Paulo Ward is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, DJ, and audio engineer. He’s spent years working behind the scenes in studios with many artists. Growing up in a poor household in New Jersey, Paulo found joy in listening to the vinyl of bands like the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Motown classics with his father while gazing at the NYC skyline. This shaped and influenced his music. Paulo started out playing drums for his dad’s friend’s punk band after they lost their drummer. He played his first gig at 10 years old. In high school Paulo’s love for music grew. He sold his lunch to other students in order to save up for used vinyl and instruments at local pawnshops. In 2020, Paulo starting working at Fogwood Records as a session musician, producer, talent manager, and audio engineer. Paulo has since decided to release demos originally meant to shop to other artists and finally take one small step out of the shadows with a newly formed band Paulo and the Problems.
With the single, “First of the Month,” out now, we took some time to hear from Paulo and the Problems. Read below to learn more about Paulo and the Problems, the story behind “First of the Month,” and what’s to come.
Hi Paulo and the Problems! Let’s start with how did you get your artist name?
Paulo and the Problems comes from my personal artist name, Paulo Ward. The name is kind of a funny story. My legal name is so generic that I noticed that people were having a hard time finding my music online, so when I decided to come up with something new and unique, I remembered something that happened to me when I was in high school. It was when I was working my first job and filed my taxes for the first time. I was mailed my refund check and the name it was made out to was ‘Paulo Ward.’ I thought maybe that I got the wrong check in the mail and googled the name, and couldn’t find anything. After a long process, I found out that it was just a clerical error. Since I wasn’t able to find anything at all online when searching, I figured it’d help make me easy to find if someone searched for my music.
What city are you from and where are you based now?
I grew up in New Jersey. We moved around a bit, but it was mostly in and around Newark. I’m currently living in Raleigh, NC with my wife and daughter.
At what point in your life did you decide to pursue a career in music? How did you get started?
I think it just kind of happened. I’ve been a musician for as long as I can remember. My first year in college, my best friend was really into producing beats for rappers. He’d started asking me to record guitar, bass, and drums for him, so we could avoid using samples. Eventually, it led to me becoming more and more involved in the whole process, and by the time we graduated, we were making really good money selling beats and we ended up opening a studio, and did that full time for years. We got burned out eventually since most of the paying jobs were in genres that we didn’t really care for, and I took a break from making music professionally for years and just enjoyed doing it for fun. In 2020, my wife noticed that I wasn’t being fulfilled in my day job and convinced me to quit and go back to making music. I ended up at Fogwood Records as an audio engineer, session player, and producer and loved it, and eventually was convinced to not just work on other artist’s songs, but also do my own.
Has your upbringing played a role in shaping who you are and defining your sound today? If so, how?
Yeah, absolutely. I think there are two main things from my upbringing that shaped my sound. First would be my parents. Neither were musicians themselves, but they both loved music. We went to concerts whenever we could afford it, and my dad and I would sit down and pick out a record from his collection to listen to almost every night. He’d tell me who all the musicians were, the producers, what studio they were recorded in and all of that stuff, and I was always fascinated by it. We listened to bands like the Beatles, Beach Boys, and everything from Motown. I think the other thing was from growing up in neighborhoods that were very diverse. While my parents introduced me to all classic bands from the 60s and 70s, I was finding all the new stuff like Nirvana and A Tribe Called Quest, Japanese City Pop, or Latin music like Bossa Nova from friends.
How would you describe your sound to readers who may not be familiar with you?
I always struggle a little with this question, but I try to really bring together all the music that’s influenced me throughout the years. Classic R&B is my favorite genre, so that tends to be the strongest you hear, but there’s also a lot of more modern sounding Hip-Hop with a little bit of Rock mixed in.
Do you have any hobbies outside of music? What do you do to stay creative?
Other than music, my main hobby is hockey. I’ve played my entire life and played at a pretty high level until a major injury when I was 18. I still play about three times a week. As far as staying creative, I don’t really do anything special. Since I’ve been fortunate enough to make a living off of music, I noticed the best thing that you can do is make time for it everyday. When you do that, it just becomes a part of who you are. Being creative just becomes routine and you don’t really have to worry about blocks.
Who are some of your main musical influences?
It’s hard to narrow this down, but I’ll try. If I had to pick just a few, I’d say Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Marcos Valle, Lenny Kravitz, Rod Temperton, and Prince.
What are some of your future music career goals?
I think I’ve accomplished a lot as a producer and songwriter for other artists. I think for the future, I’d like to see how far I can take this music with Paulo and the Problems. I’ve never really enjoyed being the center of attention, so I don’t really put myself out there much. I’ve really enjoyed this project though, so I want to put some pressure on myself to stop being so shy.
What’s one of the proudest moments of your music career so far?
Any time a fan really gets the song. Music and art is so personal and a lot of times artists use it as a form of therapy, so a lot of times you write a song to help you deal with some deep emotions. There have been a couple times that I’ve had fans reach out to me to tell me how that song touched them in the same way and that makes it really feel like you’re making an impact.
What would you say are the greatest lessons that you’ve learned so far?
I think it would just be to take your ego out of music. When I was younger, I always wanted to prove myself and how good I could be, and it always led to me doing too much. Now that I’ve matured some, I realized nobody cares about that stuff. Bigger isn’t always better, and I realized sometimes a piano and single lead vocal can make just as big of an impact as a song with a full orchestral behind the rhythm section.
Now onto your release, ‘First of the Month.’ What inspired this song?
This is the first single of our upcoming album, Stupid Sexy Paulo. For this song (and the album), I was really trying to create something that’s a little more raw, sexy, and funky, kind of similar to George Clinton, but with a little bit of Steely Dan all while having a modern feel to it.
What is ‘First of the Month’ about?
At its core, it’s just really a fun song about someone pursuing a love interest.
What is your favorite lyric in ‘First of the Month’ and why?
The lyrics were by our featured artist and Fogwood Records label mate Saynave. My favorite lyrics is what he starts the song off with ‘I ain’t know you work it like that, skinny ‘til you turn to the back. Sorry I ain’t know how to act I just wanna ask your momma how the hell she did that.’ I think it just shows how he’s able to make a fun tongue in cheek song that doesn’t take itself too seriously while having some really clever lyrics.
Is there a music video accompanying this release?
I’ve been not so quietly trying to make my dog Nico our mascot, so for this album I made four animated music videos for each single and the focus track. ‘First of the Month’ can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CImytq0qW7M.
What message do you hope fans take away from your music and from ‘First of the Month?’
This song is really just meant to be fun and make you feel good when you hear it. You can go deeper than that if you want, but the main takeaway hopefully is that.
What’s next for you? Are you working on any upcoming projects, or do you have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
There’s a lot coming up. As I mentioned earlier, this is the first single from our upcoming album that will be released on the 11th of July. If any reader is interested, they can preorder here https://pauloandtheproblems.bandcamp.com/album/stupid-sexy-paulo.
After that, I have a collaborative album with label mate Mekfly called Mekfly and the Problems and another one with label mate Saynave who’s featured on this song, but the main focus will be Stupid Sexy Paulo for the time being.
Where can we follow you on social media?
https://www.instagram.com/paulowardo/
Or streaming:
https://lnk.to/firstofthemonth
Thank you for the great interview; wish you much continued success!
