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Paul’s Biography.
In an industry where egos run wild, where individual talent is often
dwarfed by individual vanity, Paul Hardcastle stands out as the rare musician
who is more comfortable behind the scenes than at center stage. From his dance
club hits of the mid-1980s through his current popularity among adult
contemporary jazz listeners, Hardcastle has maintained an intentionally low
profile, while at the same time exhibiting a level of technical wizardry--both
at the keyboard and at the studio console--that has produced numerous hits for
himself and for others.
Hardcastle was born on December 10, 1957 in London, England.
While he is unquestionably a talented keyboardist, Hardcastle's first love
seems to have been studio equipment. As a teenager, while most of his peers
were imitating the licks of their favorite electric guitar heroes, Hardcastle
was tinkering with tape recorders and other gadgets. His love of sound
equipment eventually led to a job as a stereo salesman. In 1980 Hardcastle
acquired his first synthesizer. He quickly landed a spot as keyboard player for
the band Direct Drive,
effectively ending his career in sales. With Direct Drive, Hardcastle got his first
taste of dance club success, scoring a handful of minor hits on the British
underground dance scene, including "Time's Running Out" and
"Don't Depend On Me," both released by Oval Records. Direct Drive
also provided his first contact with vocalist Helen Rogers, with whom he
continued to collaborate well into the 1990s.
Following the breakup of Direct
Drive, Hardcastle joined forces with vocalist
Derek Green to form the funk band First Light in 1982. Signing with London
Records, First Light quickly produced two hit singles. Both "Explain The
Reason" and "Wish You Were Here" cracked the Top 20 on the U.K. dance
charts. In spite of this success, Hardcastle grew frustrated with his lack of
control over his projects. Of his experience with London Records, he recalled
that "it was a total disaster. It was a constant battle of 'do this, do
that,'" according to a 1985 Billboard magazine article. Hardcastle's
solution to the control problem was to start his own label, appropriately named
Total Control. His partner in this endeavor was the popular club DJ Steve
Walsh.
With full power over his own product now in hand, Hardcastle continued
to crank out dance hits in his native England, including the singles
"Guilty" and "You're The One for Me." Two instrumentals
released during this period under the Total Control banner, "A.M."
and "Daybreak," also gained Hardcastle a following among the
electro-funk crowd. The success of these minor hits paved the way for the
release of "Rainforest," the single that made Hardcastle a genuine
force on the international dance music circuit. Initially recorded as the theme
song for a television special about the British hip hop scene,
"Rainforest" eventually rose as high as number 41 on the British pop
charts. The song was released in the U.S. in early 1985 by Profile Records, and
was soon a dance hit on both sides of the Atlantic, selling nearly half a
million copies worldwide.
The success of "Rainforest" created a lot of demand for
Hardcastle's services as a studio technician, and he mixed or produced tracks
for, among others, the groups Third World and
Pigbag. He soon signed with Chrysalis, and within a couple of months put out
the recording that would make him a household name. After watching Vietnam
Requiem, a television documentary about the Vietnam War, Hardcastle was deeply
moved by the fact that the average age of a U.S. soldier in that conflict was
19, compared to 26 during World War II. The program inspired him to create his
biggest hit, "19," which made use of samples from the documentary's
soundtrack, though well-doctored with all manner of electronic effects and scratch
techniques.
"19" rocketed to number one on the British charts, and also
reached the top spot in 13 countries Despite the subject of the song,
Hardcastle insisted that his motives in making it were not political. Rather
than railing against the war, he maintained that he was merely trying to point
out the tragic situation of the young men who fought it.
On the heels of "19," Hardcastle released two more singles,
"Just for Money," featuring the voices of acting superstars Sir
Laurence Olivier and Bob Hoskins; and "Don't Waste My Time." Both
singles reached a wide dance-oriented audience,
All three singles were included on Hardcastle's album Paul Hardcastle,
released on Chrysalis in November of 1985.
During the second half of the 1980s, Hardcastle concentrated his efforts
on behind-the-scenes studio work on other musicians' projects. He produced
records for Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and worked on remixes for a number of
artists, including Barry White, D-Train, and Five Star. Hardcastle also remained
active as a composer, writing original scores for several films and television
projects, including a new theme song for the British TV series Top of the Pops.
In 1990 Hardcastle took another stab at forming his own label, Fast Forward
Records, on which he released the single "Swing" by the Def Boys.
That record eventually reached the Billboard Top Twenty, and was a major hit in
Europe.
In the 1990s Hardcastle reinvented himself as a light jazz composer and
keyboardist, a big jump musically from his days as a scratchmaster. The first
step in this new career phase came in 1990, with the release of an album on
Motown by his new group Kiss the Sky. Next, Hardcastle collaborated with his
old cohort Helen Rogers and with saxophonist Gary Barnacle, who had recorded
with the likes of Tina Turner, Elvis Costello, and Phil Collins, to form The
Jazzmasters. The trio released the album Jazzmasters on the independent JVC
label in 1993, and it quickly gained substantial airplay on both contemporary
jazz and R&B radio stations. The video for one of the album's songs,
"Sound of Summer," also saw much exposure on VH-1. Jazzmasters
eventually spent more than a year hovering near the top of the Contemporary
Jazz Albums charts.
With the release of a solo effort, Hardcastle, in 1994, the artist
cemented his position as a major force in urban contemporary jazz, with his
unique hybrid of light jazz and soulful R&B. Like Jazzmasters, Hardcastle
spent weeks among the top sellers in its genre. Hardcastle continued to
capitalize on his renewed stardom with follow-up albums in the mid-1990s,
Jazzmasters II and Hardcastle 2, as well as ongoing projects with Kiss The Sky.
With three separate outlets to suit his varying creative moods-- Jazzmasters
for contemporary jazz with an R&B groove, Hardcastle for his slightly more
experimental work, and Kiss the Sky for the rougher, more urban end of his
output.
by Robert R. Jacobson
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