A MULTI-TASKING musician from Old Town is celebrating the release of his second album after teaching himself how to play several instruments and produce the record.

Paul Lappin grew up in Swindon, went to school at St Joseph’s Catholic College and got a graphic design qualification from the old art college before working in advertising agency EMO for five years when it used to be based in Old Town.

After continuing as a graphic designer in Bristol for more than a decade, he became a snowboarding instructor in Canada for eight years before an unusual set of circumstances gave him the inspiration to become a musician.

The 46-year-old explained: "One of my colleagues inherited a house in the south of France from his father and he asked me to house-sit - I didn't have to think very long about that one.

"When I moved to France, living in a hamlet surrounded by vineyards, a local musician at my French class loaned me a lot of his instruments when I mentioned that I was starting to write songs.

“I had to learn pretty fast but I really enjoyed it and I can now play the lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, tambourine and bongos. He'll probably want them back soon...

"I bought an electric guitar from Holmes Music last week and it's the first instrument I've ever properly owned.”

Paul still returns to his hometown now and again to catch up with his friends and family.

He said: “A lot of my school friends are still here, they think I’ve retired, it’s all quite odd to them.

“The title track on the second album is about my school years as I was never really good at the academic stuff, I was always more into creative subjects but that wasn’t very encouraged back then.

“I’ve always enjoyed spending time on my own and been a bit of a hermit so it was very easy to move to somewhere so isolated in France."

Though he’d never had any musical ambitions before, he quickly went to work on the second album shortly after recording his first one as ideas for new songs kept on coming.

Paul added: "I have the melody in my head and I know what I want, I just have to figure out how to play it.

"I'm not an expert but I can play well enough and it did come surprisingly easily, it makes me wonder what would have happened if I had started this years ago.

“I always find the lyrics hardest to write, it’s like baring your soul.

“Hopefully people will like the music, it started as a very small personal project and I’d like to do more.”

While music is his passion project, he still teaches snowboarding every winter and draws artworks on cards to sell at the local French market.

The album The Boy Who Wants To Fly is available on iTunes and Spotify, with limited edition CDs available from Paul's Bandcamp page: paullappin.bandcamp.com/releases