Plucked Straight from the Sleeve
Flo Pauls (Lower Moutere)
“Mesmerising to watch!” – audience member
“Very original happy song. …great descriptive metaphors.” (for ‘Nicotine’) – NZSongwriterstrust
“Nice hooks throughout the song…Memorable catchy tune.” (for ‘Seabreeze’) – NZSongwriterstrust
Flo Pauls’ music is catchy, his lyrics are genuine and relatable.
He first picked up a guitar at the age of 13 and has played on and off ever since. Only over the last decade has Flo taken to writing more of his own music and started playing regularly in Nelson and Motueka.
His musical beginnings were very much influenced by his grungy teenage years, a real rocking 90’s kid. Later in life, in the early 2000s, Flo changed to more acoustic and more mellow music. Once he and his family settled in New Zealand he listened to Jack Johnson for the first time, which took him down the rabbit hole of acoustic and chilled grooves coupled with intelligent lyrics. He formed the band Shaed with some friends while living in Northland for three years, playing and performing originals and covers.
Flo now lives and works at Riverside Community, New Zealand’s oldest and longest running intentional community, in the beautiful Lower Moutere hills, and has done so for the last 15 years. He has called New Zealand his home for over 18 years.
Before he turned solo he was part of the folk duo What About Eve? with Lynda Hannah for a few years. To be a solo act however, Flo always felt that only one guitar and a voice wouldn’t do it for him. The inspiration came when he watched a YouTube video of Ed Sheeran, live looping. So he got himself a loop station/loop pedal and never looked back.
With inspiration rekindled by the possibilities of this looping technology, he immediately applied this new found trickery of recording, looping and over dubbing to his songwriting. He leapt from just one voice and one guitar to a full band-like soundscape with beats, percussions, bass lines, guitar riffs, backing tracks and backing vocals; and crafted them into beautiful arrangements to create unique, whole song experiences.
The laid back kiwi culture and lust for life is very much embraced by his music as he shares, in part, his life journey through his songwriting. He doesn’t commit to one genre but moves through a range of styles, from poetry and mellow melodies, to funny storytelling and quirky lyrics through to upbeat Pop-like tunes well worth to tap along to, that will leave you humming on the way home. In his performance he doesn’t shy away from deep, soulful sharing and being vulnerable, wearing his heart on his sleeve.
The lushness of living between the beach and the bush clad mountains seeps in to his music and his lyrics paint pictures of nature, love and laughter. His love and gratitude for his life, his family, wife and 5 children is engrained in his words and praises of their influence and shaping of his time, in this life, in this moment, in as beautiful a spot as Tasman Bay, Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Check our Flo on Facebook.
