I’ve been in many bands but my most active (rehearsing and gigging) project right now is Stretch (with George Chinaglia, Dave Hess, Mike Hermans, and currently drummer Randy Wooten; former drummers include Andreas Brade, Doug Betensky, Matt Taylor, Erik Kaczynski, and others). Stretch has been playing for almost 10 years. In addition, I play with Kevin So on many of his stage, radio, and television performances both locally and as far as Chicago and Austin; I was a full-time member of his band in 1998 (along with Eric Gerber; and, on local gigs, Bob Moses, Jeff Song, and others). I was recently involved in a new but short-lived project called Amulet -- check out our MySpace page. Most recently, I’ve found myself jamming with Peter Prince and recording parts with Peter for Jesse Dee. In the past, I also played gigs with the brothers Bellamy (Aaron Bellamy, Luke Bellamy, and Christian Kennedy). I’ve composed and performed microtonal music with Ara Sarkissian; we participated in both Microthon concerts of the American Festival of Microtonal Music in New York and some of our music ended up on a WNYC "New Sounds" broadcast. I played on _The Komitas Project_ with Ara, Karen Kocharyan, Arvin Zarookian, and others, and have performed at Harvard University and Boston Conservatory with Ara and his groups. I played with the group Copal as well on some of their 2006-2007 gigs in Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. I frequently accompanied Giancarlo Buscaglia performing latin music at his Friday Night residency at ZuZu, and have worked as a sideman for Danielle Miraglia, Hugh McGowan, Katrin Roush, Jesse Vena (now of Black Wing Halos), Janet Connerney, Deep C, Arthur Snow, Pete Spiegel, Laura Imhoff, and Mo Pair, as well as other fine singer-songwriter-bandleaders. I participated in a big "Tribute to George Harrison" concert organized by Ky Hote in NYC in December 2007. I’ve also had the pleasure of performing avant-garde jazz with acts such as Jonathan LaMaster’s Saturnalia and former Morphine drummer Jerome Deupree. A microtonal free-improv group, MAD DUXX, consisted of Gabriel Jones, "Free-range" Dave "Chicken" Allen, Brett Barbaro and myself; when I brought my microtonal guitar to Jim Mouradian for a setup, he looked at me funny and asked if we got any groupies playing that stuff (straight loco). . . . Last but not least, I play in an acoustic duo with Garo Papazian (we often allow Todd Brunel, Matt Glover, Katt Hernandez, Joe Ball, Jacob Sirois, Hannah Thiem, Gabriel Jones, and others to sit in on rehearsals; we’ve also formed part of the musical accompaniment for the Ombelico dance company). Garo, Joe, and I were hosting and performing at an open mic every Sunday at the Z bar on the Cambridge/Somerville (MA) line in Inman Square . . . this open mic is in the process of finding a new home.
I was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Queens. I've been playing piano since I was a little kid, thanks to my parents. After some recorder and clarinet playing along the way, I taught myself guitar at age 15, and six months later it became my primary instrument (I play bass too and a bit of percussion as well). Gigs with a high school rock band soon followed. While at Yale I was lead guitarist and composer for the cyberpunk-thrash/classic-rock band "Philth" with vocalist/lyricist Phil Dunlop and a rotating array of Yale and New Haven's most talented musicians (in our final year these included Pete McNeil, Pauline Mu, Brendan Gibson, Peter Sackman, Jeff Tanner, Scott "Funkgrass" Armel, Cole Wicker, and Adam Berenzweig, to name a few). I've lived in the Boston area for over 12 years now and have immersed myself in many musical situations, never settling into a particular genre. I'm always looking to transcend stylistic, chronological, and geographic boundaries, and knock down musical conventions such as "standard" time signatures, rhythms, tuning systems, and scales. But participating in a simple yet sublime folk or blues performance can be equally rewarding. Come over and let's jam!
For personal stuff and to find more of my friends, see my Friendster page @ http://www.friendster.com/profiles/paulerlich & my Tribe page @ http://people.tribe.net/22tones
IF I DON'T KNOW YOU, I'M NOT GOING TO ACCEPT YOUR FRIEND REQUEST
. . . unless you make a very good case.
