Paula Kelley Interview

 For the past decade, a staple presence on the Boston power-pop scene has been Paula Kelley. As part of the bands Hot Rod and Boy Wonder, Kelley wrote a brand of music that combined the hard edge of rock with the harmonic hooks of pop, all the while setting men’s pulses racing with her rock’ n’ roll good looks. Since the demise of Boy Wonder at the end of 1999, Kelley has been going it alone, assembling a band under her own name, and maturing as a writer and a musician.
Kelley recently took the time to sit down at the Middle East and discuss her music in an interview that was spread over four different tables and competed against a noisy soundcheck thumping up from the basement. What came across was an interesting conversation with a woman who is clearly a lover of good music, and who has poured that love into her own music.

BSM: Recently you were touring the country to promote your new album?
PK: There was actually a little tour and a large one. That was really good. It was, like, almost a month, and we drove the whole way.
BSM: You must’ve been sick of each other by the end of that...
PK: Actually, it was only a full band for about two weeks, and I just did acoustic shows along the way, so we really didn’t get a chance to get sick of each other. We stayed at different places and stuff...It’s really strange, but we haven’t had a big blowout yet--unlike the volatile Boy Wonder, my former band.
BSM: So, there were some personality differences there?
PK: I think...my theory is that that happens more when...Boy Wonder was a band, and it was more of a democracy, and I’m really really bad at being a band leader. I’m not one to say “Fuck you,this is how it’s going to be, I wrote this song, shut up.” So I just kind of nudge my point in there to a certain degree and then back off after that, and then tensions would sort of build. I’d be unhappy with the way things turned out, but...
BSM: Were you the only songwriter in Boy Wonder, or were you just the primary songwriter?
PK: I was the primary songwriter. When Jake was in the band, he wrote a couple, and Josh wrote a couple. I mean, it was like a revolving door band. With Boy Wonder, I kind of wanted to say how things were supposed to be, but I was uncomfortable because it was a band and I was a writer.
BSM: Was it acknowledged that you were the leader, though?
PK: Yeah, I started the band, and--
BSM: But everyone was giving their input--
PK: Yeah, but they should have input, because people were all contributing money and showing up for rehearsal and everyone kind of wanted to do well. But I think that tends to get touchy, probably in any band. Unless, there’s that rare
occasion where bands can just like collectively write songs, but with this band, it’s a solo effort. It’s a band but it’s kind of implied that it’s my thing, know what I mean? I’m wussy enough where I had to make the move from having a full band to having my name be the thing rather than saying “This is how I want things done.”
BSM: Was that sort of the primary motivation for going out under your own name, to finally have the ultimate say in how the music goes?
PK: Not consciously. Boy Wonder had run its course. Five or six years is kind of a long time for a local band, and I think that after we--we had a record come out on Cherry Disk, and I think we had a lot of expectations for that. That was the “Wonder Wear” record. It was problematic . It was Cherry Disk’s first collaborative release with Roadrunner, and I don’t think Roadrunner really knew how to market a pop band, and nothing happened. After that, it was never really the same. We did everything ourselves, which was really quite satisfying, and we put out another single and EP after that, but after we had built up so much for that album...

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