Paul graduated with a First Class Honours in BA Applied Music from the University of Strathclyde before moving on to study an MMus in Composition for Screen at London’s Royal college of Music, where he graduated with Distinction. Paul has composed numerous award-winning soundtracks and assisted such composers as George Fenton and Kevin Kaska. Paul maintains a busy schedule between teaching, writing and conducting. His original music has been heard throughout the UK and Europe as well as the USA and Australia.

Whilst his first-study instrument is tuba, Paul has always been a keen piano player and as a teenager took great joy in learning the piano/keyboard parts of his favourite pop/rock songs, from Led Zeppelin to Elton John to Deep Purple. His first introduction to The Beatles was as an 11 year-old:

“I remember my dad buying the ‘1’ album when it was released in 2000 and hearing The Beatles for the first time. Hearing these songs was a revelation - each song on that album is better than the last one! I listened to Let It Be and Hey Jude a lot. I think the prominent piano parts initially hooked me in and it was around then I began to realise that playing the piano didn’t have to just be about learning music written by people who had died 300-odd years ago. A couple of years later I remember sitting patiently as my ADSL broadband took 90 minutes to download Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…I don’t think I listened to anything else for the next 6 weeks. My love of The Beatles was secured. Being involved in ‘Across The Universe’ has been an adventure from the start. Songs I thought I knew really well began to reveal so much detail when I listened with a very surgical ear. The experience has given me a whole new appreciation of just how talented these 4 musicians were; the writing is second-to-none and George Martin’s arrangements and production are absolutely world class. The world is lucky to have had The Beatles and I feel very lucky to be playing this music live. I hope you enjoy it as much as we’ve enjoyed rehearsing it.”