Back in 2010, Wintersleep’s frontman Paul Murphy and his brother Micheal released an album under the name POSTDATA. Eight years later, Paul is back and bringing his show to Edmonton’s Bohemia June 7.

Listen and read through the interview below.

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Paul Murphy of Wintersleep Details New Project POSTDATA

Originally Aired: May 23, 2018

1. Congrats on the new album Let’s Be Wilderness! Where did that title come from? 

It’s one of the songs on the record, the first song. Words kinda stick out to me in some of the lyrics and it’s the first song on the record and it just has a really warm, inviting quality to it so I thought it was a good title.

2. Most people would know you from Wintersleep, but you started POSTDATA in 2009 with your brother? 

Yeah, I was home for Christmas [in 2009] and working on some songs with my brother Micheal. It was kinda right around the time that my grandparents both passed away and I had a few songs so I just thought it would be a cool project to do. I write a lot of songs, I always have way too many songs while we’re working on Wintersleep stuff, so I think it was just a matter of after a few records there were still some songs that I really wanted to work on and put some time into.

3. There’s an eight year gap between the two POSTDATA albums. Is that why, do you need to give yourself time to accumulate songs? 

Yeah! There’s no pressure with this. That’s kinda the beauty with this project, there’s no pressure to release stuff. Wintersleep’s obviously the main band for me, but it’s great and that doesn’t mean the songs are any less important to me. I just wanted to wait until I had the right songs.

4. Do you have a different approach when tackling POSTDATA projects versus Wintersleep? 

When we’re working with Wintersleep, Loel (drummer) and Tim (guitar/keyboard) do a lot of the production stuff so we’ll have songs and get together and we’ll start working on it. But [with POSTDATA] I’m starting the demo just very much on my own just trying to make a demo that sounds like something you could even show anybody. It was fun, I’ve never actually worked like that on songs. It’s definitely a different beast.

5. Read this very intriguing album description on your website: POSTDATA returns with Let’s Be Wilderness, a record characterized by those two old bickering friends: love and death. 

There’s a lot of songs that are connected. There’s a lot of love songs on the record and a lot of existential thoughts on the record. I think [love and death] kind of interweave a little bit.

6. Is there a particular song on the album that stands out to you personally? 

Any song that I write I feel like I’ve live through and it has a pretty big significance to me. I tried to write the album so that it wasn’t super autobiographical.

7. This tour is taking you to some pretty cool venues all across the country. What do you look for when visiting a new city? 

You’ll have friends in different places so that’s kinda the main thing when I’m touring is just trying to meet up with people I’m friends with and doing whatever they’re doing.

 

Filed under: Paul Murphy, POSTDATA, Wintersleep