Paul has been a writer, contributor and/or staff member for The Big Takeover since the early 1990s. He has interviewed The Church, Matthew Good, Vancouver’s Readymade, Secret Shine, The Dears, producer Warne Livesey, co-interviewed Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and For Against, and his written countless record reviews. He is a native Midwesterner, having been born and raised in Detroit before living in Chicago for 11 years. He now resides with his wife and two young boys in Spokane, Washington, where he is in his seventh year of elementary and middle school teaching following a 15 year-career as a disaffected attorney. Apart from loving and veritably living for great music, he has run eight marathons, coaches soccer and loves to read great books.
Pennsylvania’s Matthew Ryan recently released his 13th record, the poignantly affecting, I Recall Standing As Though Nothing Could Fall. He is a singer-songwriter whose craft has deepened with each release, striving to find what it is to be American, to be alive in these times.