Paul E Flynn
Q & A
What is the most humiliating thing you have ever done in public?
In a club in Glasgow once, I was trying to get from the table to the toilets. I stood up and suddenly felt a bit funny. Trying to maintain the look, I tried to go round the dance floor. But suddenly I felt a lot worse and ran right through the middle with my hand over my mouth. It was like parting the Dead Sea. Pretty disgusting!
Would you ever streak?
Of course! I’ve done it before. It wasn’t so much a dare as a bunch of guys getting together and deciding, “That’s it! We’re going to run down this road without our clothes!”
If you weren’t a musician, would you still go to festivals?
Definitely. The main thing is that you have to be into the music. I loved Oppikoppi, we played really early, so the rest of the time I was just like another punter. It was great.
Who would you want to be stranded on a desert island with?
If it has to be one person, then it may as well be a female, and it may as well be someone who is similar to you, so, yeah, at the end of the day, I’d have to plump for Cameron Diaz!
Do you watch soppy movies?
Yeah! Big time. Sometimes it’s cool to go to the films and decide not to watch the Bruce Willis but to go to the Michelle Pfeiffer instead, just as something different. And then the next minute you’re howling away in the cinema. You can’t be dead hard all the time, you know!
What books have you read recently?
Secrets of Apartheid’s Assassins, by Charl Pauw, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, On the Road and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I try to read at least one book a month. I like historical stuff, anything with spies in it, road books, anything really!
Can you read music?
No. Actually I should learn, particularly because I want to learn to play piano. From a song-writing point of view it is helpful if you can read music.
Do your parents approve of what you do?
When I first started, when I was still at university, I wanted to quit and they said I shouldn’t. They gave me the usual advice and I finished university. After I had been working for a year or two, I went to speak to them before I decided to quit my job and go into music full time. Since then they have been very supportive. They even like the music. Well, I suppose they have to say that.
What do you say if you see a girl you fancy in a bar?
Uh … I don’t have any lines. I suppose you go over and try to buy her a drink and get a couple of sentences in before you get brushed off. I think the trick is to show you have a sense of humour. I’m very bad at chasing women. That’s why I chose this career. Supposedly, there is no need for introductions. It sounds terrible to say that, but it’s kinda cool in a way.
Who first told you that you could sing?
What do you mean “first”? No one ever told me that! I went in to singing because I had so many ideas and that seemed the best way of getting them done. I don’t really claim to be able to sing that well. I think the best I could say about myself is that it’s my voice and by and large, it doesn’t sound like anybody else.
Sugardrive lead singer Paul E Flynn spoke to Dave Chislett