Exclusive Interview: Paul Cogley
Credit: Artwork by Sam Cogley
The Silent Sea is not your typical album. It’s not chasing trends, not pandering to playlists, and sure as hell not looking for permission. This is music made the old-school way—from gut, from soul, from the kind of late-night headspace where you’re either creating something honest or staring into the ceiling fan wondering about the meaning of it all.
This is the fourth studio release by Paul Cogley—though this time, he’s going just by “Cogley”, which feels fitting for an artist who's stripped things down to pure essence. He’s not hiding behind production gimmicks or guest features. In fact, The Silent Sea, like its predecessors Terra Nullius and Deep Blue Sky, is entirely written, played, recorded, and shaped by one man. Every note. Every layer. Every breath.
That alone is impressive. But what makes this album resonate deeply is its emotional clarity. It’s not clinical. It’s not polished to the point of numbness. It’s raw, restless, and achingly beautiful—a sonic snapshot of a chaotic world and one man's internal dialogue with it.
Cogley has a thing with the elements. His last two records, Terra Nullius (Earth) and Deep Blue Sky (Air), explored their respective themes with nuance and texture. Now with The Silent Sea, we plunge into water. But don’t expect sea shanties or ambient bubble loops. This album feels like water, emotionally—fluid, vast, sometimes stormy, sometimes still.
What you get are mood pieces that shift like tides—moments of melodic clarity cut with darker, edgier undertones. There’s a clear intention to tap into the ebb and flow of feeling, rather than trying to “nail a hit.” One moment, you feel like you're floating peacefully; the next, you’re in deep waters with no land in sight. And that’s kind of the point.
Credit: Photo-Nancy Lashbrook
What’s truly refreshing is Cogley’s commitment to complete creative freedom. No producers whispering in his ear. No algorithms dictating song lengths. No co-writers flattening his intent. It’s just him and his instruments—and you can feel that purity.
He puts it best himself:
“The thing with emotions is that they can change overnight… sometimes you need to climb back out of one rabbit hole in order to find another, more suitable rabbit hole. Alice never had this problem.”
That sense of wandering—of creative curiosity without fear—saturates The Silent Sea. This isn’t about hooks; it’s about exploration. If you’re patient, the reward is a record that grows with each listen.
Paul Cogley’s backstory is cinematic. Born in England, first performance at 13 (playing Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” at a church fete), and a lifetime spent in parallel careers: daytime engineer at British Leyland, Jaguar, GM, and Boeing; nighttime sonic adventurer in the studio.
You can feel that duality in the music—mechanical precision meets emotional messiness. It’s calculated in its structure but free in its expression. The kind of album that might make a spreadsheet of chord progressions while crying into a glass of whiskey.
Cogley’s “The Silent Sea” is an elemental, emotive, and completely unfiltered dive into one man’s mind, made with zero compromises and 100% passion.
Multi-instrumentalist and self-producer Paul Cogley doesn’t just write music—he translates feeling into soundscapes that don’t beg for your attention, but deserve it.
If you're tired of formula and hungry for something real, cue this up and let it wash over you.
We Spoke To Paul about his journey so far. Read the exclusive interview below.
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
Do you have an interesting moment or story from your early life that has had a significant impact on your journey into music?
Paul: Well, I suppose, pertinent to where I am at today, about 10 years ago in Seattle, when, after most of my life of playing in bands, I just hit a breaking point, and suddenly, I just couldn’t do it anymore. It literally was a moment that occurred while on stage during a performance, when I just had to leave the stage. Within a couple of days, I quit all three bands I was playing in at the time and withdrew completely from the music scene there. After some period of contemplation, I started building up a recording studio and going it alone. Obviously, I needed to do that, and found that being your own boss was completely liberating. This was a significant moment for me.
Are there any artists that were influential to your musical journey? How have they inspired your sound as an artist?
Paul: Well, I am a guitar player first, but lately, music production and all the engineering that goes with that seems to have taken precedence. Having said that, I was always enthralled by musicians that forge their own path. One of the earliest was Mike Oldfield. Tubular Bells still is regularly spun in my house. Jean Michel Jarre is another. But guitar players have always inspired, and it would be remiss of me not to call them out here, so, Jeff Beck (for style and originality), Dave Gilmour (for manifesting emotion), Richard Thompson (for playing in the moment), and Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore (for the sheer balls). I would like to think I have pulled something from every one of them.
