‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) only create original songs, they don’t do covers, and they are the prolific and dynamic song writing duo of ex-Londoners – singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and actor Paul Odiase, a member of BMI, and ex-London police officer, song lyricist Paul Robert Thomas, a member of the PRS (London).
They are called ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) as they are both called ‘Paul’ – hence ‘The Paul’s’, or ’Les Paul’s’ in French:)!
The 2 Paul’s first started collaborating in 2014 with their 2 albums in quick succession, Holy Land Revisisted and P.O.P. (‘Paul on Paul’), and in 2024, in order to celebrate 10 years of creating songs together, they released their 20th album, a triple album called Now & Then, that is currently No.2 in London’s Rock charts and which they followed with the first in a series of albums about The Chelsea Hotel and the celebrities that have stayed at the hotel through the years, their 21st album called The Chelsea Hotel#1.
In December 2024, they released their 22nd album, Is It Reggae? and in January 2025 it was followed in quick succession by their 15 song 23rd album, An American Landscape. In March 2025 they released their 24th album The Chelsea Hotel#2, and in August 2025 they will release their 25th album together, and the 3rd in the series of Chelsea Hotel albums called, The Chelsea Hotel#3, and they are already working on their 4th Chelsea Hotel album!
All 30 songs from the 3 Chelsea Hotel series of songs can be heard on their Reverbnation music site where they are No.1 in the Tokyo song charts and No.3 in the National song charts for Japan!
Yep, time sure does fly when you’re having fun doesn’t it! Actually, since The Chelsea Hotel#1 was released on 26 August 2024, I have released 11 other albums, 3 are ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) albums, and the others are 8 independent albums. This will be our ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) 25th album together, and it will be my 45th album.
That is amazing, and I’m guessing that one of them was The Chelsea Hotel#2?
Yes, that was released on 7 March 2025 and the album contains songs about Patti Smith, Marianne Faithfull, Robbie Robertson, Jon Baez, Madonna, Joni Mitchell, Iggy Pop and Edie Sedgwick.
Which artists are featured on the new album, The Chelsea Hotel#3?
There’s songs about the famous manager of The Chelsea, Stanley Bard, also about Sam Shephard, Dennis Hopper, Quentin Crisp, Nico, Dylan Thomas, Bette Davis, Thomas Wolfe and The Ghost of 5th Floor Mary.
I understand you recently visited the Chelsea Hotel, did you see the ghost of Mary there?
No, I only managed to spend a short time in the hotel and actually we wanted to spend our last night at the Chelsea, but there was ‘no room in the inn’, and so we had to rough it by staying in Manhattan’s nearby New York Palace Hotel
Isn’t that where all the big rock stars stay?
Yeah, but none were in residence when we were there.
Are all the songs you do original, you don’t do covers do you?
Listen, if someone wants to dress up like Elvis and spend his life impersonating him,or get lots of ‘Likes’ for performing ‘Make You Feel My Love’, well that’s okay, everyone’s gotta eat, and yes, it’s entertainment I suppose, but it’s not what we do and we don’t have the time to cover other artist’s works as we are constantly creating original new works of our own as time is short and we gotta do it while we still can, and life is about creating, not imitating.
What is the release date for The Chelsea Hotel#3 and how do you release your albums?
The release date for The Chelsea Hotel#3 is 18 August 2025, and our work is released through Swiss Cottage Recordz with publishing by Studio City’s Unlimited Sounds LLC in conjunction with Budde Music, Uk.
So I guess you and your song writing partner Paul Odiase over in Switzerland will be taking a deserved rest after the album is released?
(Laughs) No, we’ve already finished one new song for the next installment of The Chelsea Hotel albums, The Chelsea Hotel#4, it’s a song about Allen Ginsberg, and Paul is currently working on the 2nd song about Tom Waits for the album, as well as a separate club song about Quentin Crisp that will be released as a single.
Well you guys are certainly prolific and we wish you much success with your new album.
Thanks so much!
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