How a singer-songwriter jumpstarted his career without a record labels help

Recording:

Takin’ a walk with Buzz Knight.

Buzz Knight:

Will Paquin, how singer-songwriter-guitarist jumpstarted his career without a record label’s help. Welcome to this edition of Takin’ a Walk. I’m Buzz Knight and we are at a familiar spot for Takin’ a Walk episodes, the historic North Bridge. And my guest today is Will Paquin, a talented young musician who is forging his own independent path. Will, welcome to Takin’ a Walk.

Will Paquin:

Hello there. Good to be here.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah, the North Bridge-

Will Paquin:

Takin’ a Walk… It’s a very nice day out.

Buzz Knight:

Beautiful day here. Beautiful. So how have you foregone the labels in your path? I find that story, which Rolling Stone picked up on, and I’m sure some others within the industry.

Will Paquin:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

How have you picked that path and why?

Will Paquin:

Well, I originally was not supposed to, I was actually about to sign to a label… Basically, I just had your run of the mill viral moment, as they’d call it… And there’s a lot of pressure on me to put a song out and… Which by the way, before then, I’d never written a song before. So you call me a singer-songwriter, but it’s kind of funny because I’m very much new to this whole thing. So yeah, I was… Let’s see, this was in 2020… I was just recording my music, and all the while, labels were hitting me up left and right, to a nauseating amount. It was very stressful at the time.

Buzz Knight:

They were pestering?

Will Paquin:

Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. It was pretty overwhelming because I was in school, I had an internship. I was… What was I? A junior at BU. So I was just working, I had no plans on being a musician at all. And all of a sudden the music industry is interested… I was talking to a bunch of A&Rs, and they’re all very nice and very good at speaking about their label in a very good way… I was interested in it for a while, and I was planning on signing, but the very last minute, actually the morning of when I was supposed to sign, I said, “No, thanks,” And I just went independent… Because it was more of a gut reaction.

Buzz Knight:

Was this when your viral moment had already happened or?

Will Paquin:

No, this was before I’d even released [inaudible 00:02:52].,

Buzz Knight:

Okay. But something told you it was the wrong thing to do?

Will Paquin:

Yeah, it just didn’t seem like the right thing because I’d always heard people saying how they screwed people over and whatnot… And I honestly, didn’t really believe it. I was like, oh, that’s just a bunch of baloney. I’m sure they’re actually not that bad. But, I kept telling myself that at least… There’s just something in the back of my mind saying I really shouldn’t do this. Because I’d never released a song before, and I had no… It was really in the span of two months that I had just become a singer-songwriter. And I didn’t know where my career was going to go, in even the next few months after that. So I thought I’d just released this song independently. I just thought it was the right thing to do.

Buzz Knight:

And just see what happens.

Will Paquin:

Yeah. Yeah, it was kind of a whirlwind. I honestly don’t even remember much of it because I was-

Buzz Knight:

It just happened, right?

Will Paquin:

…I was just freaking out the whole time.

Buzz Knight:

Well, because once again, like you said, you were studying, and you were trying to get through that, which is stressful enough. And is it fair to say what you were doing musically was just having fun and it was fulfilling a passion part of your life? Not really anything that was a course in your career, or anything?

Will Paquin:

Yeah. I was studying to be a statistical advertising guy. Just being in analysis, for advertising, that’s what I was studying and that’s what I was… I had an internship, I was just planning on doing that. So yeah, it was more just having fun during COVID.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah. Yeah.

Will Paquin:

I was just playing my guitar, and putting stuff online… And then it just exploded out of nowhere.

Buzz Knight:

And which song was it? Was it Chandelier?

Will Paquin:

It was Chandelier, yeah. The first song.

Buzz Knight:

So when was the first moment that you actually looked and went, holy smokes, this thing really maybe has something?

Will Paquin:

Well, I started out with the guitar part, and when I made the guitar part I knew it was something interesting. And I remember when I wrote the part, I was like, oh wow, this is pretty cool. So I made a video for it on TikTok, the next day, and then I went to bed and woke up and it had a bunch of views and it was…

Buzz Knight:

Well, three or 3 million?

