PAUL SADLER
Meet the Manchester musician trading metal riffs for soul-searching acoustic prog.
FOR ANY CREATIVE person, the diversity of a fresh challenge can work wonders for stimulating the mind and satisfying the soul. Spires frontman and guitarist Paul Sadler has proven just that with his debut solo album, Soon To Be Absorbed. After releasing A Parting Gift with Spires in 2018, Sadler decided to put the progressive metal band on hold to venture into unknown lands; a decision that saw an idea that had been lurking in the back of his mind for several years brought to the fore.
“If you just do the same projects all the time, no matter how much you love them, it can get a bit tiresome,” says Sadler. “I had tracks that didn’t fit so much with the Spires mould. So, this album was an excuse to get my creative juices moving around something a little different.”
Sadler’s death metal influences were traded for flourishes of Caligula’s Horse and contemporary Opeth, the result is a lighter and more illustrious timbre. Alongside some Bert Jansch-styled finger playing and orchestral embellishments, Sadler has rested upon a sound that puts the weight of emotion and the delicacy of his instrumentation at its core.
“I wanted to have a little less focus on technicality to really concentrate on the emotional resonance of the music and solid songwriting,” he says. “Everything suddenly became a lot more intuitive, there were never any moments when I didn’t know where to take a song.”
Complementing Sadler’s voice and acoustic chord progressions on these songs are four selectively chosen musicians, including Spires’ bassist Alex Jolley and cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne, best known for his work with Leprous. Their contributions have greatly enhanced the album, with Sadler himself surprised how much of an impact they had.
“The strange thing is, in a way, I probably allowed the other guys to take more creative liberties than I would have allowed in Spires,” he muses. “I think that’s a lesson I should have learned a long time ago: to allow the other musicians freedom and relax some of that control. They were all given their parts to play, but they all went off sheet and did their own thing at points. Raphael layered up some parts to give it that extra orchestral feel and Tom [Rice, drums] really smoothed out a lot of the sections. With Alex, there was a lot of experimenting together in the studio. So, they all really contributed to the creative process with this album. They’re all fantastic players, I trusted in what they were doing and I’m really happy with the record.”
Casting a glance towards the future he adds,“This record has exceeded my expectations, both in terms of how many people have been listening to it and the feedback that I’ve been getting. I’m really inspired by it and it’s making me to want to do more – I already have a big idea for the next album.” POW
“I WANTED TO HAVE A LITTLE LESS FOCUS ON TECHNICALITY TO REALLY CONCENTRATE ON THE SONGWRITING.”