What if the best music you ever make is still ahead of you?
Paul Robb has been making music for decades. He played in bands, wrote songs, stepped away from serious recording for years, came back to it later, learned an entirely new modern production workflow and is now releasing music he’s genuinely proud of.
Want to make your own recordings sound professional and finally turn your songs into finished records? → https://go.theselfrecordingband.com/coaching
Paul is also one of the longest-standing members of The Self-Recording Syndicate and one of the people who has contributed the most to our community over the years. He regularly joins the group coaching calls, shares thoughtful feedback and ideas, and has become an important part of what makes the community valuable.
In this episode, we talk about his entire journey.
From recording on four-track cassette machines and eventually walking away from recording technology altogether...
...to GarageBand, Logic Pro, modern production tools, collaboration, coaching and finally making recordings that gave him the confidence to say:
“I can do it.”
Hearing one of his finished songs reach a level that felt genuinely professional and release-ready was a major turning point after years of struggling to get there.
But this isn’t really a story about recording software or gear.
It’s about staying curious, continuing to learn and refusing to decide that your best creative years are already behind you.
Paul’s approach is to work in small chunks, accept that things sometimes take longer than expected, keep a positive attitude and, most importantly, never stop trying.
We also get into the way he makes records now.
Paul writes, sings and records himself, but he has also embraced collaboration instead of feeling like “self-recording” means he has to personally do everything.
He works with session musicians, engineers, producers, our coaching community and different creative tools to make each song better while still keeping the song and artistic vision his own.
And that leads to one of the bigger themes of this conversation:
You don’t have to prove anything by doing everything yourself.
Sometimes another musician plays the part better.
Sometimes another person hears something you don’t.
Sometimes somebody else asks the question you didn’t even know you needed to ask.
Paul talks about why the group coaching calls have become such an important part of his learning process and why he says he never leaves one without learning something.
In this episode:
- Returning to recording after years away
- Learning modern music production later in life
- Going from GarageBand to Logic Pro
- Building confidence one finished song at a time
- Why slow progress is still progress
- Working in small chunks instead of waiting for perfect conditions
- Self-recording without doing everything yourself
- Session musicians, collaboration and outside feedback
- Using modern creative tools without giving up authorship
- Songwriting, lyrics and developing your own voice
- Why community can accelerate your learning
- Editing, pitch correction and modern production standards
- Staying curious instead of living in the past
And when I ask Paul which decade he’d choose to go back and live in, his answer sums up the episode beautifully:
He wouldn’t.
He loves the memories, but he doesn’t want to go back.
He’s happy making music now.
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Check out Paul Robb / SmallTown:
“Taggin’ Along”: https://open.spotify.com/track/0Xvam5v2P3dWyVJNIG8VDp?si=83c0c599590a4229
“California”: https://open.spotify.com/track/6sd92MMK2WCDhd4bIdmEl6?si=48d16e88312642c2
More music is on the way.
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Want help turning your own songs into records you’re genuinely proud of?
https://go.theselfrecordingband.com/coaching
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For links to everything we've mentioned in this episode, as well as full show notes go to:
theselfrecordingband.com/325
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