Will Paquin:

Oh, well it was like, a million that day. Yeah, it was something like that.

Buzz Knight:

You were like, whoa.

Will Paquin:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

Is this me?

Will Paquin:

Yeah, it was unreal. I couldn’t really believe… I never thought that… The genre of music is, it’s not very traditional. So I never thought that it would be something that would go viral or anything.

Buzz Knight:

Right.

Will Paquin:

So, it was a huge surprise. And it was really exciting, but it was also like, oh crap-

Buzz Knight:

What just happened?

Will Paquin:

…I need to get on this. Because I was getting a million comments being like, “Okay, this song needs to come out tomorrow.”

Buzz Knight:

And then at that point, when that happened, did the calls or contacts from label people and everything further accelerate?

Will Paquin:

Oh yeah. And so I wasn’t even known by any sort of label before that. And then that day, I got three or four emails from different labels. And then for the next two months after that, it was just like every day a different A&R… I was on the phone four hours a day. Because I didn’t have management, I didn’t have any… Nothing to help me through it.

Buzz Knight:

Right.

Will Paquin:

So I was just on the phone with them, in between classes and during classes… It was pretty crazy. And it definitely tired me out.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah. And probably stressed you out too.

Will Paquin:

Definitely stressed me out.

Buzz Knight:

But your perception still of labels during that period was really based on the fact that… Did you feel it was too corporate or?

Will Paquin:

Yeah, I guess so. I always respected independent artists my whole life. And most of the artists I listen to are independent. Well, at least they were back then, I’m not sure about now, but… Yeah, I just always thought it was better to do it yourself. That’s the mantra I’ve always had, just not even in music, just in general.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah. Go independent.

Will Paquin:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

So if someone’s never heard you, describe them to you, if you could.

Will Paquin:

Oh okay. I don’t even really know. Everyone always asks me this. I don’t even know how to… Well it’s very guitar heavy because I’m really first a guitar player and then second a songwriter. So I guess you’d call it some alternative… I guess indie, maybe a bit of rock influence. I listen to a lot of rock music.

Buzz Knight:

But isn’t part of the cool factor, if you will, is that it is hard to describe you? Isn’t that something that is a good thing?

Will Paquin:

Yeah. Yeah. And it wasn’t on purpose. I-

Buzz Knight:

It’s just the way it is.

Will Paquin:

Yeah. I was really just trying to make… I really didn’t have any influences for the song itself. It was more just, I need to get a song together right now. And I just did what I thought at the time.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah, it just happened, it came out…

Will Paquin:

Yeah. And it’s funny because I listen back and I’m like, oh my God, this sounds terrible.

Buzz Knight:

Now you look at it and you think about it differently now?

Will Paquin:

Oh of course.

Buzz Knight:

You do?

Will Paquin:

At the time, it was really just the best I could do. And my capacity was pretty… Because I just never… It was my first time writing lyrics, first time singing ever, first time recording an actual song… So it was a lot of firsts for me. And I look back and I’m like, ah man I could have done this so much better.

Buzz Knight:

Well, that’s natural.

Will Paquin:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

That’s a good part of it. So I think, when I listen to your music, the music is… What’s interesting about it is I could see and feel many different influences, all converging in different places. So it feels like it’s from multiple genres of music, and all, in its own way, into the special sauce. Who would some of those particular influences be? Maybe you could mention, and why that they are influences and that you like them?

Will Paquin:

Well, at the time… So over COVID, I was learning how to finger pick, doing classical stuff… I’m not classically trained or anything, I was just teaching myself. So I was doing a lot of finger picking, listening to a lot of Brazilian guitarists like Baden Powell and Luiz Bonfa and Toquinho, those are the three that I was listening to at the time. And that’s a lot of where the guitar playing in the song was coming from. And on top of that, which is kind of an opposite influence, I was listening to a lot of Townes Van Zandt… So a lot of my lyrics, I was pretty much just trying to write a Townes Van Zandt song, because that was really my only songwriter influence at the time. I listened to a lot of instrumental music, so I wasn’t really focused on writing lyrics. So I looked to Townes to inspire me on that.

