When Paul and I met many years ago, he seemed to be my antithesis. I was taken aback with the leisure at which he practiced our craft and I was amused by his apparent apathy to arranging and production. At the same time, I was greatly impressed by the depth of his lyrics and the emotion he found to sing them. As we worked together and more and more of the principal songwriting burden came off his shoulders, I realized that what I saw as leisurely songwriting was actually a search for exactly the right thing to say, far deeper than a readily-understood cliché’. When I fumed and battled for just the right arrangement, he was actually just letting the song itself tell us how it wanted to be played. I believe that as we began writing “Falling Up” and the songs began to flow prolifically (we wrote much of it in a Nashville studio), we had finally come around to his way of making music, neither contrived nor overly intellectual.

As to the question “Who is Paul Moeller?” I will say only this: Paul is himself and that he is ever evolving. I cold mention deep discussions of conspiracies, a brush with Bigfoot, a drunken late-night romp through a country club, a camping trip with twenty lesbians and a painting that only makes sense lying on one’s back. Or, I could tell you that he gives the equivalent of dialysis to one of his cats, encouraged the rest of us to learn to sing with him and found a way to be my best critic. I’m not certain that I have in any way shed light on a very complicated man but I like this approach better. In many ways Paul is more than my friend and band-mate. To others he may be very different things. In any instance, I think the best way to really see him is from your favorite vantage: horizontally, vertically, sideways or in a mirror. Whatever the image, it promises to be both familiar as your own reflection and far from usual.

--John Shiner