Paul Collins

Paul Collins stood out as a foundational presence in the Los Angeles power pop movement, where he specialized in crafting rock & roll numbers filled with memorable melodic lines delivered through a compact, driving force. He served as an essential participant in the Nerves and the Beat, a pair of groups that preceded the skinny tie new wave surge of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the latter outfit’s self-titled 1979 debut album continues to be recognized as a benchmark example of the style. Following stretches spent pursuing alternate musical directions while cultivating his audience across Europe, Collins issued the vigorous King of Power Pop! in 2010 as a strong reassertion of his approach, and both 2014’s Feel the Noise and 2024’s Stand Back and Take a Good Look reflected him merging that established approach with a more seasoned lyrical perspective.

Born in New York City, Collins grew up with a father employed as a civilian supporting the U.S. military, a position that required the family to relocate frequently; as a result young Paul lived in Greece, Vietnam, and Europe before returning to Manhattan at age 14. Upon finishing high school he pursued composition studies at the Juilliard School of Music, yet exposure to AM radio broadcasts and performances at the Fillmore East exerted a stronger influence, prompting him to relocate to California in the early 1970s in order to realize his concept of concise, forceful rock songs packed with hooks.

During 1974 Collins encountered fellow songwriters Peter Case and Jack Lee, leading the three to establish the Nerves, an early power pop group. The band performed rapid, memorable pop material while dressed in coordinated pink suits, conveying a street-level vitality that would later surface within Los Angeles’ initial punk scene; like those punk acts, the Nerves created their own performing opportunities when local clubs proved uncertain how to present them. The group arranged its own concerts, financed and completed a cross-country tour of modest venues, and issued a four-song 7" EP on its own imprint in 1976.

Although Blondie scored an early success with the Nerves composition “Hanging on the Telephone,” the band dissolved in 1978, after which Collins soon assembled a new group. Joining forces with bassist Steve Huff, former Milk ’n’ Cookies drummer Mike Ruiz, and guitarist Larry Whitman, he formed the Beat, whose concise, taut hard-rocking pop songs extended the direction the Nerves had established. After Eddie Money lent support, the Beat secured management through West Coast rock figure Bill Graham along with a Columbia recording contract, resulting in the release of their debut album (simply titled The Beat) in 1979. Critical notices proved favorable, yet most American radio outlets remained resistant to new wave acts; when the Knack achieved success later that year, the resemblance between the two bands led some observers to conclude Collins was imitating a sound he had helped originate.

Collins did not issue a follow-up until 1982, and owing to the rising profile of the British ska group the Beat, The Kids Are the Same appeared under the billing Paul Collins’ Beat. Despite extensive road work the album met with limited commercial response, prompting Columbia to drop the band; the subsequent release, 1983’s To Beat or Not to Beat, emerged as an EP on the independent Passport label. That recording also introduced a revised lineup, with only Steve Huff continuing alongside Collins from the original roster, while another independent EP, Long Time Gone, featuring yet another configuration of the band, appeared in 1985.

Following one last studio album credited to Paul Collins & the Beat, the 1989 release One Night, Collins proceeded independently and produced two notable country-rock efforts, 1992’s Paul Collins and 1993’s From Town to Town. By this stage his catalog, particularly the Beat recordings, had generated a substantial following in Spain, and a live album drawn from a Spanish tour surfaced in 1997 (a Spanish Beat performance had likewise received live LP treatment in 1986). Collins delivered a fresh studio album in Spain during 2000, and a reconstituted edition of the Beat toured the country in 2005, with a live album from those dates later issued. The full-length Ribbon of Gold appeared in 2008. Returning in 2010 with the wryly titled King of Power Pop!, Collins revisited the sonic territory of the Nerves and the Beat on a Detroit recording produced by Jim Diamond. He toured widely behind the album and returned to Detroit to cut the similar follow-up Feel the Noise in 2014.

Alive Naturalsound released Out of My Head in 2018, a solo project on which Collins performed vocals, guitar, and drums while also writing the songs, with Tony Leventhal handling engineering duties. Another World: The Best of the Archives, issued in 2020, gathered rare and previously unreleased material spanning Collins’ Beat years and early solo period; that same year he contributed a recording of John Wicks’ “She’s All I Need” to the tribute collection For the Record: A Tribute to John Wicks, thereby honoring his friend and collaborator, best known as the frontman of the British power pop band the Records. Also in 2020 Collins became a published author when his autobiography, I Don’t Fit In: My Wild Ride Through the Punk and Power Pop Trenches with the Nerves and the Beat (co-authored with Chuck Nolan), was published by Hozac Books. Once more collaborating with producer Jim Diamond, Collins completed the 2024 album Stand Back and Take a Good Look, issued by the reactivated Jem Records label; guest appearances on the record came from fellow power pop figures Dwight Twilley, Richard X. Heyman, Gary Klebe, Jeff Murphy, and John Murphy of Shoes.