Paul David Stanko
Interview conducted on June 3, 2022
by Dan Locke
Paul David is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based musician with a day job. With a smile that brightens any room, Paul David works as a multi-instrumental performer and composer and can often be found sitting in a pit orchestra for local theater productions. Paul David is a communicator, healer, teacher who can move the energy of a place — bringing order where there was chaos. Working for Taher, Inc. as their Director of Employee Development by day, Paul David works out of his home studio creating music that challenges the negativity we encounter in the world and offers us a glimpse of the light
What is your upbringing?
Wouldn’t it be amazing if I were raised by gypsies in a small Eastern European country and smuggled out during the purge only to find out I was the son of the ruler of Taygete in the Palladian system hiding on earth for my own protection? Yeah, well I cannot confirm or deny that storyline—the official story is I grew up in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota where the Mall of America resides. My Dad, James, was a draftsman and mom, Joan, worked for the high school my sister, Rachelle, and I attended.
My Dad instilled us with a strong work ethic and a drive for perfection, while my mom balanced that with an understanding that it is OK to sit back, relax and read a book. I thank her for my appetite to read.
We were a happy family who got along with each other. My aunt and uncle owned a 50-acre horse ranch in Stillwater, Minnesota, and weekends and summers were spent playing with our cousins—riding horses, running through the forest playing our made-up game of “Logan’s Run” (based upon the ‘70’s movie and TV series) or using $1000 of my uncle’s precious lumber to build free standing house-forts in their forest.
My sister, my cousins and I would spend time inside writing books and were self-published well before that was a thing: “publishing” them by gluing the typed pages into a piece of folded cardboard covered in old wallpaper. My cousin, Anna, and I were close in age, and we have a cooking show and would combine things we found in the kitchen and make our younger sisters, Rachelle and Sarah, try our creations then clean up our mess.
I started piano lessons in elementary school and drums in the 6th grade. I sang in our church choir and in the high school swing choir…. I was drum major for the marching band when not playing snare drum. I did all the school plays and competed on the speech team. All those experiences have informed who I am and how I do what I do in this life.
How did you discover music?
Back in the 1970’s, my parent’s had a gigantic stereo console in our living room. My mom was a fan of the Carpenter’s, and my dad loved his big band. I would play records for hours dancing around the living room lip syncing to Neil Diamond, The New Christy Minstrels and Mac Davis (my first Album was his “Song Painter” album). I was quite good. It is rather surprising I didn’t go into drag because back in the day, I was a lip synch assassin!
How did you start to write music?
I started writing music by copying other artists songs… to get the idea of form and function. In fact, one song I just transcribed and changed the lyrics. It had one live performance, then died, as it should. It was a place to start.
Describe your music.
Eclectic. I was raised on 1970’s easy listening and 1940’s swing. You can hear Prince in my music for SURE (a HUGE influence on me) and also the big band in the horns I like to add. You can definitely hear the influence of musicals in what I write: I tend to tell a story in many of my songs. “We Can B Free” is Prince meets Queen. “Sunshine (after the Rain)” is Erasure meets any number of 1970’s smooth grooves. My forthcoming song, “Affirmation”, is Glee meets RENT meets Praise & Worship Chorus FOR SURE! “In Paradisum” is Yanni meets a chill island vibe. “Emergence”, my tone poem, is an homage to John Williams and Andrew Lloyd Weber. I don’t really fit in just one box.
I was always impressed that Prince was not limited by a genre. It goes TOTALLY against the music industry, but I dig that. There are many sides to Paul David: why should my music be limited to just one?
What was your first performance like?
The first performance I can remember was in the kids choir in the Presbyterian church I grew up in. We were singing “Let My People Go” in front of the whole congregation. All I remember is a BALLED through the whole song scared out of my mind. I generally don’t cry on stage any more…
Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP ?
I am a member of ASCAP.
What makes a good songwriter?
Well, everything is subjective—I think a good songwriter is someone who makes a listener FEEL something or see something from a new perspective. A good guitar player friend posted on Facebook a song that really moved him and he was reflecting on the recent school gun violence and posted a song by Lamb of God. He is into much heavier music than I, and while the song did not move me, it moved him. THAT is a good songwriter.
We need to keep in mind, as artists, not all of our creations will move everyone the same way. We need to be OK with that. The world is full of wondrous variety and as such, our art should reflect wondrous variety. What speaks to me may not speak to you, and vica versa as illustrated by the previous example. That does not make either one of us right or wrong. Because a song does not speak to you does not make it bad. It’s just not FOR you. It is for someone else. Wait a minute… something for you will come along.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
My first song EVER was based on lyrics my sister Rachelle’s boyfriend wrote called “Hold On”. I think I wrote that when I was in high school. It was recorded in my first solo recording sessions, but never released. My first completely-by-myself song was “Nightfall” was for a college band called “The Troubadours”. It was recorded but not released, although I have the backing tracks on a cassette tape somewhere.
