To steal shamelessly from the Lost Dogs Of Ulitimo (great name btw) book of faces , “Pauli is a composer musician producer activist creating experimental electronic punk reggae ska music.”
The aim of the the Lost Dogs project is collaboration between Alternative & Independent musicians sound engineers filmmakers & activists. No boundaries are observed and experimentaion is the order of the day.
Pauli joins us At The Barrier to tell us why The Specials are so special.
My name is Pauli and I play in the Lost Dogs Of Ultimo. I was born in Australia to English parents that migrated out in the 60s but we moved back to the UK which was a slight culture shock from sunny sandy beaches to growing up in Manchester. This had some challenges but I soon adapted. The main things I used to connect was music and all that punk reggae and ska that was busting out to me was incredible. The energy was electric, a merging of styles and culture.
STYLE
The Specials had a sound that brought rhythm and beats to my world up to the North of England. As I navigated the long dark winters it did not seem so dark as I played the songs on my old record player that was positioned in my bedroom like an altar that I would gather round and worship. I was listening, learning the language of the Two Tone beats and style trying to dance imitating the moves I would see on video clips. I really loved the sharp dress style, the shoes, ties and hats.
SWAGGER
They had the swagger on stage and the attitude The Specials seemed to command when they played. Their physical presence of being able to take on the system and the world while driving home very powerful messages in their songwriting helped me explore language through poetry and songwriting that school was not able to bring out in Me, that is the power of music and connection.
Do you remember the good old days…?:
LIVE IN BYRON BAY!
I feel very lucky to have seen The Specials play live in Byron Bay at The Blues Festival. The energy building as the band prepared to hit the stage was incredible thousands of people watching waiting on a balmy tropical Easter Sunday night the smell of food and ganja rising into the night bringing with it a wonderful warm arrangement to our collective senses as the band played the first song of the set moving through all the hits, Ghost Town and Monkey Man taking me back to the times spent in my bedroom in Manchester this was light years away now as I was jumping and jiving worshiping my childhood heroes was quite emotional.
SONGS WITH A MESSAGE
Their impact on my life and how they influenced me to be a musician was immense. I have always tried to write songs that had some message as a way of expression whether it was political or topical as a direct result of listening to The Specials early vinyl records over and over.
The Specials brought out in me a desire to fuse style and cultures and make connections with other artists, activists and musicians from all over the world including our latest release. Spanish Fly is a collaboration with an incredible Spanish artist Jazz Minero. This song is a fusion of blues guitar Hip Hop beats and experimental distorted punk bass. It is a love song sung in Spanish and it represents to us how small and connected the world can be when music, art and culture merge to bring positive change to this sometimes dark world we live in.
Here’s what The Lost Dogs Of Ultimo do :
Our thanks to Pauli for an amazing contribution to our Why I Love archive
The Lost Dogs Of Ultimo online: Facebook / X-Twitter / Bandcamp
You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.
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