(From DCist contributor Colleen Clark)

On first listen, it's hard to believe the album "These Are All Beautiful Things" was birthed from Paul Michel, a D.C.-based musician weaned on flamenco guitar, high school jazz and years with metal and hardcore bands.

But give it another spin and you'll get it. This is the album of a guy with musical chops -- he plays all the instruments and plays them well -- who has the restraint to use them in the service of crafting a good pop song. And Paul's hardcore history means the percussive elements of the songs are not a singer-songwriter's afterthought, but a propulsive force that dirties up the pretty melodies.

We grabbed coffee with Paul (who's playing Fort Reno come Monday) at Sparky's to chat about death, art and the cross he bears with his Thom Yorke voice - you know, the light stuff.

DCist: You've played in a lot of other bands. How did you end up deciding to go solo?

Paul: I kept on writing this poppy stuff and not finding a place for it, especially in D.C. [My previous band] The Out Circuit was a really neat arty, ethereal, delay-y band, and it was really really cool, but it also didn't fit with the D.C. sound. I keep finding myself in these places where I'm not part of the D.C. sound per se.

DCist: Have you found a place for your sound now?

Paul: The environment has kind of come around. I'm finding more people who are doing the same stuff that I'm doing: the singer-songwriter-y, more poppy stuff. It's more melodic music. So I guess I found more of a niche, but it also seems that the Dischord-y part of D.C. is not as prominent as it was when I first got here.

DCist: Do you think that's a theme in indie rock in general right now -- the turn towards the melodic -- or do you think that D.C. is just now opening up to that kind of indie rock?

Paul: I think part of it is that the indie scene has been co-opted by commercial interests a little bit. Indie rock is making people money, and so of course it's going to go more cheeseball, very bubblegum-type stuff and that's part of it. But another part of it -- especially in D.C. -- is a sort of a backlash to the really aggressive stuff. I like the hardcore bands, the bands I played in when I was younger, all gross and distorted and screamy. But as people kind of grow up, a lot of stuff has come back around because people are different. Especially in DC, it's kind of nice to have something very pleasing to the ears after this very rhythmic, screamy sound.

DCist: How is the process of constructing an album different now that you're all on your own?

Paul: I was a control freak before, and I would irritate other people. Now I only have myself to irritate. So that's better. The interesting thing about a band is that you have different egos involved and that can be good. Tension is good too. But especially with underdeveloped, DIY kinds of players, they tend to play too much.

Being my own entity, being able to go from the conception stages to the actual recording stages by myself, I can make the whole process more efficient and I don't have to feel bad about asking someone to not play.

One thing that always stuck in my mind -- I can't remember the exact quote, I think it's Miles Davis -- is that music is not notes, music is not sounds, but rather the space between sound. I think a lot of people see it as "the more playing the better, the more aggressive the better." I like being able to have these places to build upon melody and build upon these spatial concepts.

DCist: Give the music space to breathe?

Paul: Yeah, exactly.

DCist: How do you negotiate those issues when you play live and need a band backing you?

Paul: I've had a series of bands so far this year. It's kind of neat for me because I get to play with a lot of different people. However, it's also really frustrating because people are in a billion other bands, and it's hard to ask someone to do something for you when they're not creatively involved in it in terms of input.

DCist: Have you found the songs growing as a result of the live performances and the variety of playing with that many musicians?

Paul: With the last band, it was really neat because we played really, really well. You get to feel a new part of the songs. Before it was like a textual thing for me -- building, construction -- but playing out live it becomes a visceral thing. It's two very different places: one is a lot of head, one's a lot of heart. When we play it live, it's more organic to a certain extent, more fluid. Another good thing about this process is that I've had to play a lot by myself. I realize that I've been less nervous playing by myself than I have been playing with a band before. It's an odd thing to feel because I realized something about myself -- the control freak in me.

DCist: You're not worrying about what everyone else is gonna fuck up?

Paul: Exactly. It's neat to explore that different part of the song, to actually strip it down, the guitar and vocals, and relate to it emotionally that way. Then it becomes a lyrical thing more so than a song construction. It's neat to reflect on each of those different ways of conceiving of something as basic as a pop song.

DCist: The record seems to vacillate lyrically between the world-weary and the hopeful. Is this a coming of age sort of record for you?

Paul: I'm a little bipolar, so I'm sure that's reflected in there (laughs). I wrote the album over the course of eight months, approaching different songs at different points, in different mindframes. It has to be half-assed because you have to do it in your room -- but creating something new and neat and actually accomplishing something, there's a sense of hope in the act of doing it.

