Paul Seidler plays guitar in So Long Goodnight and The Dick Beldings, and is widely understood within the Echo Play Live ranks as the band's resident wordsmith. He is the guy who can spin three sentences of bardic prose about a 90s alternative cover and then close out the answer with "because it rocks," straight-faced, with perfect timing. That mix runs through everything Paul does on stage. He plays the songs with care and accuracy, then layers on the kind of stage presence that makes an audience grin without knowing exactly why.
In conversation about playing live, Paul's compass points the same direction as his bandmates'. The moment, the room, the people in front of him. He just describes it more memorably. For Paul, a great show is a "communion with like-minded souls and adventurers in this sea of unknown that is life," ending in rock and roll. A great tribute set is "adherence to the tenets of: to imitate is to exalt." A favorite song to play is "Say It Ain't So." Because it rocks.
Read the full interview with Paul
What first pulled you into music?
The spatial gyrations of ancient Furies that beckoned me with sweet song — and the sirens of ages past that spoke to me. Intriguing to me. Beckoning me to explore the world. Nay, to take in the world. In my very being.
What has music given you that nothing else really has?
The opportunity to express and display my innermost wants and desires in a venue or arena that is welcoming, and that accepts me for who I am. And a vast canvas to decorate time, as the ancients have said.
What do you feel like you bring to the band?
The incessant wit of a Louis-type. And the consternation of a Tommy Lee Jones determined to break barriers and conquer vast wastelands.
What do you care about most when you're performing live?
I care about intriguing to the masses. A communal essence — voyeuristic at times, but also a jubilant co-inhabitation of this existence that we all share.
What do you want the crowd to feel when they watch you perform?
An existential adulation of euphoria that is likened to the first time they've ever eaten an apple. Beheld a work of crisis art hung in a pristine yet chilly museum.
What is one song you always look forward to playing live, and why?
"Say It Ain't So." Because it rocks.
What separates a decent show from a great show?
A decent show contains mere mortals enjoying the cacophony of spiritual and physical communion with musical instruments to the betterment of all contained.
A great show is that — but everybody liquored up.
What makes a great cover or tribute performance?
Adherence to the tenets of: to imitate is to exalt. And a perseverance through the changing, waving time signatures, keys, notes, chords — and to dive into the sea of the spirit of what the previous artist was trying to convey.
What is harder than people realize about playing this kind of music well?
The selflessness of taking time to pour blood, sweat, and tears into the bedrock — nay, the very soil — that is, some would say, civilization. And being able to peer into the soul, and break through the window into what it is to be human.
What does being part of Echo Play Live mean to you?
A wondrous enjoyment of brotherly love. Communion with like-minded souls and adventurers in this sea of unknown that is life. That one can feel comfortable in releasing fears, doubts — knowing that others within the room, within the band, will not only understand, but accept and help pursue those feelings to their natural endings. Which is rock and roll.
What can people expect when they come to one of our shows?
An effervescent celebration of the human spirit that exemplifies all that is good that the human race could be — if they so chose.
What would you say to someone who has never seen one of our shows before?
Although not necessary for the sustaining of life — woe to them, for they have not beholden the pure joy and raucous gyrations that not only enhance, or could enhance, their being. But could open their very third eye.