I consider myself an electronic troubadour. I play acoustic guitar but I also use sound design together with electronic textures and composing tools. I write story songs but I love pop melodies and radio hits.”
Photo by Paul Sunday
A musician since childhood whose first band Revival was signed to Buddha Records fresh out of high school, Paul made his first serious foray into songwriting with the band Little Criminals. Their sound was an amalgam of Paul’s hook-laden pop-rock and keyboard player David Lulow’s bluesy jazz-inflected funk. Their tours won them loyal fans throughout the North- and Southeast even as they remained a great live act with no label.
Paul’s solo debut, the vinyl EP Dancin’ Room took his pop to a new, danceable level and vied with Billy Joel for a place on East Coast radio playlists. It also garnered positive reviews like this one in Stereo Review: “Paul Guzzone’s Dancin’ Room is rousing, unpretentious bar-band boogie … good-time, unselfconscious rock-n-roll …”
After years of work as a sideman with such renowned folk artists as Tom Chapin and Tom Rush, a new creative focus was added as Paul began writing music for commercials and corporate events. Creating everything from quirky sound designs to large-scale symphonic pieces he won several awards and became a go-to name in the industry. His pop and rock sensibility served him well as he delivered “industrials” that sounded like hit pop songs. And his range broadened as he worked to satisfy clients’ needs for a variety of musical styles.
Ironically it was a colleague in corporate events, writer Mike Greenly, who pulled Paul back into pop songwriting by asking him to collaborate. The two have now been writing together for nearly a decade.
Paul continues to write and release songs on his own and with a variety of co-writers while remaining active as a producer of acoustic music artists, a respected composer-producer for special events, and bassist-vocalist in the Bacon Brothers band (featuring actor-musician Kevin Bacon and composer-songwriter Michael Bacon).
Paul’s current covers include “I Will Carry You” which placed in the Top 25 on the Billboard Dance Club Charts (recorded by Shara Strand and written with Mike Greenly); “Not Gonna Miss You” recorded by Shara Strand and written with Mike Greenly and the artist; “Give You My Love” recorded by acoustic blues artist Ruthie Foster and written with the artist; and “493 Miles” recorded by the Bacon Brothers and written with Kevin Bacon and the Bacon Brothers band. Another of Paul’s co-writes with Mike Greenly, Everything Happens For a Reason has been translated and recorded by singer Micheal Castaldo and will be released in multiple mixes and in both English and Italian in Spring of 2015