How would you describe your sound to new listeners? What do you think sets you apart?
Paul: What sets me apart? Staying away from the norms, not trying to follow any pattern other than supporting the flow of an album. In this age of short attention spans, I still believe there are those that listen to a whole album from beginning to end, and not just the individual tracks that take their fancy. My albums are crafted as a whole, and I like to think of the whole thing as a journey and that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Of course each track stands on its own, but is enhanced by what preceded and what follows, much like Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon as an example of this. I’ll let the listener decide how successful I am with doing this.
What’s your creative process? Where do you normally start when it comes to writing and recording? Do the lyrics come first?
Paul: As a musician first, the music always comes first, and it is usually written on an acoustic guitar, even my electronic compositions typically started out as an acoustic guitar track that that ultimately results in the acoustic guitar track getting removed. That happens a lot. Then the resulting emotions invoked dictate the topic of the lyrics. This is generally the process.
Have you had any challenges or adversities in your life that you feel have shaped you as an artist?
Paul: In October 2004 I went to the doctors with a pain in my abdomen that resulted in a ‘3 month to live scenario’ quite literally. What followed was 6 months of chemotherapy that had me living at a facility where every day I was pumped full of chemicals as I had nothing to lose. That rewrote my view of life as I got to know a lot of folks in the same boat, and I got to learn who made it through and who didn’t and why. Here I am 20 years later, still hanging in there. It’s hard to say that period of my life didn’t shape who I am today.
Are there any moments or achievement from your career so far that you’re most proud of?
Paul: I did several recording sessions in the past with individuals and bands that did go on to be somewhat successful, and have played in many bands and had a lot of fun over the years, None of that really matters to me now when compared to me breaking out on my own and doing my own thing. I think that is the most honest and genuine thing you can do for yourself, and for me, it took a few years to figure that out, but never too late, eh?
Which do you prefer, the creative process or live performance? Or do you enjoy both equally?
Paul: There was a time when playing live was everything, and rehearsing while trying to come up with new stuff while jamming was also a fascinating process. Today of course, I do not perform, and love being locked in my studio coming up with new stuff that is pertinent and relevant to today.
Do you as an artist require fans to fully understand your message in each song or do you encourage subjective interpretation from every listener?
Paul: Music is personal and you can only listen to it through your own filters, it’s the only way. For me, my music has personal messages and experiences embedded, however it is not the goal to impart those experiences onto the listener, but I would hope the listener to be affected by the emotion of the song that it invokes their own emotions through their own filters. I can only hope for that honor.
Does the political landscape have an impact on your music, or do you keep your personal opinions separate from your work as an artist?
Paul: In this polarizing time, it is hard to separate politics from emotions of the time, and I would be lying if I said not. My music is about emotions relevant to the current time so yes, politics do affect. My last album ‘Deep Blue Sky’ (marketed under the artist name ‘Paul Cogley’ ; the new album ‘The Silent Sea’ is marketed under ‘Cogley’) was written while Ukraine was being invaded, so I dedicated it to that. Look for the visual clues on the cover, and the artwork was done by a Ukrainian company. The latest ‘The Silent Sea’ is all about those who remain silent while all this craziness takes place.
What are your future plans? Any new songs/projects on the horizon?
Paul: Well actually lots in the pipeline. The new album will begin shortly. With this latest (10 years ago) direction in my music career, I wanted to generally tip the hat towards nature. I thought all my albums should resonate with a theme, so I picked the 4 elements. My first solo album in 2020 ‘Terra Nullius’ was about the element Earth, second came ‘Deep Blue Sky’ in 2022 about the element Air, in 2025 ‘The Silent Sea’ about the element Water and the next will be about the element Fire of course. Then I plan to release a compilation, a ‘best of..’ called ‘Elements’, ha ha! what else?
In addition, ‘The Silent Sea’ was released streaming and intended to be released on vinyl. I am planning to re-release ‘Terra Nullius’ and ‘Deep Blue Sky’ under my latest artist name ‘Cogley’ but also on vinyl as they were only made for CD and streaming. So, look out for that too.
The Silent Sea is available now on all major streaming platforms
Credit: Artwork by Sam Cogley
