These shoes made for music
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Updated: August 06, 2009 11:14 AM
Seemed like a simple question at the time.
Kamloops-born singer-songwriter Paul Filek was visiting his cousin, getting ready for a gig that night.
He was dressed, but was debating on which shoes to wear.
The cousin said either pair was fine, but her husband said he should wear one of each — which he decided to do.
And a whole new Paul Filek signature was born, as people who saw the show noticed the unique footwear and many started to do the same thing, Filek said.
And now, if you see him on the street, you’ll see Filek is sporting two different shoes.
But the odds are you won’t see him on Kamloops streets very often.
Since deciding to put away his shotglasses from his job as a bartender and heading out to follow his muse, Filek said he’s done at least 150 shows in the past 16 months and worked his way up into the high digits on his car’s odometer.
“But I’m super happy,” he said while relaxing at Small World Studios, where he’s just finished recording his third CD, Elephant Shoes.
“I’m super busy and it’s great.”
The new recording — 11 tracks Filek wrote — riffs off the two-shoe thing with artwork by Filek’s friend, Gavin Murgatroyd, that, in many frames, features shoes of different colours.
Now that the master is complete, a release party is planned for Sept. 3 at Chrome City — Filek’s workplace when it was known as The Thirsty Dog and he was tending bar — with doors opening at 9 p.m. for a 10:30 p.m. show.
There’s no cover before 10 p.m.
He’s hoping to go big for the release, putting together a seven-piece backup band for the night.
Life on the road has taught him plenty of lessons, he said.
For example, a sojourn into Ontario to try to get his name known led to Filek giving away a couple hundred of his earlier CDs, something he hadn’t planned on doing — but which he figures will at least start to get his name known east of the Prairies.
And he’s learned that, when he’s being interviewed and asked who he sounds like, who his influence is, he’s got to have an answer.
“You just can’t say gee, I don’t know,” Filek said.
But in his case, it’s an easy answer to find.
Since September, he’s logged about 30,000 kilometres on the road and, he said, every day he’s listened to Paolo Nutini, an eclectic Scottish singer who, while barely out of his teens, has performed with such disparate musicians as the Rolling Stones and Ben E. King.
But, in the end, Filek is simply himself, he said — a guy who had always wanted to make music and is living that dream.
“It sounds silly to say it but I’m so excited.
“I’m really just excited.”
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