McCartney offers St. Albert student advice.
St. Albert musician awed by one-on-one with Mccartney
The first time you meet Paul McCartney, there are a few things St. Albert musician Robert Mulder wants you to know.
1) You’ll be nervous, but it’s only natural. McCartney, after all, is revered by tens of millions of adoring Beatles fans.
2) Sir Paul appears different in person than he does onstage. He’s more soft-spoken — kind of like a friendly uncle.
3) The experience will seem surreal.
Three months later, Mulder is still awed by the rare opportunity he was granted: a halfhour, one-on-one mentoring session with the rock ’n’ roll legend himself. It’s one of the major perks of studying at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, the university co-founded by McCartney in 1996.
“To be honest, it was kind of hard to look at him while I was playing these songs that I had spent so long trying to practise,” Mulder says on the phone from Liverpool. “To hear him singing along and tapping his foot was amazing and something I’m never going to forget.”
The session was “short, but very intense,” says the 22-yearold. Besides getting feedback on his songs and the music video for his single, Mulder was able to chat with McCartney for about 15 minutes. And what exactly does one talk about with Sir Paul?
“I spent some time discussing with him just how to deal with fans, how to deal with paparazzi, how to deal with having a family and when you’re on the road and just trying to balance everything out,” Mulder says. “I think I was certainly nervous, but I think I was just more preoccupied with my song choice and what I was going to play for him.”
And there’s more. Mulder encountered McCartney a second time at his graduation ceremony in July. The two shook hands and quickly chatted onstage before McCartney decorated him with a commemorative pin.
But his two run-ins with McCartney aren’t the only things Mulder is pinching himself about. His acceptance into the Liverpool Institute was a feat of its own — and highlights the singer-songwriter’s potential.
Only four per cent of those who apply are accepted at the institute, once the site of McCartney’s high school. But Mulder hedged his bets, wanting to focus on songwriting rather than the traditional musical education offered in Canadian universities (including Grant MacEwan University, which the Liverpool Institute representatives tour each year). Mulder was one of two students not enrolled at Grant MacEwan to gain admission to the institute.
It turns out that flying overseas and living in a foreign setting was the kick-start Mulder needed to pen his songs.
“I think it’s hard to write stuff of substance without having really lived. And when I say lived, without having really made a lot of blunders and tried different things out.
“From my personal experience, it’s very hard to write when things are going well and when you’ve got a bit of a plateau. I think my ideas are more visceral when it comes from a really strong emotion, and usually those emotions come from some sort of distress.”
He is expanding those songwriting skills through his band, HighFields, which blends folk, rock and indie alternative music. He draws on the diversity of its members, who hail from South Africa, Singapore and Norway. They’ve recently released a single called The Chase (Oh Lord!), which has received airplay on BBC Radio 1 and was nominated for a Liverpool Music Award.
Although he’s heading back to Edmonton this month, Mulder certainly won’t be abandoning his English connection. He plans to apply for a visa to revisit the country that has birthed his career, and his idol’s.
“England is a very small country and it’s a small music scene and things get around fast. I’m just trying to bridge the two cultures and spread who I am and what I’m doing with as many people as possible.”
And through it all, Mulder hopes to get by with a little help from his friend.
“When I meet Paul again, I’m not sure. It’s a small enough industry that I’m sure we’ll cross paths again. And hopefully, the next time, I’ll have something more to show.”