Butterfly Decal: an introduction

18th November 2022

Niall, my musical partner in Butterfly Decal, will be hosting a radio show in the UK, and playing some of our music. He asked me to write a short introduction, so here is a brief history of Butterfly Decal.

Hello, I’m Paul. Niall and I are in a band called Butterfly Decal. Only, this band is a little different because we live several thousand miles apart; Niall’s in the UK and I’m based in Sai Gon, Viet Nam.

Thanks to modern technology, we are able to make music, create videos and upload online.

Niall and I met in the 80s, played in a few bands, played a few gigs and made a few demos but neither fame nor fortune came knocking.

However, Niall kept playing, I kept moving around yet we always stayed in touch. And we always said that one day, we would play together again. And now we are.

So the band’s name … this is a bit of an in-joke; I love jangly Rickenbackers, and I once made Niall watch ‘The One I Love’ video by R.E.M. over and over, just to see and hear the guitar, so we took the name from an R.E.M. song.

Musically, we both love Jazz and Blues, Classic 60s bands, Bowie and 80s Indie music, but we’re also looking to do something a little different, Post-Rock and Maths Rock … yes, we’re British, we call it Maths Rock. We like playing around with different time signatures, using non-traditional song structures … and mixing spoken word with music, making a musical collage.

We hope you like the track Niall’s going to play … now, I’ll say tạm biệt from Sai Gon.