Buzz Knight:

What an inspiring figure. My favorite of Townes is Pancho and Lefty.

Will Paquin:

Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s such a good song.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah. What a unique figure, but what a tremendous figure as well.

Will Paquin:

Yeah, he’s like pretty much my hero. I think he’s just the coolest dude.

Buzz Knight:

Yep.

Will Paquin:

He’s really, really cool. So yeah, listening to that, honestly… I could probably even stop there in terms of influence on that song. That was really just the two things I was listening to at the time, and the rest just filled itself in.

Buzz Knight:

But a lot of what I hear are… Certainly, jazz influences within guitar players as well.

Will Paquin:

Yeah, I do listen to a bit of jazz. I was a jazz guitarist, before COVID even, I was in jazz band in high school and trying to get my chops up. A few months before I wrote the song, I was trying to transcribe the solo to Sunny, Pat Martinez’s version.

Buzz Knight:

Mm-hmm. I haven’t heard that name in a long time.

Will Paquin:

Which is… It’s just a ridiculously hard solo. I ended up just giving up because it was too hard, and I just started finger picking it instead. It was an action of defeat, going to finger picking.

Buzz Knight:

An action of defeat, I love that. Wow. Now, how about Pat Metheny? I picture some of that too.

Will Paquin:

Pat Metheny?

Buzz Knight:

No?

Will Paquin:

No, I wouldn’t say so. I wouldn’t say so. I was listening to, in terms of jazz guitars, probably… More just Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery…

Buzz Knight:

I was going to say Wes Montgomery too.

Will Paquin:

Yeah. And he uses his thumb to pick, so he’s almost a finger picker as well.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah.

Will Paquin:

But yeah, I’ve always loved them. My dad, he always listens to that stuff. So I’m always influenced-

Buzz Knight:

So where do you find other things that are musically influential? How do you discover them? Just from friends or just your own perusing and studying it or?

Will Paquin:

It’s nearly only my perusing. It’s funny because most of my friends aren’t in the music world at all. I was a rugby player in college, and all my friends were a rugby players, and I don’t really talk about music at all with them-

Buzz Knight:

Really?

Will Paquin:

…So it’s kind of a separate life.

Buzz Knight:

Interesting.

Will Paquin:

And before COVID I tore both my shoulders, so I had nothing to do during COVID except play guitar for 11 hours a day.

Buzz Knight:

I think that’s a way to…

Will Paquin:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

To rededicate yourself, I guess-

Will Paquin:

Exactly, yeah. Definitely.

Buzz Knight:

…If you think about it.

Will Paquin:

But yeah, it’s mostly just my own search, and really my whole life I’ve been always searching for new music. And I still am, just doing the same stuff… I’m just scrolling through Spotify. Me and my brother, we talk about music a lot. He’s always turned me on to stuff.

Buzz Knight:

And he plays too, right?

Will Paquin:

He used to play. He used to play. He does have a guitar in his apartment still, and every once in a while we’ll break it out. But yeah, he’s definitely a music appreciator, for sure.

Buzz Knight:

So how do you approach a creative process where you know you’re setting out to write something? First of all, do you put yourself on a deadline to try to create?

Will Paquin:

No, I don’t. I don’t. I’ve tried to do that in the past and it usually doesn’t work.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah.

Will Paquin:

It actually takes me months… I never really just sit down and write anything. It usually will take me months and months to have a song be finished, because I never just sit down and write lyrics or write guitar parts. Usually it just comes about, I’ll fumble around, get a guitar part roughly, and then write a few words down, and then I’ll come back to it in two weeks and put another few lines down and sort of finalize the parts, finalize the melodies… And I’ll just keep doing that for a month or two, until the song is just magically finished. I don’t really try to force the lyrics out of me because I’m really bad with that.

