Originally from Italy, Paolo moved over to London to pursue his music career. If he had been born in the States, his ambition would have been classified as the typical American dream. “I wanted to go to New York but I would have had problems with visas after a while, so I opted for London instead.”

Back in Italy, after fronting several bands and performing in high profile venues in his hometown of Bologna, he quickly realised that the Italian music scene was limiting for him. “I constantly got asked by A&R people to write and sing in Italian, but I grew up listening to English and American artists, that was the kind of music I loved and wanted to make.”

London can be intimidating even for people who live and work here on a daily basis, let alone for someone who has never been here. Paolo saw moving to London the only way he could further his music career. “The hardest part was leaving family and friends behind, but it would have been harder for me to have stayed because I saw no opportunities for my music in Italy.”

His music, the opportunity to express himself through his lyrics and performing live is all that matters to him. “I bought a one-way ticket, I just knew I was going to make London my home no matter what. I got a job the first day I arrived, washing dishes for the hostel I was staying at.“

Once in London, the first couple of years were spent getting to know his new home and its fervent music scene. “I was hanging out on Denmark Street, answering all the adverts of bands looking for a singer, trying them out like you do when shopping for clothes.”

In and out of local bands for a while, he gained plenty of invaluable experience performing on the London gig circuit, before finally deciding to start a solo career. “Other members of your band can stop you in your track simply by not turning up at rehearsals. I couldn’t have that anymore. I never met anyone who was as committed as I was.”

Fortunately, dance and pop music rarely require a 5-piece backing band. Sometimes one person who’s good at his job is more than enough. Pop stars and songwriters are renowned for relying on the help of talented producers to help them make hit records. More and more collaborations of this sort are proving successful in dance and pop music, like Robyn and Kleerup, Britney Spears and Max Martin / Dr. Luke, or Adele collaborating with Ryan Tedder and various other producers for her latest album, ‘21’.

The next aim for Paolo was to find a good music producer to help him create a sound for his songs. After several unsuccessful stabs at it, he realised that the only way he’d get what he wanted fast was by paying a professional producer to work on his tracks. It was through an advert in Sound on Sound that he met established producer and songwriter Phil Foster. After working on a couple of demos for Paolo, Foster realised the potential of forming a collaboration and the two started writing new material together, releasing a series of singles as pop-electro act Boyde.

Building on his long term partnership with Foster, Paolo has recently started a string of collaborations with other up and coming music producers.

It was at the beginning of 2012 that through an advert posted on Facebook for a pianist to record ‘Love Like You’ll Never Get Hurt’, he met producer and songwriter Jay B. Sells. With Sells, Paolo is currently working on a live set and is planning to kickstart a tour in London over the summer to promote his new releases. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.