Paul Roland

Initially intended as an unofficial soundtrack to the 1932 film starring Bela Lugosi, it turned into a collection of songs with incidental music.

Recorded mainly in Italy, the album was well-received by Italian magazine Blow Up, who named it "record of the month".

Roland's work is generally rooted in psychedelic pop and gothic rock, with influences from folk, jazz, blues, baroque, and 1950s rock and roll.

His style has been described as "idiosyncratic".

Roland's songs typically present as stories, addressing historical figures, and characters from film and literature.

He has also written about non-specific characters including supernatural visitors, pirates, and villainous judges.

As well as being a singer, Roland plays guitar and keyboards.

Paul Roland (born 6 September 1959) is an English singer-songwriter, author and music journalist.

Roland typically writes his songs in the form of stories, often addressing historical figures, characters from literature and film, or his own creations.

He has explored genres including gothic rock, psychedelic pop, folk and baroque.

Described by Music Week as a "psychedelic cult celebrity", Roland has enjoyed an underground career as opposed to mainstream success, gathering a stronger fanbase in mainland Europe than in his native UK.

He has been credited with spearheading steampunk music.

Aside from his recording career, Roland has written for various music magazines, and has authored numerous books on subjects including popular music, crime, World War II, and the supernatural.

Roland was born on 6 September 1959 in Kent, England.

He is an only child.

His father was a writer of short stories and TV comedy scripts and his mother an actress.

Roland's earliest influences include the authors H. G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft and M. R. James.

He also developed a love of classic horror films.

Roland was "pretty much fixated" with rock musician Marc Bolan from the age of 14, and later became an adherent of composer Michael Nyman, whose work introduced him to classical musicians such as Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel.

Roland issued his first single, "Oscar Automobile", in 1979.

In 1980 he released his debut album, The Werewolf of London (originally credited to the Midnight Rags), inspired by horror stories and Edwardian era concerns.

Ian Canty of Louder Than War observed "a nice Garage Psych sound", adding that "at times this album could almost be superior New Wave pop like XTC or Magazine but it's always pulling in weirder directions".

Roland was managed by David Enthoven (manager of Roxy Music) and June Bolan (widow of Marc Bolan) during the early 1980s, but was unable to secure a satisfactory record contract.

In 1982 he took a hiatus from recording and focused on music journalism.

1985's Burnt Orchids was characterised by Music Week as a "pleasing early [Pink] Floydish collection"; Roland considers it his first "authentic" or "real" album.

The record has been noted as a "blueprint" for 1987's Danse Macabre, an album that has garnered critical acclaim.

Appraising Danse Macabre, Prog's Kris Needs referred to "horror-psych masterworks" including "Witchfinder General", "Requiem", "Twilight of the Gods" and the "hallucinogenic waft" of the title track, as well as an "uncanny" cover version of Pink Floyd's "Matilda Mother".

"The Great Edwardian Air Raid" has been identified as the song that connected Roland to steampunk.

A Cabinet of Curiosities (1987) and Happy Families (1988), influenced by EC Comics and H. G. Wells's writings on the Edwardian era, were more sparse, stripped-down baroque albums.

The former includes a cover of The Adverts' "Gary Gilmore's Eyes".

Music & Media observed Victorian era themes throughout the "fascinating" Masque (1990), and suggested that "pop music in the Middle Ages" would have resembled 1991's Roaring Boys.

Roland continued to write and record until 1997, when he halted his music career for seven years.

This was due to the collapse of several record labels to which he was signed.

During this hiatus he concentrated on his writing career and raising his children.

Roland said of this period, "I didn't play the guitar at all and I didn't listen to my own music. I had to pretend it had never happened and that that part of me was dead. It is possible to pretend that you are someone else – I was 'dad' to my two little boys and I wrote nearly 20 books... but it was not 'me'. I was denying a part of myself and that isn't healthy."

He returned to music with 2004's Pavane.

Nevermore (2008) saw Roland recount the case of Jack the Ripper, revive stories by Edgar Allan Poe, and address characters such as Leatherface (from the 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and Captain Nemo (from the novels of Jules Verne); it was positively received by Metal.de.

A 2010 remastered version of 1989's Duel – a record that Roland had originally "hated" – garnered favourable reviews from Marco Rossi of Record Collector, and Ox-Fanzine's Joachim Hiller, who recalled the album as a "masterpiece".

Grimm (2011), based on tales by the Brothers Grimm, saw Roland play all the instruments by himself; it was described by Andrew Young of Ptolemaic Terrascope as "one of the strongest albums in Paul Roland's quite extensive catalogue".

In December 2016, Roland released White Zombie.