interview by Simon Sarg