SIRPAUL has been writing music for over 10 years and in 2004 a magical thing happened: he went pop. By 2007 he was a certified tech-pop producer with a hot little single called Do U, which stuck to club party radar like glue for well over a year. In 2008, the strangely sexy video for Do U made its way into heavy rotation on Logo (“that gay channel”) and stayed there for months gaining enough popularity to make their top ten videos of 2008 also know as the Click List. Today SIRPAUL is planning a party, sipping some coffee, and telling us all about his brand new all dance record.
I was just reading the invitation to the shooting of your next video. It sounds like a party. Who is directing?
Yeah the video for the next single “Swinger” is going to be a party scene that will be filmed at (my favorite nightclub in NYC) Mr. Black. Andreas Anastasis is directing this time. We have a long working relationship. He’s directed all of my videos except this last one “Objectified” which was directed by Mark Odgers.
Your new single, Objectified, doesn’t sound new at all. It sounds something like a Technotronic track that I somehow missed growing up and then found on youtube and wouldn’t shut up about for several weeks. What do you think it is about that retro-dance formula that is so satisfying?
Most dance music hasn’t been taken very seriously in the past. That whole 90′s dance scene started out with crazy lip synch scandals and ended with a big rave. By the end of “the rave” (which is how I refer to that entire period in time) everyone seemed too cracked-out to dance or actually listen to the quality of the songs. The world completely missed out on some amazing genres of music that should be exhumed and reexamined. I think the formula of taking something that sounds familiar and giving it a totally modern twist makes it really satisfying.
Tell us about your dance music roots.
I grew up on Long Island and there was certainly nothing there that appealed to me so I’d pack a backpack with crazy clothes & sneak out of my parent’s house while they were sleeping. Then I’d hop on the train and transform myself into a total freak show and walk right in to Disco 2000 at Limelight. I was around for the whole “club kid” scene. After I moved to the city I started religiously going out to clubs like Tunnel, Club USA, Palladium & Sound Factory. The problem for me was that those clubs had no warmth or community to them so there was no way for me to progress and take them over (laughing). It wasn’t until Cheetah opened that I found my kind of scene and started making music and performing there regularly with DJ’s like Merrit & Mike Cruz.
To be objectified is to be made a spectacle of. I love attention when it’s from ONE PERSON. But if we’re out and that causes a scene, by all means pull up a chair and watch! In the past women complained about being objectified. For most men, I think it’s a different story. We tend not to mind this sort of attention. Oddly enough, the term also refers to, more literally, using people as furniture. But that’s a bit much for my taste. There’s an amazing artist Allen Jones, who has explored this concept visually.
Is objectification for part time lovers or may I objectify my girlfriends too?
I think the key is that the person has to decide that they want to be objectified. So you may actually objectify anyone you like as long as they’re getting off on it.
It seems like once you went pop you just couldn’t stop. Are you high on pop?
It’s a really exciting time for me right now. Pop music is just so much fun! If the songs are well written and they make you dance and feel a little more optimistic about the state of your life then it can’t be that bad, right? So yeah, I’m completely high on pop! Maybe I’m a little tweaked out on Pop. Did you just hear that?
SIRPAUL: Objectified (Deluxe Version) is available now on iTunes