What is the process of writing your music?
Well, it depends on the muse. The music needs to go where the music needs to go.
I usually begin with the whisp of an idea…perhaps a groove idea…perhaps a chord change… perhaps a great line. I may sit at my drums to find the groove or perhaps I find a sound on my synthesizer and see where that takes me. Sometimes the music comes first… sometimes the lyrics come (and those just generally sit in a pile until I need something to match to the music). Sometimes the whole thing comes along together or sometimes it comes in chunks. I have stacks of “works in progress” that may never be fully realized songs. BUT, all those stacks are resources if I get stuck while writing.
What are you feeling about streaming music?
I’m of two minds. While it is awesome more people can potentially be exposed to my music, the pay for those services is crap.
It has also created a mindset that music is a free commodity. When you stream, you can forget that the artist has to learn how to play their instruments (an investment of time AND money), record the music in a studio (home incurs the cost of equipment, professional studio incurs the cost of studio time), pay musicians to play on it (unless they are like Prince and can play everything), pay for cover art to be designed, pay for pressing of physical copies, pay to upload the song for digital distribution and pay for some kind of publicity to let the world know it exists. That all cost a LOT of money. Streaming services do not pay a fraction of the cost of all of that.
As an independent artist, I am funding all I create myself. It would be nice to have people purchase from sources where the majority of the proceeds come back to me to defray the costs of the next project coming. Streaming does not allow for that.
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, pound sign and a sharp sign in music. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag.
Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
Hashtag and the sharp symbol are two different things. It’s also the symbol for the word “number” and can mean “pound”. Don’t get it twisted. #MusicTheory
Digital vs. vinyl?
Yes! Both have their place. Digital because I can put it on my iPhone and vinyl for the sound and the experience.
My husband and I recently got back into vinyl. Have my entire collection from the 1970’s on and we hooked his turntable up to our Sonos system and now can play vinyl throughout the house. I found myself going back and purchasing some of my favorite music I bought on CD in the 1990’s and 2000’s on Vinyl to enjoy the depth of sound. I even had my single “We Can B Free” and the remix pressed to vinyl!
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
So, I recently downloaded the Captain and Tennille’s “Come In From the Rain” album. I did it for “Easy Evil”, which is a GREAT Jazz tune, but the song “Ladybug” has been showing up on my playlist a lot. “It’s taken such a long, long time to make this very special place” is the line that really sticks with me. That and ‘God is playing hide and seek everywhere you turn.” I think those are both VERY important thoughts as we look at how humans have treated this blue-green space ball hurtling through the universe we all live on.
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
This too shall pass. We have already returned to normal. While the pandemic was a horrific time (and we have not seen the end of it), it provided time for artists to marinate on their next work. For me, it allowed a resurgence in my creativity. I know I am not the only one.
Do you think that Covid-19 has been a plus to an artist career?
Not a plus for the career: a plus for creation of art. By being sequestered away, we were given time to slow down and focus on what matters.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Other than board games and puzzles with my husband, I dug into my home studio. Invested in equipment and created!
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
Yeah, I gained 20 pounds… so perhaps ask someone who was successful in that endeavor! To be fair, we did walk the dogs a lot.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
I hadn’t done puzzles since I was a kid. When I would go visit my mom before she passed, she would always be working on a puzzle. It was nice for my husband and I to keep that hobby alive.
Recently the virus has come back with the Delta outbreak, then you Omicron, which as cause many people in the industry to worry about the future of live music.
How would you like live shows to be held and still keep you and fans safe.
I think Covid is with us to stay. As the variants continue to manifest, they seem to be getting more contagious yet less severe. Just like the flu: wash your hands and take your vitamins. However, I am not a doctor by ANY stretch—I don’t even play one on TV. Please consult your physician for real practical advice.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means thinks like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
SHOULD it be a thing? No. IS it a thing: it can be. What ever happened to patrons of the arts taking an artist in and developing them? Can we please bring that back?
The show Star Trek introduced people to the holodeck: an immersive, realistic 3D holographic projection of a complete environment that you could interact with. Today holograms are already being used in a variety of way, such as medical systems, education, art, security and defense
Performers like Tupac, Michael Jackson, Roy Orbison, Frank Zappa, Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse, Buddy Holly, Ronnie James Dio, Marylin Monroe, and Whitney Houston have done it already. The band ABBA just announced that they will be doing a comeback together after nearly 40 years as holograms on their next tour. With ABBA it was with the help of George Lucas . If the cost was down to the point you could do it also, would you be willing to do Holographic concerts in our living room?
Oh, for sure! How cool to be able to be beamed across the planet without the cost of airfare. And when I am done playing in London, I can go up to my bedroom and cuddle with my dog—also named London!
