PAULi, The PSM, Paul Stanley-McKenzie—the London-born, BK-based artist goes by many names, but the skinny on PAULi is he's a drummer with a storied behind the scenes resume, be it smacking skins for Damon Albarn (with Gorillaz Sound System and more recently The Heavy Seas), or acting as the musical director for Jamie xx and FKA twigs. Oh yeah, and last December he just happened to drum for the in-house band at VICE's 20th birthday party alongside Nick Zinner and Andrew Wyatt. And Paul Banks. And Stephen Malkmus. And Jarvis Cocker. And Karen O.Anyway, now he's stepping out of the shadows to become a proper solo artist in his own right. Last year he released protest song "Give Me a Sign" and now we're premiering this debut video (below) which starts off with a gnarly beating heart offered up on a plate in the middle of an eerie forest. Sonically it's a cut of shimmery, twitchy R&B-pop. With PAULi—decked out in in Vivienne Westwood, Moshin, 1205, KTZ & Adidas by Rick Owens—he enunciates in flowing Laaahndan tones which ride conversationally over the top.Below is the premiere of his video for "i DON'T CARE," the product of a partnership with long time collaborator Rohan Blair-Mangat and the prelude to PAULi's debut visual triptych EP, recorded with UK producer, Kwes.“Iconoclast are very selective with their music video output (Chemical Bros, M.I.A, Ri Ri’s "BBHMM") I was super stoked when Rohan played my private soundcloud link to managing director Anna Smith, subsequently she executively produced the film,” explains PAULi.
Meanwhile Rohan Blair-Mangat had this to say: “It's been a real privilege to direct PAULi.'s first video as an artist, I love the song! We've worked together on several projects in the past and over the years he's become a part of my family. PAULi. has a very clear idea about his visual identity and we spent a lot of time brainstorming together, which was a very exciting process to work closely with an artist from the beginning. We wanted to create a cinematic piece with Afro-Futurist themes that uses symbolism to represent the rich imagery in the music. PAULi. has always had an electric presence on stage and I wanted to have a strong performance element in the video to showcase his undeniable charisma.”Watch it all unfold below.
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