Paul Collins

So, there I was, just sitting at my desk working in a rare moment of daytime word-wrangling—most of my writing is done at night—and the phone rang. The caller ID indicated the call was from New York, so instead of letting it slide to voicemail I answered. Who knew? Coulda been Hova.

"Hello, Gordon?" a voice said. "Yes," I answered. "Hey, man," came the response. "This is Paul Collins."

Let me back up for a minute. I've been a fan of the Paul Collins Beat for—well, let's just say for a really long time. I was beside myself excited when the group played the Caledonia Lounge in 2010, and when the opportunity to speak to the man himself in advance of the group's upcoming show at Hi-Lo came about, I jumped at the chance.

That is to say, I jumped but then didn't really do anything proactive about it for a few days. Somehow, word had spread that I wanted to speak to Collins. Someone passed off my phone number to the man, and that's how this all happened. Which is really a perfect way to lead into what I'm about to say: After roughly 40 years of playing professionally, Paul Collins is still on top of things.

"I just finished a new album," he says. "If you'd have asked me 20 years ago, I never thought I'd pull it off. The '90s were a bust for me. I spent a long time living in Madrid and just never did much work. I just did solo acoustic work. Everything I played was the same parts I would normally do on rhythm guitar. It was the work I could get."

Eventually, Collins put together a full band in Spain and then played South by Southwest in 2007. Sensing a renewal of interest stateside, Collins formed another band in the Midwest, one in New York and one in Australia so he could tour Down Under.

"At one point, I had four bands," says Collins. "All the musicians just attacked it the same way and people dug it. It was the only way I could do this. I'm working more now than I ever have in my life. [Of those initial lineups] only the Midwest band remains for touring, though. And it's all club work. You know, just going down to the local dive in whatever town."

Collins says he has just completed his newest, as-yet-untitled album with a lineup in Spain, working with the Bomp!-affiliated Alive! Records and the garage-rock Valhalla Get Hip. 

The Beat's current tour features Nashville's Parasite Diet as the opener. Collins is keen to play with younger bands because, as he says, "The younger groups bring out the crowds. But I shifted my focus away from the numbers game about two years ago. No matter how many people are in the room, you gotta have a good time with them. If we're gonna do this, we have nothing to lose. What are they gonna do, throw rocks at us?"

Indeed, Collins' live show is infectiously fun from the word go, and his ultimate goal is one audiences most likely have for themselves already. "Look, dudes don't dance, and my goal is to get these guys to dance," says Collins. "Once you push 'em and get 'em outta their shell, they're having a lot of fun. I want all the people to have fun. That's my mission."

The Paul Collins Beat plays Hi-Lo Lounge Sunday, Jan. 19 with The Arcs, The VG Minus and Parasite Diet. Read our Calendar Pick here.