The other part is that I'm a grandfather at the age of 28 in the music industry. I go to Pinback shows, and I'm in the upper 15th percentile of the audience age-wise - that's part of it too, is this whole maturation process. Hopefully it's reflected in the song construction, that they're more mature and well written, well constructed songs. But also just approaching death and to accomplish something before that happens. ... If we didn't know death, we would have no sense of urgency. So death is tied into the drive to accomplish -- find love, find contentment in what you do, find a certain modicum of stability in how you interact with everything. You're hopeful that it'll all turn out, that you won't die poor and alone. But the other thing is that you will die alone but knowing that you've left some sort of trail already. That's a neat little paradox.

DCist: How often do you get the Thom Yorke comparison?

Paul: All the time. I taught myself how to sing -- I've been playing guitar since I was 11, but I've only been singing since I was 19 or 20. I listened to a lot of hardcore at the time but when I thought about singing, I'd play Jeff Buckley and Radiohead records and try to sign along. Granted you learn certain inflections with how you approach that. It's the same way with learning anything from a certain teacher. It's not that I'd want to emulate Radiohead. I mean that just happens.

But it kind of sucks for me - especially with Thom Yorke because he's such a polarizing figure and the idea of Radiohead has gotten so big...where people dislike it for being passé or whatever. But it's just the way I learned.

DCist: So your next stop is a solo gig at Fort Reno?

Paul: I love Fort Reno more than anything in D.C. It's something very free and very un-D.C. People are relaxed - it's just very open. People sit outside and eat dinner -- all the punk rock parents who can't go to Black Cat anymore.

DCist: I've noticed there are a lot of music-related things cropping up in the DC area that appeal to music-minded parents.

Paul: I think that's a lot of the Fugazi effort ending and Dischord having to redefine itself. The people who used to spearhead that stuff are finding new outlets for their creativity that reflect where they are and who they are at this point in time. And that's great for the whole music scene in general -- to help us realize that music is not just about playing in front of your friends and going to the Black Cat but that it's about the whole experience and how it grows along with you.

DCist: A lot of musicians seem to work at Saint Ex (Rube from Monopoli, Patrick Mucklow from City Goats, etc.)? Is this just a coincidence? Proximity to Black Cat? Music-friendly owners?

Paul: It's really odd that it happened that way. Saint Ex is such an amazing place - and not just because I work there and my friends are there. The owner Mike Benson is a photographer. He did stuff for Rolling Stone, he did the HFStival, he's done stuff at 9:30 club. He has pictures of him with Chris Martin and fucking Robert Smith. From the top down, everyone is related to music in some way. ... It's a really neat neat family, from people that play music to people that just love it.

It's not frustrated band people like at the Black Cat where everyone has been in a failed band and they're all really unhappy about it. I mean some of them are in good bands now. But at Saint Ex, none of it is negative. Everyone there is fairly positive and to use a horrible horrible word, proactive. All of us are in actual working and viable bands. We work a lot -- I worked about 50 hours last week -- but I spend about an equal amount of time doing music. Everyone there is that dedicated. People actually go there cause they enjoy it. It's a coincidence, but it worked out well.

DCist: You've mentioned that you're into Pedro the Lion. We can definitely see that influence conceptually -- some of the hope and mortality tropes that you deal with on the record seem to resonate with what people like Pedro the Lion and Sufjan Stevens do with the religious themes on their albums.

Paul: It's more about the idea of faith. I'm very much not a religious person. But I'd rather listen to Pedro the Lion sing about God for 45 minutes than see whatever band sing about how much they hate Bush for 45 minutes. It's not that I like Bush or not that I'm a really big fan of God. One represents something that is a belief - bands like Pedro the Lion talk not just about believing in God but also a struggle with the idea of the infinite. And that's awesome because you're seeing someone struggle with their innermost self. To hear someone saying how much they hate Bush can be very shallow. Politics is a reflection of what certain beliefs are. Those [Bush-hating] songs are a very trite way of codifying it. ... It's not about singing about healthcare, it's about singing about the fact that you want the best things for everyone, about how we connect to everyone, about how we reach out.

We have to get to the core of what politics are and that's more reflective of what Pedro the Lion and Sufjan Stevens do in terms of religion. It's all about the ability to be self-reflective. Placing the blame is a negative thing. Self reflection is a way to make it positive. And that's what I'd rather hear any day.

DCist: It's interesting to think about that perspective on politics and how our political lives here in D.C. affect how we make art.

Paul: I used to work for the non-profit Public Citizen. I was very much about legislation and lobbying and the pharmaceutical companies are doing this and the automakers are doing that. But I would never sing about how Firestone should have recalled three million tires before people started to die. It doesn't get to the root of the problem. But the reality is that's the everyday life of people that live and work there. I can't blame anyone for writing about something that is part of their everyday life. However, I feel like you can say that people should reach deeper into their collective souls and find something that isn't just about D.C. but about what is.

DCist: I'm out of questions.

Paul: Good, 'cause I think I'm about to have a heart attack from all this caffeine.

(Image taken from pmichel.com)