Photo by Paige Sara via stpaulandthebrokenbones.com
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
The ancient Greek playwright Euripides is quoted as saying “To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter.” It’s a sentiment Paul Janeway, the namesake of southern soul outfit St. Paul & the Broken Bones, can well relate to. In 2020, fatherhood and the ability to create a musical message for Janeway’s then-unborn child became a major inspiration for “Angels in Science Fiction,” the fifth and most recent album from this Alabama octet.
With Janeway and his wife learning they were expecting a daughter in January of that year, the 30-something frontman found himself grappling with a wellspring of creativity amidst a generational pandemic. A flurry of songwriting occurred in April 2020, but due to Covid restrictions, it wasn’t until September that St. Paul and the Broken Bones were able to hit Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, along with a quick jaunt back to Alabama, and lay down what became the dozen songs that make up Angels in Science Fiction. For Janeway, getting these tunes in the can became a race against the clock because his daughter was due later that month.
What emerged is a complicated collection of songs wrapped in the ambiance of quasi-psychedelic neo-soul that subtly conveys Janeway’s feelings of joy, fear and confusion tied to this major worldview shift that comes with bringing another life into the world.
