Paul Sims – Music to Curator Interview

1/ So First Off - Tell Us your Name, City and Country and what you currently do for a living?

My name is Paul, I live in the north east of England and I work for a parcel delivery company and have done for the last 20 years but like many of us here would rather be working in the industry they love the most - Music.

2/ Is This Something You Always Wanted To Do?  What Do You Enjoy About It?

Creating playlists and sharing music is something I’ve done all my life it’s just a different process now with the tools of social media to get the music to not just friends but everyone and anyone right across the world.

It's rewarding when someone actually messages you to thank you for making a particular playlist or just leaves a nice comment to say they’ve enjoyed it, everyone wants to feel what they do has purpose, so yes it’s these little things I enjoy, but the biggest enjoyment comes from just listening to the music itself when creating the lists.

3/ Tell Us About Your First Musical Memory - Why Do You Think You Remember It?

I’ve got a terrible memory so don’t remember anything significant from a young age to reveal to you but what I do recall from my youth is seeing breakdancing for the first time probably on the tv show ‘Fame’ and the film ‘Breakin’, also Ice T rapping on ‘Reckless’ possibly my first introduction to a genre I would grow to love.

Then came ‘Beat Street’ with more authentic B Boy culture with the Rock Steady Crew, New York City Breakers and rappers the Treacherous Three and Doug E Fresh, these moments are probably stuck in the minds of millions of people of my generation as they were for so many an introduction to our very own music.

Like generations before remembering when they heard the Beatles or Elvis for the first time, or when they went to a club and heard disco music and the dancing scene that went with it, the same again happened when house music hit the UK.

I don’t have a defining memory for that, other than just hearing it on the radio, those memories would later be made in the clubs for the next 30 years.

4/ Who Did You Make Your First Mixtape / Playlist For - What Was The Result -  Did They Dig It?

On discovering hip hop and house, I just wanted to listen to as much of the new music as I could, but living in a small village and the nearest good record shop over 20 miles way in Newcastle it was left to the radio to fill the void, so I used to wait patiently with a finger on the pause button for any show that might play this new music, always trying to segue the mix together sometimes re-editing or re-recording the tapes so the music was in the right order.

These tapes were then put in my ghettoblaster, which was a bright red and had a strap on it so I used to carry it on my back, crank up the volume to full and LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys or Farley Jackmaster Funk proceeded to shake the walls of the bus stop where we all hung out.

After leaving school and affording to buy actual records things progressed from the high life of the bus stop to making tapes for our cars to listen to as we travelled to clubs to experience this burgeoning scene, then cd’s were burned with compilations of all different genres of music that came out of this scene like Acid Jazz to Street Soul, then at some point like millions of young people across the U.K. at this time twin decks were purchased and dreams of becoming a DJ, in reality just another source of mixtape creation, this time in more creative ways and more genres of music used as I got more interested in jazz and then new genres of trip hop, jungle and what the media named big beat were added to the mix.

Never has it been easier to make a mixtape, never have we had so much music to choose from, never has it been cheaper, never has it been easier to share with people, but take me back to that bus stop any day, I honestly got more reaction and enjoyment from ten people digging hearing those tracks for the first time played by me, check out some of the bus stop classics on the playlist below.

5/ What Made You Go Online And Search About Music Curation?

I was always online looking for new ways to share my playlists I've been creating them for a few years now and quite proud of some of them, I’ve personally discovered tons of new music in the act of putting them together and just want to share the discovery's with others, so just really stumbled into musicto to one day when looking for somewhere to post my lists.

6/ Tell us about the name of your Playlist - where did that come from?

Shake a Hoof, came from a friends comment ‘I’d shake a hoof to that’  I’d heard it said before but in this context it was instantly recognisable as meaning to dance and that is what the list is all about, looking for new dance music, doesn’t matter what genre, It’s just got to have a groove to make you shake that hoof.

7/ What does a track have to have to make it onto your list, is there something special that you look for?

Although I appreciate all genres of music, we all have a preference, for me that’s soul music and then all the genres that spawned from it, reggae, funk, disco, rap and house, so essentially it’s got to be soulful and funky and make you shake a hoof on the dancefloor.

8/ What can an artist do in their track submission to your list to ensure that you'll listen to their track?

Number one is listen to the playlist, do you really think your music fits, is it as good as what is already featured, I’m not going to put anything on the list if it is weak, the best way to start a submission is to tell me you have listened to the list and you’ve enjoyed it because if you don’t like what I’ve put together and this is the music I love I’m hardly going to like the music that you send me as it’s probably not a good fit.

9/ We know - these change all the time - but as of this week - what are your all time top 5 favorite tracks.

Absolutely it changes from hour to hour never mind week to week, with all the music I listen to there’s always a new favourite, so as I’ve been reminiscing over the bus stop days of my youth, here’s five bus stop classics:

1. Jack of Spades - BDP

2. Give the Drummer Some - Ultramagnetic MC’s

3. The Theme - Unique 3

4. I'll House You - Jungle Brothers

5. Strong Island - JVC Force

I could go on with this all night, every night...so as we do here at musicto I’ve made a playlist, transporting you back to 1987, just imagine hanging in a park, street corner, porch or bus stop rain or shine, listening to two new exciting genres of dance music on a shiny red 100 watt ghettoblaster

10/ And finally - which Music to Curator should we interview next?

Music To Warm The Soul, always love what Lyris puts on her list, so be interested in the inspiration behind the choices.