Paul's song dials up a chart hit in Japan

The Basingstoke College of Technology lecturer is celebrating after a song he co-wrote went to number one in the Japanese singles charts.

Paul, who teaches music technology at BCOT, took just three hours to write Dial Up – and he certainly came up with a winning tune as it went platinum.

Translated to Japanese from English, the track was recorded by boy-band NYC Boys and stayed in the Japanese top 10 for more than a month – making the group the youngest-ever to reach the Japanese top spot with a debut single.

Paul has had a string of chart successes with songs he has co-written or produced for Spice Girl Mel C, former Steps member Lisa Scott-Lee, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Newton Faulkner. He has also co-written for films, including Confetti and All My Days.

He said: “With Dial Up, they were looking for a certain style of music. It’s very pop. The song is a love song to do with phones and it has a ring tone at the beginning. It doesn’t have very deep and meaningful lyrics but it’s catchy.”

Recalling how Dial Up was created by himself and songwriting partner Dele Ladimeji, Paul – who has taught at BCOT for five years and co-writes songs in his spare time – said: “We had to write under pressure. We had three hours before this guy from Japan had to get his plane back so we had to come up with something.

“You would be surprised what you can come up with if you are put under pressure. I never expected it to do so well. We knew it was put out on a big label but we didn’t expect it to go to number one.”

The father-of-one is now waiting for the royalties to start rolling in from the 250,000 copies sold in Japan.

He said: “The students know about my music writing and it’s good for them because I actually work in the business. It means I have got contacts in the industry and I can get them work experience or help them out when they leave.”

He added: “I’ve been doing freelance work, producing tracks for about 10 years now, so I will carry on. It’s a lot of fun.”