You create music through two distinct identities: Paul Robert Thomas and ‘Les Pauls’ (The Paul’s). What does each one allow you to express differently?
PAUL ROBERT THOMAS: Since I am primarily a Song Lyricist, I can therefore write lyrics in most styles, and I have worked independently and have supplied lyrics for Metal bands, Rock artists, Blues artists, Jazz artists, Pop artists, Folk artists, Country artists and even Electronic and Techno music artists, and to date I have released 58 albums using about 675 sets of my lyrics.
My collaboration with Switzerland’s Paul Odiase as ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) – shortened to ‘Les Paul’s’ by licensing and distribution sites, works on the same basis in that I supply the already written song lyrics and Paul performs the magic and turns my lyrics into songs by composing the music, singing the vocals and performing the music live in his home recording studio where he also produces and masters the songs.
We tend to create Alternative, Pop, Rock or Blues songs. The main difference between my earlier collaborations with other artists is that they were usually for one or two songs, but as part of ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) we create whole themed albums and have been doing so since our first album, ‘Holy Land Revisited’ was released in 2014.
One of our most recent achievements is the 42 original song 4-volume The Chelsea Hotel Collection – Volumes 1-4, and our new and 31st ‘Les Paul’s’ album is a Blues album called Time To Get Real, released 10 August 2026 by London’s Swiss Cottage Recordz, licensing with AUDIOSPARX and publishing with Studio City’s UL Sounds LLC and Budde Music.
From the Roundhouse and London’s 1960s music culture to your life and work today, which encounter or influence has stayed with you most strongly?
PAUL ROBERT THOMAS: I met many music artists while working outside the Roundhouse that was next to my home in north London, but I was only in my early teens then and had no real grasp as to how important these music icons were or would indeed become, and for sure my meeting with Andy Warhol left a lasting impression on me as he was the only one that I at that time, knew anything about.
But I also was a former London police constable and I remember being on duty for Princess Diana’s wedding and her carriage passed under the bridge where I was standing, having closed the footbridge off to pedestrians and she looked up and then gestured to Charles (now King Charles) sitting next to her, and she looked up and pointed to me, smiled and waved to me. But after retiring, I joined the Thai Embassy’s visa department where I worked for 26 years and I met many famous people – presidents, politicians, celebrities, TV personalities and musicians, and I toured the country on 3 different occasions as part of the Royal Princess of Thailand’s entourage, but to be honest, I am not easily impressed by titles but more so by who the person really is inside, and I try my best to avoid ‘famous people’ as in reality they usually are not what they are perceived to be and don’t live up to expectations, whether rightly or wrongly imagined.
With new songs and releases continuing across your projects, what should listeners look out for next?
PAUL ROBERT THOMAS: All of our work is original, we don’t do covers nor borrow lines or melodies from other songs, we create songs from our souls. On 10 August 2026, one of our best ‘Les Paul’s’ albums to date, our 31st album called Time To Get Real was released. It’s an electric guitar driven Blues/Rock album, and as with all of our work we don’t pull any punches, we tell it how it is, we don’t chase trends or soften the edges for accessibility and we stand firm in our convictions offering a mirror to the world that is often not what it appears to be to most people.
Paul Robert Thomas’s latest album – his 55th album & the 3rd in a trilogy of Folk albums called ‘Some More Folk’ was released in June 2026.
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