Meet Paul Roessler | Musician & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Paul Roessler and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paul, we’d love to hear more about your end-goal, professionally.
I can’t see any other end goal for anyone other than to be the G.O.A.T. So having set that goal by the time I was twelve or thirteen … goals can only be completely meaningless to me. Around the same age, I realized that achieving or not achieving that would take all my time and effort … So things like talking people into seeing me as that. or trying to convince people of that, was a waste of time and would diminish my ability to achieve… That meaningless goal. If I pay attention to that goal, I must live in a constant state of failure. Which I accept. So I stay exclusively in process and growth.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I was twelve or thirteen when I committed to music. At the time I viewed myself first as a piano/keyboard player but I quickly began taking composing and songwriting seriously too. Eventually, I got to be a good enough singer that I might include that as well. It was forty or forty-five years before I finally saw production as a serious part of my art. I was trapped in a nineteenth century view of the artist as a solitary figure. Production was a job for me, a job I loved and was grateful for, but I couldn’t see all the albums I produced as my own art. Finally I came to see that production, collaboration and community are a more modern take on art. I still use all the tools I was trained in, but in the service of a community rather than my more self-centered designs, although I do continue to compose and record my own music as well. My studio, Kitten Robot, is a place where true artists can afford to make professionally recorded music with much less concern for answering to the market. Now we have started a record company, Kitten Robot Records. it is very exciting. I think we have an opportunity to continue to enrich Los Angeles music.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live near downtown and I love the whole area around the Disney Hall, The Broad, Grand Park and Pershing Square, I like driving up the coast through Malibu to the beaches near county line. There is a tiny little park near my house called Vista Hermosa that I go to a lot. The Venice canals always surprises people. I like the Doheney Mansion. Griffith Observatory is cool and there’s a few places in Griffith park I go to sometimes. I like driving around San Pedro over to Redondo beach along the coast and through Palos Verdes. My favorite Restaurant is Shojin in Little Tokyo. This is a bad question for me, because I am committed to driving as little as possible, but I have to make exceptions for visitors from out of town!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Rachel Roessler is my wife. She works in mental health. She is very gifted in her field and I learn so much from watching her. She is also a great photographer whose work is getting more and more recognition.

Website: http://paulroessler.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.roessler.3/
Other: https://kittenrobot.com/

Image Credits
All photos by Rachel Roessler except #6 by Cherish Alexander #4 and 7 by Stephanie Pick