In the past if a musician stop doing music they find a new career. For example David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants.. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Well, I bill myself as a musician with a day job. I have a source of abundance outside of my music. I create my music for me and hope that it touches enough people’s hearts to sustain me in the long run. But I do love my day job—teaching and training people—as well as my music career.
What is your happy place?
At home with my husband, Tom, and our two dogs London and Paris. Hands down, the best!
Red Hot Chili Peppers are about to sell their entire song catalog for $140 Million. In the past year a lot of musicians such as Stevie Nicks ($100 Million) , Bob Dylan (over $400 Million), Taylor Swift, Journey, Def Leppard, K.T. Tunstall, John Legend, ZZ Top and Shakira have sold their catalog rights within the last year. Bob Dylan sold his entire catalog for a reported $300 million. Neil Young song 50 percent of his worldwide copyright and income interest in his 1,180 song catalogue to Hipnosis Songs Fund limited . Once you get to the age of about 70. Publishing is far more lucrative then the mechanical royalties paid to artist based on sales, airplay and streams. A good example of this is Michael Jackson brought the rights to the Beatles catalog in 1985. And in the late 80’s the Beatles Revolution appeared in a Nike commercial.
The lump sums being offering by publishing firms are more tax friendly concerning estate planning. On January 19, 2021 Hipgnosis Song Management acquired 80% of Kenny Chesney’s recorded music royalties, covering the country superstar’s discography from his 1994 debut In My Wildest Dreams through 2017’s Live in No Shoes Nation.
Someone who was totally against selling his rights was David Crosby. He did not want to sell his publishing rights. In addition, it was not an easy thing for him to do. However, by making a deal with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, it took a big weight off his shoulders. He could pay off his house and cover other bills. Now he does not have to work for a living. It should be noted that David is battling tendinitis in his hands, which hurts his ability to play guitar.
Do you think you would be willing to sale your back catalog if someone like Universal is will to buy everything, such as all the rights to all your songs?
I would consider selling my publishing for a very hefty price—mostly because I am old and have no heirs. …and am missing any hits of any kind. For me it would be different than other artists who may want something to pass on to their heirs. Publishing and licensing is where the only real money is. We don’t make ANYTHING off song sales to the public any more thanks to streaming.
There are many platforms out there that allow artists to get their music heard. Artist Republik, DistroKid, Tunecore & plenty others offer distribution services. These services enable independent artists to put their music on some of the most popular streaming services globally, from Spotify to Apple Music & everything in between. If you’ve been in any part of the music industry in recent years, you probably know someone that has distributed a song.
Spotify reports that in 2021 there are about 8 million artists on the platform. Of those 8 million artists, about 57,000 are raking in a whopping 90% of the total revenue from streams. That means that .71% of the artists on Spotify are making good money. In 2020, there was a total of around $5 billion paid out to artists on the Spotify platform alone. Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that, by the end of 2021, SPOT will be home to over 90 million tracks. And that in the early part of next year, it will surpass a catalog of 100 million for the first time. What do you think what that could mean to independent artist?
It means you can potentially get your music heard but won’t receive anything for it. As I said earlier, I am of two minds about streaming. Potential for exposure for very little financial remuneration.
Over half a billion active users around the world share their favorite music on TikTok either with something like a dance challenge and lip-sync videos or creating a funny skit or candid camera moment. TikTok has became a great platform for music promotion, sharing songs, and finding new listeners. In which it has become a place for music artist to earn revenue when people use their music. Which in many cases the daily promotion on TikTok has led to hug boosts on other platforms like Spotify, Facebook and YouTube. TikTok does this when the algorithm automatically generates a feed of content for each user, which you see as the displaying of #. The more a user engages with content, the smarter TikTok gets at guessing what kind of videos the viewer wants to watch. Asong can go viral because of this. Sony Music and Warner Music Group- , The ByteDance-owned video app revealed that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
I currently use TikTok and am waiting for one of my songs to have a viral dance challenge. Feel free to start one, reader!!
Breaking news: TikTok is launching TikTok Radio, a full-time SiriusXM music channel going live this summer.The station will be available in vehicles and as a streaming channel on the SiriusXM App, desktop, and all connected devices.
Some of the on TikTok include Cassyette, YukoEXE, Ashinikko, Palaye Royale, Josh Dun (Twenty One Pilots), Yungblud, Morrissey, Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Jett, Gene Simmons, and Mick Jagger.
The station will be part of a new TikTok collaboration with SiriusXM and its subsidiary, Pandora, to jointly promote emerging talent. Do you think this platform could became a force in the future of streaming music?
I think TikTok is the new place for people to discover music. When an influencer shares your music, it has the potential to become a viral sensation which drives streams. Yes, I think this has great potential to be a force in the streaming game.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Support independent music! Don’t just buy your music from the big names. There are millions of extremely talented artists with things that will rock your world out there. EXPLORE! …and don’t just stream our work. Support us by buying digital downloads or physical products. It allows us to create more for you. Please know, we are appreciative of your support and we live to create.
