Welcome to episode 218 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.

Now – as you probably know, as well as the usual platforms (this site, soundcloud, iTunes/Apple) you can now get to Sweetman Podcast on Spotify – follow it there and have it saved in your Spotify library.

I first spoke with Paul McLaney for this podcast back in 2017 – in fact the conversation was recorded in 2015 but I lost the file for a time and couldn’t improve the audio near the end of it when it was recovered. But it was a worthy conversation and you can still hear it by clicking here. It certainly will give you background on Paul if you’re about to listen to this chat without knowing anything about him or his work.

Since that original podcast-chat Paul has continued to release music under his own name and as The Impending Adorations.

And this conversation arrives on the eve of the release of a brand new Gramsci album – the first in 15 years. Gramsci being the name that saw McLaney first send music out into the world. This conversation is really an unpacking of the motivations and influences around that album and it’s creation; we talk lifestyle changes and we talk about music a lot – including some deep-nerd chat around Mark Knopfler and Pink Floyd.

We also paid tribute to Aaron Tokona. I wrote a tribute to Aaron and I knew that Paul knew him and so we close this conversation out with some memories of Aaron and a tribute to his spirit. Our thoughts to Aaron’s close friends, former band members and musician chums and of course his family.

Please do check out that new Gramsci album when it hits. It is wonderful. You will hear some little hints of it threaded through this conversation.

Always a great pleasure to chat with Paul – I love going deep into music with him. And I love listening to the work he creates.

This is episode 218 of Sweetman Podcast – my phone conversation with Paul McLaney.
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