PAUL COLLICA’S BREAKOUT YEAR

By Ruth Bashinsky

Thursday, 30 June 2011 16:03

Paul Collica was six years old when he got his first guitar. A small-scale Breckinridge acoustic that he remembers in a beautiful slop brown color. Collica and his Breckinridge bonded immediately. “I played it so much that I wore down the frets and put dents in the fingerboard,” he says. At age 8 he moved onto a Westbury. His first electric guitar. It didn’t matter much that the guitar had a matching amp and barely stayed in tune. More than three decades later, Collica is still falling hard for the string instrument. However, these days he has his guitars built to spec. The one he plays now is a variation of the Stratocasters and Telecaster that he digs a lot and calls “extremely versatile and reliable.”

On a recent Friday night at Crash Mansion on Manhattan’s lower East Side, fans got to see this intense connection the songwriter/musician has with his guitar as he played and sang his soulful lyrics from his new solo album “It's Not Me … It’s You.”

“Oh Now”
“You never hear a word I am saying.
Oh Now.
“It’s not a game I feel like playing … now.”
“It’s too late now.”
“Medicate Me.”

The album, which features eleven songs, was a true labor of love for this Long Island native who spent four years working on the soundtrack at his home studio and at Avatar Recording Studios in New York City with music producer Justin Gerrish (Vampire Weekend, Weezer, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.) “On the album, I play guitar, bass, drums, percussion and piano/synthesizer; I sing all the vocal parts and harmonies. I also engineered the majority of the recordings.”

For Collica, music has always been an integral part of his life. The last six years he has been the primary guitarist and sometimes singer of the 80’s cover band, the Gilfords. The band plays regularly at Prohibition on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Between gigs, he writes television commercial music for some well-known publications including, Allure Magazine and Conde Nast.

Working solo on the album has been a cathartic journey that Collica describes as “immensely satisfying.”

“In 2007, I was suddenly not in an original band but still had the desire to be creative. After writing the first batch of songs, I realized that I no longer had to write with any rules in mind: no style to consider, no individual preference to entertain and no drama. I could work on any idea for as long as I wanted. This freedom pushed me to discover the answer to: ‘What does my music sound like?’ I was as surprised by the answer as anyone because I had no idea what was going to come out every time I sat down to write. It was very exciting to watch it come together.”

Today Collica is enjoying his dual music career as a band member with the Gilfords, having fun playing music popularized by other artists while also nurturing his own musical aspirations. “ My album is about making new connections through the music I have written.”

Clearly, his lyrics are already making an impact. “Someone at a show recently told me that they like my music ‘because you write the way I feel.’ I think that’s about the highest compliment a songwriter can be given. If people can enjoy it, see something of themselves in it, identify or make a connection with it in some way without getting too fruity about it, I’ve done my job as an artist.”

Back at Crash Mansion Collica is completely immersed in the music and in sync with his band members – bassist Rich Guerzon, rhythm guitarist Domenic LaRosa and drummer Steve Murro.

When his 45-minute gig finally comes to an applause-filled halt, Collica looks out at the crowd and smiles taking it all in. “It was an incredible experience. At the end, I remember thinking, ‘that’s it! It went so fast. I want to do it all over again!’”

Collica’s album is available on iTunes. If you’d like to catch him live he will be performing at the Bowery Electric (327 Bowery at Second St., NYC) July 8th at 8:00 p.m. or check out his website (www.paulcollica.com) for other upcoming show dates.