Friends who met as music teachers in the 80s now producing their own songs

Paul, from Newport, and Andy, of Wednesbury, met in the mid-1980s while working at Sandwell College, where they taught sound production and music technology.

They both shared a lifelong love of music and have played with a number of bands over the years before forming Harper n Hubble Music.

“For me, it all stemmed from the Beatles. That’s where my interest in music began,” says singer and guitarist Paul, 66.

“I think they were the first band to write their own material at the time and they were all well-crafted songs. I think that’s why a lot of people got into music and had a go at writing songs.”

Paul, whose other influences include The Eagles, David Bowie and Prince, went on to play in bands L 182 (A Passion) and Cinq Mars.

Andy, whose influences are rock, classical, smooth jazz and electro pop, was a professional drummer during his early career and performed and recorded with Snaps, The Victims and The Sunny Richards Band in the 1970s.

“We supported a lot of bands including Thin Lizzy, Showaddywaddy, The Climax Blues Band and Trapeze,” says Andy, 65.

In 1980, he started working at Sandwell College. Five years later Paul joined the team, and they became firm friends.

“We go back a long way and have lots of fond memories of our time at the college,” says Paul, who later worked at Bournville. After leaving education they focused on their own musical projects – with Paul concentrating on songwriting and also performing at several music festivals and gigs, and Andy on his Relax Listen instrumental albums, which he began in 2010.

In 2016, they decided to combine their ideas and form a recording, production and songwriting partnership. “I had a catalogue of songs I hadn’t recorded and we started putting them together with Andy’s music and it worked,” said Paul.

Everything is recorded in a small studio at Andy’s home and the duo also collaborate with lyricist John Dietrich, who Paul has known since their school days. “We do everything at home. If we went to a studio to record, the cost would be astronomical,” says Andy. “When we started teaching, we saw digital recording and production come in so we have all the skills we need for home recording.”

When it comes to penning lyrics, Paul says inspiration can come from anywhere. “It usually starts with a phrase or title, it might be something on the news or something on the telly. Once I’ve got an idea, I usually start thinking of a melody and I’ll get an idea in my head for the lyrics.

“You’ve got to be true to yourself with writing – and if someone else likes it, that’s a bonus."

Their first album, Reflections, was originally released under the name HnH Music in December 2016 and featured 14 tracks.

It was followed by This Other World in July 2017 and in 2021, the duo rebranded themselves as Harper n Hubble Music before their fourth album Roads We Take came out in the autumn.

Academic Life, inspired by their careers in education, was released in February. this year. “It’s a bit of a homage to our academic careers. We’ve had a few of the students we used to teach contact us to say they know what it’s about,” explains Paul.

Their next album, which has a working title of Reinvented, will feature a number of covers, including their version of the Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun.

“We often get asked why we don’t do covers so our next album will have three or four songs that are covers,” says Andy, whose favourite artists range from Led Zeppelin to Colin Blunstone.

“It’s not because we’ve run out of our own material, we are constantly writing - but we wanted to put a few tracks on the album that we admire,” adds Paul.

In the future, they say they would love to perform their songs live but say there is shortage of venues interested in artists who play original material.

“There are not many places to play these days. There used to be a lot more, especially places interested in original music. But it’s something we are looking into,” says Andy.

Meanwhile, the duo say their long-standing friendship has been the key to forming a successful songwriting partnership.

“We can bounce ideas off each other. We’ve also got slightly different styles and that makes the albums a little bit different - we might have some folk, rock and pop all on the same album,” says Paul.

“We’ve been friends a long time and we know each other well. We’ve got the confidence to tell each other when we think something doesn’t sound very good. It’s important to have that,” adds Andy.

For more information, see harperhubble.com.