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Telling your own story is like throwing yourself a birthday party.
 

bio

    Paula McMath hails originally from a small town in Southern Ontario called Kingsville.  She now calls Santa Monica home.  She’s been making music, in one way or another, all her life and began articulating her thoughts in song almost from the start.  She says of her own music,  "I try to sing what I can't say."  The past two years have resulted in the writing and recording of her latest body of work which is called Trust the Sky.


Producer John Hanlon, who has worked closely with Neil Young, says of her recent work,  "I feel really strongly about this music.  I think Paula's voice, the lyrics,  and the melodies are amazing."  Paul Zollo,  author of Songwriters on Songwriting and Senior Editor at American Songwriter magazine says,  "Paula McMath is the real deal, a seriously great songwriter, gifted musician and inspirational artist.  It’s heartening in these times to hear a songwriter so plugged into the source.  If you’ve been searching for songwriter writing and singing songs from the heart, search no more –  listen to Paula McMath."


The CD release concert for Trust the Sky was recently held at McCabe's Concert Stage in Santa Monica.  The musicians who contributed to the recordings,  Ian Hattwick (Buddy Childers),  Kim Woolford (Young Dubliners) ,  Doug Shreeve (Planet X),  Robert Fernandez (Barry Manilow),  and Victor Bisetti (Los Lobos) were all on hand to perform.


Rescue Records / Five Alarm Music, in Pasadena, has been successfully placing Paula's songs in TV and film.  HBO series Everwood featured 2 songs from Paula's last CD [Consumed and Can't Stop Thinkin' of You] on their final DVD compilation.  Music Connection Magazine named Paula McMath one of LA's Hot 100 Unsigned Artists 2006.


"I grew up listening to my Dad's Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen albums - while simultaneously being exposed to Detroit rock radio - which reached across the Detroit River to my small town home in Southern Canada.  Then came Joni Mitchell and, in the last 10 years, Patty Griffin.  It blows my mind what can be contained in a song.  I aspire to distill things down to as few words as I can and then to make them sing." 


John Pozer, Cannes award-winning Writer/Director of The Grocer's Wife says,  "Wonderful.  Reminiscent of Joni... and there couldn't be a better compliment."




backstory


So much of our early life we're kind of at the mercy of choices that are made for us.  I remember trying to exert my will when I was very small.  I didn't always get my way, but I think that willfulness has always been with me.


At 8 years old,  I started piano lessons.  I only wanted to play by ear - like most kids probably.  I wrote embryonic songs.  A little later,  I sang a solo in the school play -- The Frog Prince.  It was a good beginning to a love of music that would weave its way in and out of my life.


I made it through the rest of elementary school operating under the failed assumption that if a grade did not include the letter A, I was a failure.  Piano segued into guitar.  I wrote more embryonic songs -- with perhaps a little bit more flesh on them.


I managed to get through high school with no major disasters.  I enrolled in Choral Music classes which fed me musically and in ways that I had never been fed.


I played briefly in a garage band -- which suffered from the disorganization that most bands do.  By the end of high school,  I'd also picked up flute along side my guitar, singing, and piano.  In the end,  I dropped the flute.


I graduated high school on the Honor Roll and earned a full scholarship to go to University.  I spent four years there being so busy and overwhelmed that I lost touch with myself.  This, logically, led me to promptly enroll in Graduate School which continued the trend.  After two years, I woke up, took a leave of absence (aka: quit) and went on the road with an a cappella group.


About that time,  I decided it was time to move to LA - so I did.  I endured the storm of a really bad relationship.  It ended.  I began writing songs again -- this time with a purpose.


I worked crappy jobs, waited tables, wasted days of my life.  I sang in cover bands.  I wrote more songs.  I started collaborating with another songwriter.  Out of this came my first body of work Mud Flap Girl.  One of the songs from that collection was eventually picked up for the closing credit sequence of an independent movie.  The collaboration ended but I emerged from it with a sense that I could take writing songs seriously.  I ventured out on my own.


I struggled with where I had come to in my life, and wrote the songs which became my second body of work Because We Bleed.  Momentum built slowly on the CD.  I signed a publishing deal with that work and a number of the songs have gotten television placements. 


Enter the last couple years of my life --  Trust the Sky.  Alongside producer Ian Hattwick,  I've never worked so hard or felt so good about something in my life -- until this.