Buzz Knight:

You just know it’s not going to be your best work if you force it.

Will Paquin:

Yeah, right, right. And I actually just started fully doing that before… After Chandelier, I was just really getting pressured to write music… So I actually did just force myself just in a week to sit down and write, which I didn’t like as much. And nowadays, I really just let things come to me, almost subconsciously.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah.

Will Paquin:

It’s not forced at all.

Buzz Knight:

Some would use the athletic analogy that, if you’re just in the zone then you’re going to be, best creating when you’re in the zone. And you can’t force that necessarily. But it is good to identify that you know you’re in the zone.

Will Paquin:

Yeah, and you got to put yourself there, which is the hardest part.

Buzz Knight:

Right.

Will Paquin:

Because the zone does not just come to you. You really need to be in a place where you can just let your subconscious take over.

Buzz Knight:

Yep.

Will Paquin:

Because I’m not a very… I am a very strategic person… Before all this I was really, I was a statistics major, so I was thinking very analytically and critically, which you really can’t… Well you can, but I feel like the best work is not thinking critically on your own stuff. I feel like the subconscious is always the best route for creative thinking.

Buzz Knight:

Yep. I ask people who are around music this question on the podcast, so I’ve got to ask you, why is music such a special part of our lives? What about it? Obviously, it goes back to cavemen. Why is music so special?

Will Paquin:

Oh geez, that’s a good one. I think, for me at least… It’s like reading a book in its own way, it’s just transporting yourself to a different environment. I was telling my friend yesterday about skiing, and how people don’t really… He didn’t really understand it. He was like, “Why do people go skiing?” And I just said, “It’s just really about being in a different environment, just in a totally different world. You kind of forget everything going on at the time, and you’re just kind of focused on what’s around you, just the mountain.” And I feel like music’s the same way. For me, I just forget about a lot of things, and I just get put in the environment that the artist puts forth. And that’s really why I love music and listen to a lot of it, as much as possible.

Buzz Knight:

It is transporting. And it does everything, it brings you up, brings you down, tugs at you and energizes you… Where would we be without it, right?

Will Paquin:

Yeah. And it’s funny, you’d think that if you’re feeling really down one day you’d want to listen to music that’s happy to uplift you, but for me, it’s the exact opposite. I want to listen to music that aligns with what I’m feeling. So if I’m feeling down, I’m going to listen to music that’s very down and very somber, because it empathizes in its own way, with what I’m feeling. So I just feel a little less… It actually makes me feel better.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah, I feel the same way. There is times, sometimes, I’ll deliberately want something that’ll lift me up if I’m down. But I would say… Yeah, three quarters of the time or more, I want to match the mood. I don’t shy away from that.

Will Paquin:

Right. Yeah. I feel like it is very important to… It’s almost like someone’s talking to you.

Buzz Knight:

Right. Yeah-

Will Paquin:

Just talk-

Buzz Knight:

…when you’re listening to something you go, yeah, that’s me-

Will Paquin:

Yeah. It’s conversational almost, except one sided.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah. Listen to me talking, as if I’m a musician. What do I know? I don’t know any of this.

Will Paquin:

Well, it’s just universal. Anyone can feel that way, you don’t have to be a musician. That is what’s so great about music.

Buzz Knight:

Right. So what’s on the roadmap, in terms of what you’re up to? I know you had mentioned there’s some studio work going on… I know there’s been some concert appearances that you’ve been part of as well. So what’s on your roadmap in the coming weeks and months?

Will Paquin:

Yeah, well, yep… Just like you said, I’m recording. I’ve been recording the past two months. Just getting a bunch of songs together, and just in a more cohesive project. And I’ll be releasing music throughout the year into the next. And then hopefully, if I get my act really together, I’ll have a EP to release, EP or album, to release in… Probably this month of spring, of next year. That’s the overall goal. And I also have some shows to play during that time too, in April. So, that’s the overall goal… It’s kind of funny, I really planned my schedule in one-week increments, so I’ll get through my week and then I’ll plan that next week, and then I’ll get through that week. Because I’ve found things change quite often in this business… So I’m always having to schedule-flip and you pivot in a different direction than I think I’m going to go. And I kind of like it that way. It’s fun in its own way.

