Paul James and Chloe Griffin on the Pure Local Extra show

Paul last came into Newport City Radio 2 years ago but for Chloe, it was her first time visiting.

We started the show with Paul’s song “Down With The Poets” from his most recent album “The Powers That Be”. Paul told us that the song is more humorous, something quite unusual for him. The song is about someone struggling to come to terms with the modern era and modern advancements such as technology. We then listened to Chloe’s song “When I Was Away”. She gave some context behind the song and where it came from. Last year she went travelling around Asia alone. She loved it, but when she came back she felt lost or behind everyone else. It felt like her friends had moved on. The song is about missing travelling. As she missed travelling, she considered going travelling again, but this time to South America, it hasn’t happened yet but maybe in the future.

Our next topic of conversation was how they got into making music. Chloe has always been into music, making it since she was 14. She added that she loved having an audience. She wrote her first song when she was 15, It was a heartbreak song which probably won’t come back anytime soon. As for Paul, he wanted to get into music after reaching retirement, which is exactly what happened. Being retired gave him lots more free time, music is something to do in that time.

Both artists talked about their musical influences and the type of music that they listened to when they were younger. Paul’s father played lots of classical music. He was also brought up in a pub, which became famous for live music. A couple of people who always played there and they became his biggest influences. Paul cited jazz, blues and folk as his 3 biggest genres he’s been influenced by. As for Chloe, her parents played lots of Oasis, Lauren Hill, Beyonce and many more artists when she was younger. As for herself: Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen were two she mentioned liking and being influenced by.

Both Paul and Chloe play guitar as their main instruments. Paul mentioned that his father wanted him to pick up piano but he had no interest. On the other hand, Chloe wanted to play piano but she also wanted to get into busking, but guitar is easier to busk with so she changed her mind and learned guitar.

For one of the final questions, Kym asked Paul and Chloe “if they were to be a tribute act, who would they be a tribute act for?”. Paul answered with Dylan, a huge influence for him and he played lots of his songs in the early days. As for Chloe, Amy Winehouse, a huge influence for her.

You can find Paul as Paul James on Facebook and Chloe as Chloe Griffin Music on Instagram.

You can listen to the full show on our listen again page under Pure Local Extra or here