Acclaimed songwriter and former Mansun frontman, Paul Draper, will release Cult Leader Tactics on 28th January via KScope – his first album since 2017’s lauded Spooky Actions.
Cult Leader Tactics is a satire about the genre of self-help manuals. It details how to get to the top of your chosen profession, or how to get on in life in general and in affairs of the heart, by acting in a Machiavellian manner and employing dirty tricks – or ‘Cult Leader Tactics’ – to achieve your life goals.
Paul plays the majority of the instruments on Cult Leader Tactics 11-tracks, including guitars, drum machines and synthesisers, on an album produced with long-time collaborator and acclaimed producer Paul ‘P-Dub’ Walton at the latter’s Loft Studios, with additional engineering by Scott Knapper.
Cult Leader Tactics features guest appearances from revered musician and producer Steven Wilson, who co-wrote and plays on ‘Omega Man’ – a collaboration about his and Paul’s feelings of isolation during lockdown. It also features Gamaliel ‘Gam’ Rendle Traynor from the band Sweat, who played, arranged and engineered all strings (recorded at Sweat Studios, Peckham, London), as well as a 288-person C.L.T. Lockdown Choir who sing on ‘Lyin’ Bout Who U Sleep With’.
Paul and his band will begin a 21-date tour at the end of February, playing stripped back versions of songs from Cult Leader Tactics and Spooky Action, as well as Mansun classics and rarities:
PAUL DRAPER – LIVE IN 2022
February
27th – Oxford – O2 Academy 2
28th – Reading – Sub89
March
1st – Chester – The Live Rooms
2nd – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
4th – Aberdeen – The Tunnels
5th – Glasgow – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
6th – Birmingham – The O2 Institute 2
8th – Norwich – The Waterfront Studio
9th – Manchester – Gorilla
10th – Hull – Social on Humber Street
11th – Sheffield – The Leadmill, The Steel Stage
12th – Newcastle – St Doms
14th – Cardiff – The Globe
15th – Exeter – Phoenix
16th – Bristol – Fleece
17th – Leicester – O2 Academy 2
18th – Bedford – Bedford Esquires
20th – Bournemouth – The Old Fire Station
21st – Portsmouth – Wedgewood Rooms
22nd – Brighton – Komedia
23rd – London – Islington Assembly Hall
