The 5th of seven children, and born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, Paul grew up in a typical working class environment. His father James is a carpenter and mother Sylvia (for no other reason than being the mother of 7) a housewife. His talent for singing was spotted at a very early age when he won the Burns Federation singing competition at the tender age of 6 years old.

However, he was not to continue as a singer. He began playing brass instruments in his local Salvation Army Brass Band, finally settling on the Bass Trombone by age 13. He very soon became the bass trombone player with Kilmarnock Concert Brass Band and the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland and his career seemed to be mapped out, that was, that he would have a career as an orchestral/brass/big band player. He first studied at Napier College, Edinburgh in 1983, where, through singing in the college choir his love for singing was rekindled. This meant a small role in Lennox Berkeley’s opera Ruth, a role which he relished. He was approached by a professor there Anna Butterworth who asked him whether he was interested in studying singing full time, and she in turn approached singing professor Andrew Doig who agreed to take him on. A year later Paul gained places at all the main Colleges of Music in London. He chose the Royal College of Music where he was lucky enough by his third year to study with the celebrated Wagnerian baritone Norman Bailey. Since leaving the Royal College his career to date has seen him sing with the choruses of Scottish Opera, ENO, Covent Garden, Les Arts Florrissants, Nouvelle Ensemble Vocale, The Monteverdi Choir and London Voices. His first big break as a soloist was when Anthony Legge gave him his first cover of Teddy Foran in Mark Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie for English National Opera. Scottish Opera also played a important role in his development as a soloist, when they offered him the cover of Alberich in their 2004 Ring Cycle. Not only was this a mammoth role but it showed Paul’s ability to memorise the extremely fast alliterative texts, in what is one of Opera’s most demanding baritone roles. Fortunately for Paul, Peter Sidhom was unavailable for 2 rehearsals which gave him the opportunity to sing at a production rehearsal and a Sitz Probe both conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong. He subsequently made his Scottish Opera debut in 2004 as Theseus in The Minotaur by Julian Evans

and then appeared in 2005 in Tosca as the conniving Sacrestan. Having perfect pitch and being an extremely quick learner means that Paul is in demand a lot in modern music. His performance in 2004 of Peter Maxwell Davies 8 Songs for a Mad King received great critical acclaim when he performed it with Ensemble 10/10, part of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and shortly afterwards was nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. He has since returned to Liverpool where he performed Mark Anthony Turnages Torn Fields. 2005 highlights included his Norwegian Opera debut as Hamlet, covering in Lorin Maazels 1984 for The Royal Opera Covent Garden and singing his first Marcello at Longborough in La Boheme with the Opera Project.