Interview with Rock Camp Teacher Paul Collins

A brief interview with Paul Collins about his tales with Beirut.

How did you meet Zach Condon?

Paul: I was doing a concert called the Get Awesome Fest with some friends and he played at it. He was just playing a trumpet with his laptop playing the beats and he was singing over it all by himself. I thought he was fantastic, so I told him I thought he was great and that I could introduce him to people and book shows for him. I ended up being kind of like his defacto-promoter, I guess you could say or manager, early on and that's how I met him.

When did you decide you wanted to play music together?

Paul: Basically Zach ended up getting a record deal because this guy heard his demo, who had sent it to a friend at a record label, he got signed to this little label and they wanted him to play this annual music festival called South by South West in Austin. So he needed to have a band essentially. He knew of one guy, who he worked at this ice cream shop with, but he didn't have a drummer or anything like that so I hooked him up with my friend Nick to play drums. And then I just kind of ended up being in the band.

What was the first instrument you played in Beirut?

Paul: Well the first thing that I played was the tambourine. Actually it was my first show with the band and I just showed up in a horse outfit.

What was it like touring?

Paul: It was awesome, but when we first started it was kind of primitive. We just got in the van and saw how it worked. And there was a lot of us, all with different types of personalities. There's one guy who can't sit down for more than five minutes without taking his shirt off, and he's really hairy. Some people are loud and some people are quiet, it's this crazy mixture of people.

How many people are in the band right now?

Paul: Right now there's seven or eight.... I think there's seven permanent members and then it gets up to around ten..eleven..twelve maybe. One time we had a huge horn section and there was like twenty people on stage.

What are all the instruments you play in Beirut?

Paul: (tambourine) Ukulele, keyboards, trumpet, electric bass, bouzouki (a big mandolin like instrument), and I'm sure there's other stuff.

What does the new CD (The Flying Cup Club) sound like?

Paul: The first album is really dark, mysterious, very grainy and what not. And this album is a lot more flamboyant, for lack of a better term. It's really French and based around what I see as a jazzy band set up with a lot of organs, accordions, and Zach's warbely vocals.

Does it sound anything like Gulag Orkestar?

Paul: Um, my dad thinks it does, but I think it's way different then the last album. Still, it gives off that same feeling of nostalgia when you listen to it though.

Were you on the EP (Lon Gisland)?

Paul: Yes, I played bass on the last track called Carousels. Which I'm very proud of, I love how it sounds, but I'm listed as playing stuff on the album that I don't actually play except when live.
Like I would never play electric bass live, so I didn't get listed as playing that.

What are your thoughts on the Rock n' Roll Camp?

Paul: I just hope everyone here has fun and I hope that everyone I meet here feels free to experiment more than I did when I was younger.