Buzz Knight:

Yep. What was it like opening for The Walters?

Will Paquin:

It was cool. It was incredibly nerve wracking, I’d never played a show before. But it was still really fun and a really good experience… It was pretty crazy to have your first few shows in front of so many people. Those rooms were massive. I’d never even, I’d barely even been to a concert in a room that big. So it felt like I was on the moon a little… I’m on the stage just by myself.

Buzz Knight:

Was it an experience though, in the midst of… Obviously, the tension, was it an experience you enjoyed?

Will Paquin:

Yeah, I think it definitely drove me, and I learned a lot from it, and what I want to do differently, and want to keep the same… And yeah, you definitely just grow up quick. You really don’t have a choice. I was offered the show months before, and I was really unprepared. I was like, oh boy, I don’t even have enough songs to play for 30 minutes, so I better write some songs. So it was a flame under my butt, to just get going and not overthink things, and just get something together, because you have to get something. And that was definitely the best takeaway from it is sometimes when you’re just put under a good amount of pressure and you’ve got something ahead that you need to accomplish, you just got to wrestle up something.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah, you got to deliver.

Will Paquin:

Yeah. And that’s what I’m doing, and I’m kind of in the same situation now. I’ve got a few shows coming up in the spring, and I’m in the same zone right now. All right, got to get something. Get something different.

Buzz Knight:

Are you working with a manager?

Will Paquin:

I have a manager, yep.

Buzz Knight:

Yep,

Will Paquin:

Yep. It’s going well. And that’s kind of new.

Buzz Knight:

Yep.

Will Paquin:

I went two years without one, pretty much, and it’s pretty tough doing everything yourself. It’s doable, but it’s pretty exhausting. So yeah, I’ve got a manager on board now, I’ve got a lawyer, and that’s pretty much the extent of my team.

Buzz Knight:

I’m amazed that I was able to get through your publicity people to be able to talk to you.

Will Paquin:

Oh. Yeah. My publicist and my four managers, of course.

Buzz Knight:

That’s right. Yeah. I had to elbow my way through, Will. So if somebody’s listening to this, who is aspiring, wanting to grow an independent path, musically, or in any way, field, what advice would you give them?

Will Paquin:

Well, that’s a good question. I’m asking myself the same thing every day. But I feel like, this might come off as generic or cheesy, but I feel like it’s really true… I was told, in New York actually, last week, we were talking about this… I was saying how, for the first few years of doing this, I was really just doing stuff I wasn’t happy about, but I was doing it because I thought people would like it. And there’s benefits to that, but it’s not long term, because I feel like if you’re doing something that you don’t want to do, musically, you will eventually burn out, and you just can’t keep that going for super long. So I feel like my advice is just making something that you truly are happy with, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, as long as you’re happy with it, that’s the most… In terms of longevity, that’s just the best way to stay in this and not lose your mind. Because there’s nothing worse than playing songs that you’re not happy with, to an audience.

Buzz Knight:

Yep.

Will Paquin:

I think it’s best that you’re… Because the audience can tell. I feel like the audience can tell when you’re playing something that you like versus playing something that you don’t like. So yeah, just stay true to your vision and don’t worry about it too much. Don’t worry about standing out or being unique, just do what you want to do.

Buzz Knight:

I love it. Will Paquin. Thanks for Takin’ a Walk. Enjoy the ride, continued success, and enjoy the creative process.

Will Paquin:

Well, thank you very much. Thanks for walking with me.

Buzz Knight:

Thank you.

Recording:

Takin’ a Walk, with Buzz Knight, is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Buzz Knight is an established media executive with a long history of content creation and multi-platform distribution.

After a successful career as a Radio Executive, he formed Buzz Knight Media which focuses on strategic guidance and the development of new original content.