I caught up with Paul Draper on a Friday afternoon to talk all things past, present and future. Having rescheduled due to an overrun recording session I asked how it went, to which he humbly answered in a still present Liverpudlian accent “okay, just one of those days.” Since Mansun’s split back in 2003 Draper has hardly been living in the shadows from his former career as the band’s frontman. The 90s rock band earned him iconic status with tracks including Wide Open Space, I can Only Disappoint U, and Stripper Vicar. Over the last decade he’s been busy exploring other outlets including song writing and producing. 
Following sold-out shows last year Draper and his team decided to head out on tour again this year, hitting some of the bigger venues including Oxford’s O2 Academy March 7 – it’s his first expedition as a solo artist with Spooky Action. Having originally set out to play six small gigs last year he said how he was “surprised and really grateful” to hear of the reaction, it was “mind boggling to everyone involved” he said. I had a listen to Spooky Action a few months back, not having in mind at the time that I would have the artist himself on the phone to talk me through it. Draper explained “I started this album a long long time ago, not too long after Mansun broke up. The name comes from [laughs] a physics book actually, by Albert Einstein -” (I looked it up, it’s called ‘Spooky Action at a Distance’) “it explained how particles could have an effect on other particles from a distance, if that makes sense? So yeah, it’s a continuation of my career from Mansun into my solo career. Spooky Action is quite dark lyrically as it’s about the past - expressing the backstabbing and betrayal I felt -” to which he did jest whether or not I was worried I’d answer the phone to a miserable git, and I won’t lie it did cross my mind (just listen to some tracks from Spooky Action), but thankfully quite the opposite “it stems from a consciousness I genuinely felt after the band broke up, and I shelved it as a solo album then went on to have great success as a producer and writer. Years later my manager just came up to me and said ‘it’s time’ regarding my own album, and I already had the lyrics written. It’s my own emotional perspective about Mansun’s split and a hybridisation of a Mansun record and me under a different name – I’ve updated it to the modern world – but want it to still be relevant.” For any solo artist rising from an acclaimed career as part of a band, especially 15 years later, to venture out as a solo artist must be quite a daunting prospect. “Time’s been kind,” Draper remarked, “I was quite the archetypal angry young man in Masun, but I’ve mellowed out now. I didn’t know what to expect really, until I toured last year, but the audience seems to be really gravitating to where I am now. With Mansun I thought to myself ‘I am never going to be able to ditch these songs’ and I never saw myself as a solo artist until last year, but I didn’t want to go backwards.” He referenced Paul Weller’s transition from The Jam into a solo artist and remarked that he had a nice balance which adhered to Jam fans but still enabled Weller to push forward and be acknowledged as a solo identity, which is what Draper is hoping to do with his current tour. He continued “It’s very different now though, cause I’m an old man. I mean, for the last run of gigs I was actually quite ill so was playing a set and would then go back stage to take some antibiotics.“ “Very rock ‘n’ roll” I jabbed, to which he responsed “Ha, no, my rock ‘n’ roll days are over.” 
Despite Draper’s drive to move on from Mansun, it’s not surprising that many of his fans will have stemmed from that period of his life. When asking how he approaches this, he said “Me and my band came up with a cunning plan. We play 1 hour of my music, we walk off and do all that and then come back on to play 3 Mansun tracks.” Everybody’s happy! Even with his earlier success, Draper added “I much prefer being a relevant artist by playing my own solo stuff.” So when Paul Draper actually has time off, what does he do? “Ha, work is my thing - I’m a workaholic! I mean my hobby is messing around in my studio - I can be in there for weeks! “I’ve only just really learnt the meaning behind ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’. Back in the day I would just work until I dropped - I remember once waking up on my guitar, I was very much the hare. Now I pace myself, and now I know what the fable really means. “Aside from that I’m into my football, - support Liverpool, otherwise my dad would be very cross with me - enjoy going around galleries, looking at architecture, and I read a lot.” Tickets are still available for Oxford’s O2 Academy, Wednesday March 7 - www.academymusicgroup.com