It’s a fine art to sit in the groove and not be “in the way of it” according to musician Paul Woolright.
Something Paul needs, as a bass player, to click in with the groove is a really good drummer.
Paul describes it as someone who “just sits in with you” and lays down the groove as the rhythm section, he said.
He called it a pulse.
“I love that, making that groove dynamically in its place.”
The Paeroa man and wife Frances moved to the area from Titirangi in 2017. The couple have travelled everywhere, and even lived in London for 14 years.
And while Paul said it would still be nice to travel, they were happy in their little corner of the world.
“It’s nice to come home to Paeroa. I love it here. I love the people. I love the quietness.”
Paul even joined the golf club, which gave him a whole new social aspect of friendship, exercise and fun, he said.
But his biggest passion was music. Paul has been part of the music world since his youth, when he and a neighbour were “just young guys just mucking around” and playing the guitar, he said.
“But I was never comfortable on the six strings.”
He was around 15 years old when he shifted in with someone who had a bass guitar, he said.
“So I just picked that up… [I] felt comfortable with the bass,” he said, and the rest was history.
But music wasn’t just something he played within the four walls of his home.
Paul went on to make and play music, touring the world in bands such as Ticket, Pink Flamingos, The Legionnaires – and can still be seen and heard grooving on the bass in the iconic Hello Sailor.
Paul said Hello Sailor was a bunch of brothers who had been together for a long time.
They recently wrapped up their Hello Sailor Whirled Tour in December and will celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary later this year.
One thing Paul was blown away by was hearing people sing their songs back to them, and people coming up to talk to them between sets and after shows.
And there were many memorable times while touring, such as Tom Jones calling out to Paul and the band as they headed on stage for a performance, or sharing a drink backstage with Dire Straits, he said.
But it’s clear rubbing shoulders with international superstars and playing to big crowds hasn’t changed who Paul is.
Sometimes after performing a big show, Paul would head home and the next morning he’d be outside mowing his lawn, and then off to the supermarket for groceries, he said.
According to Paul, music was like anything in life – “it just happens”.
“Some days are good, some days are tough,” he said.
But the best thing about playing music was that even the worst days were beautiful, he said.
“You’re trying to share that thing, that moment because it’s so good playing [music],” he said.
“If you get that thing, oh, it’s fantastic. You can’t beat it.”
It was important to Paul to create spaces where the music “builds up and comes back down”, he said.
As a bass player, he loved working with drummers to “make that groove bigger” when there was intensity in another musician’s solo, and then dropping it back down while still maintaining the groove, he said.
He’s played music with his friend and Hello Sailor drummer, Ricky Ball, for 30 years.
“We know each other. We know every breath really when we’re playing. I know what he’s going to do and he knows what I’m going to do, or how I’m going to do it dynamically,” Paul said.
Paul called the pair “the engine room”.
His advice for other musicians was to “practice, practice, practice”.
“Play with your heart. Get a metronome, and practice.”
It’s like developing a musical ear, and technical ability, he said.
“Just play, keep it simple… and everything will come from that.”
