Paul J Penton is a craft-based singer songwriter with 48 years of strumming under his belt –
anything from a Gibson acoustic to a 12-string or Classical guitar, along with resonators and
ukulele. More recently, he’s started to embrace an even wider musical family. His latest songs,
while remaining lyric-driven, feature symphonic orchestration and strong melodic structures.
Singer songwriter
Paul’s music embraces themes of spirituality, our place in the world as well as explorations of
intimacy, love and relationships, Stories are told through a range of forms, from basic folk to
classic jazz, country rock and ambient pop.
Paul’s musical influences go back to mid-seventies folk heroes like Cat Stevens, Carole King,
James Taylor as well as the Eagles and the Beach Boys. Of recent times the casual insouciance of
Brad Paisley, the edginess of Lily Allen, and the meditative works of Mary Chapin-Carpenter
have influenced Paul’s writing.
Over the years Paul’s writing has been recognised by organisations including the Tamworth
Songwriters Association and the Australian Songwriters Association where he placed third in
in the acoustic category with ‘Get me some lovin’ in 2016 and was nominated for the Rudy
Brandsma award (2018).
Songwriting Studies
Paul has studied through Berklee Music College learning lyric construction with Pat Pattison and
Andrea Stolpe – exploring mechanics of meter and construction of song sections.
He has also studied audio production and arrangement with Jeff Bauer and Jimmy Kachulis.
Paul is a trained sound engineer with more than 40 years’ industry experience including
orchestral, folk and world music recording.
He currently runs the Melbourne Songwriters forum a collective of songwriters who meet for
songwriting challenges and feedback sessions.
