For issue 6, we asked Paul White, illustrator and composer for British TV, to show us a sample of his visual enlightenments.  We were so intrigued, however, we wanted to know more; not just about his overactive imagination but also his debut album ‘The Strange Dreams of Paul White’, which came out in June.

So let’s start easy, what’s the craziest dream that you can remember having?

Paul White: I had a crazy dream about a month ago. (thinks about it) That’s the thing about dreams innit they’re so hard to describe you know. It was more like a feeling than a load of events, but I was just this energy ball. I wasn’t like a person, I’ve never had a dream like that before. I could move in and out of everything, I could walk through anything, I was this weird kinda blue ball of weird light… I’ve never had anything so out of body in a dream before, it was bizarre. And then I remember, this is gonna sound like some hippie out of body experience, I found my body and I was on my knees, kneeling down onto the earth and it felt like this crazy energy was going from above me, through me and into the earth. I’ve never had a dream like that before, it was so crazy! It was all energies. I’ve had dreams of things happening but nothing like that before. And I woke up feeling very… when I woke up I could feel the energies, it was nice, weird but nice.

So for this illustration you’ve done, what was the inspiration? Was there even any inspiration?

PW: I used to draw when I was younger. I got well into acid for two years of my life, and in those two years I used to draw so much, and so this is kind of along the same lines of just drawing anything spontaneous, any old kind of weird feel, mood. There are certain references to dreams, there’s drum machines and there’s water too which is a reference to surfing, which is something I love to do. I always have a recurring dream, I’ve been having it since I was a little kid, about surfing. It’s because I love it and I don’t ever get to do it as I live in London. So I have these weird dreams where everything will be perfect, I’ll be just about to go for a surf, everything will be beautiful, and I’ll get my board, run down to the water and there won’t be any water all of a sudden, or it’ll suddenly be dark or I’ll suddenly have my clothes on. Literally not once in years have I ever surfed in those dreams. I have it all the time.

So you have been surfing then?

PW: Yeah I go every summer, it’s like a tease of sorts. It tortures my soul. So that’s why there are a few little waves at the bottom of the illustration.

What about the faces and people you’ve drawn? There is something about their faces…

PW: I don’t know, I like drawing masks you know?

That’s it. It reminds me of a mask…

PW: I don’t know why, again it’s coming from somewhere inside me you know? I just get visuals of someone’s face, the amount of stuff you can see in a face, I’m just trying to have fun and put it across I guess.

Have you ever had a dream about making a beat? Or about a song or a melody?

PW:  Last night I woke up and I had a beat in my dream, I couldn’t hear it all in my head but I could hear a reminiscence of what it was. And it really did my head in because I thought ‘if I could remember that it would be good.’ The only times when I hear music really clearly is just before I go to bed sometimes. I’m sure maybe there’s some science in that of some chemicals in your brain or something going off just before you go to sleep. I’m not sure, but I’ll hear perfect beats sometimes and it’s really frustrating because you’re knackered lying down and you can hear it. And I’m not the type of artist to hear a whole song, I’ll just hear little melodies and stuff. I’ve heard whole orchestras before but then I thought ‘I’m never going to be able to write that down!’ (laughs) But yeah I have music in my head just before I go to sleep or just as I fall asleep, in the first stages of sleep.

Working with samples do you then just hear like chunks of stuff, like samples in your head?

PW: I don’t know what it is, whether it’s the music I’ve listened to during the day or what but I’ll hear everything not just a loop, massive melodies, a whole orchestral piece, and it really does my head in.

So have you ever felt the urge to wake up and use what you hear?

PW: I’m normally too tired by then! (laughs) So I can never be bothered to act on it which makes it even more frustrating. It’s almost like I’m tricking myself.

So would you agree with the theory that maybe life is a dream and dreaming is reality? That’s it the other way round?

PW: Well I’ve got an open mind to everything, and I’m one of those people who believe the mind is more powerful than anything and so who can tell what’s real and what’s not. Our brain has a way of filtering through things. I completely believe in that, so if more people believe that too, realized that the mind is more powerful than anything, life would be a bit more like a dream and people would probably enjoy it more too. It would take the pressure off things and we could all relax a bit more, not take everything so seriously. So yeah I could easily believe that reality is all in my dreams and all of this is just… that’s why the Matrix is interesting,

Can you remember ever having a soundtrack to a dream or something like that?

PW: I think I have, I remember hearing music lots of times in my dreams but I can’t remember anything precisely. It’s really annoying trying to remember. The smoking’s got me again! (laughs) I never dream about smoking though, never ever. Which is quite weird.

Well the album is called ‘The Strange Dreams of Paul White’ so was that to do with actual dreams or something else?

PW: It’s actually my manager’s idea. He knows I like to work visually, and when I was younger I did art as well as music, and I’ve also done music for TV, and I see it as all the same really. He knew that and he knows I like ideas, moods, atmospheres, so that’s where the idea for the strange dreams title came from really.

It’s a perfect title really, the album is ephemeral and it’s got a dream like quality. We were talking about soundtracking dreams, I can see how tracks from your album would be a good soundtrack for a dream. Going back to the art thing, you said you did visual arts before is that right?

PW: Yeah drawing and also writing, anything creative to an extent. I’ve very much been into art for a long time, and I never knew whether or not I wanted to do art or music until I was 16, I liked them both just the same and then gradually one took over and I moved towards music.

So how is it moving from drum machines to drum kits?

PW: Very bizarre, it feels like the wrong way around. I’ve got beats in my head but I can’t get them out at all on a drum kit, so I’m like ‘what the hell is going on?!’ I’ll get a kick and a snare but nothing more sometimes. It’s really hypnotic though, which I guess is what music is you know? It’s like a dream, you’re sitting there and you’re going somewhere else. There are certain tracks that have really given me this feeling of being in a dream when I made them. One of the first 7”s I released, ‘A Silent Cry’, that track just made itself. It’s the strongest one where I really felt something had just happened and it just came out. It was just done and I didn’t even know what had happened, the process was blurry.

It’s an interesting idea…

PW: I don’t know what it is. You’ll have a sample and you’ll pick up the first record out of a thousand, drop the needle down on the first thing and it happens. For ‘A Silent Cry’ for example I had a beat going on, picked up a random record, put the needle down and it hit on this orchestral vocal and it just felt right, I was like ‘ok I didn’t look for that’ it was just all strange and it continued to happen with every element in the track and that was it. Within an hour I was playing it back and I was thinking ‘I don’t remember doing any of that!’ It was pretty weird. A nice feeling though, if only it was always like that! (laughs) 

www.paulwhitemusic.co.uk

Words: Laurent Fintoni