Surface Industries I and II
Two digipak CD/digital albums, 2021-2023.
Owd Scrat Records, OWD013/OWD015.
Surface Industries I tracks:
1. Hold the Line for a Moment 5:08 video
2. Stay Polite (with Jackie Oates) 3:44
3. J for Whatever 2:40
4. Words and Silence 13:21 video
5. J for Juliet 4:40
6. Don’t Throw Up On Window Sills 3:50
7. Good Morning Call (with Jackie Oates) 4:22
8. That Venus Thing 4:00 video
Surface Industries I I tracks:
1. Something Happening (Sound of the Crowd) (with Saskia Cocker) 4:36 video
2. In the Distance the Dawn is Breaking 3:20 video
3. Dear Guest 8:58 video
4. Open Plan 4:13 video
5. On This Pitch 2:59 video
6. A Million Darkened Kitchens (with Frankie Armstrong) 4:11 video
7. Tea, Coffee and Desserts 2:48
8. Dust 7:50 video
9. Willem van Liverpool 2:29 video
10. In My Head 1:41 video
11. Author’s Route Through France 3:34
12. Psalm (live at Tate Liverpool) 3:31 video
The lyrics of the pieces on the solo albums Surface Industries I and II are themed around service industry occupations, particularly, in the case of the first album, the vocal interactions of everyday call centre work, often using interviews with the workers themselves. The songs, created over a twenty year period, describe transient everyday customer interactions and repetitive drudgery, but also reveal creative moments of playfulness, mischief and vengeance. The pieces do not attempt the impossible task of neutrally and exhaustively documenting the experiences of each person, but in their edited song verses, processed sonics and singer’s performances (the singer is always someone other than the original person interviewed, who is also never pictured in any accompanying videos), they stress the contrivances of the artistic process as it strives to engage, from a distance, with an uncertain, unfixed ‘real’ experience.
The lead singer in each piece is often accompanied by other human voices, creating a sense of potential fellowship that is undercut by the often isolated, transient customer-facing context described in the lyrics. The music often collides these ‘natural’ voices with synthesized, digitally processed mock/real chimes and beats that echo the wipe-clean, customer-captivating environments the songs emerge from. The longform spoken word piece, Words and Silence, consists of softly insistent modular synth tones accompanying an Indian call centre worker leaving a message – of invented personas and the preciousness of time – on an answer service, creating an extended moment of mysterious confabulation for the eventual listener (us). Something Happening is an arpeggiated Arp re-working of Sound of the Crowd, with the words of a Sheffield bank clerk whose branch is on the site of the dancefloor where The Human League’s Jo and Suzanne were ‘discovered’ by Phil Oakey. It also features an affecting lead vocal by original Pulp member Saskia Cocker. Dear Guest contains a hotel room attendant’s descriptions of debris left after three moments in the history of the Manchester hotel where she works, and touches on the Peterloo Massacre, a Bob Dylan heckle and a room service breakfast tray. The two albums document a long term, critical encounter with the everyday failures, everyday battles, and everyday resistances, of our precarious times.
Buy via Owd Scrat Records.
Dave Routley (The Arga Warga magazine). Summer 2026 article referencing the works.
Words and Silence broadcast as part of Radiophrenia 2025 FM radio project. April 2025.
Chart: Radiophrenia 15 (The Wire magazine). March 2025 playlist.
“I love this. The lyrics, the humor, but also the music and sound design.” lesteyae (Bandcamp website). 2024.
“One of the most interesting and fascinating artists I know. Full of the ordinary and mundane with readings from pop culture, ie. Dylan going electric, and everyday interplay and consumer transactions.” Gavin Hellyer (Bandcamp website). 2024.
The Wire’s releases of the year 2023 longlist. (The Wire magazine). Dec. 2023.
Phil England, Adventures in Sound and Music: The Wire (Resonance FM). 26/10/2023 radio broadcast of Dust.
“Something Happening (Sound of the Crowd) freezes the Human League’s The Sound of the Crowd into icy stasis, before shattering it down and rebuilding it from the icy shards…” Spenser Tomson (The Wire magazine). Nov. 2023.
Richard Thomas (The Wire magazine). Interview with reference to the album. Oct. 2023.
“There’s loads going on with this, Something Happening… I would bang on about that now but I don’t need to because Paul Rooney’s Surface Industries is our ‘Big Album’ next week.” Neil Nixon, Strange Fruit (Miskin Radio). 17/9/2023.
“Surface Industries II together with Surface Industries I… are very important… they will be historic documents…” Zaph Mann, In Memory of John Peel Show (KFFP Radio, Portland and podcast). 8/9/2023.
“…that’s a very distinctive track so do get Paul Rooney’s album Surface Industries II.” Roger Hill, PMS (Melodic Distraction Radio). 3/9/2023.
“Excellent stuff, Festive Fifty contender possibly? Certainly that would be one on my shortlist… Dear Guest. Great stuff.” Rocker (Dandelion Radio). Sept. 2023.
“It was once said of James Joyce that he only ever put out masterpieces before the public, and I would say something similar in the case of Paul Rooney… everything he puts out has something extraordinary about it.” Mark Whitby (Dandelion Radio). Sept. 2023.
“…and that was Dear Guest, and if you’re thinking ‘is it all that good?’ Yes it is.” Mark Whitby (FSK Radio). 1/9/2023.
“Something Happening… It’s really interesting this, it’s Paul Rooney.” Michael Fenton (Fenny), On the Wire (Slack City Radio). 20/8/2023.
“One of the most, if not the most original local musicians at the moment, composer, creator, is Paul Rooney… totally recommendable, on Owd Scrat Records… it’s so good.” Roger Hill, PMS (Melodic Distraction Radio). 12/8/2023.
“To me, the stuff [Paul Rooney] is making these days is as significant as the history stuff that’s on the Smithsonian Folkways [label]. It will go down in the future as a very important thing… this is Open Plan.” Zaph Mann, In Memory of John Peel Show (KFFP Radio, Portland and podcast). 25/8/2023.
“Service Industries I makes strip-lit minimalist psalmodies from call centre conversations of invisible workforces… It’s a profound, political, and holy work, worth a thousand Panoramas.” Stewart Lee (The Idler magazine). Jan-Feb. 2022.
“This new album Surface Industries, his second solo album, tracks themed around service industry jobs… it really is fascinating.” Stuart Maconie, Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone (BBC 6 Music). 23/8/2021.
“These eight tracks have been created over a period of two decades, mostly using texts derived from call centre operatives. They occupy a space where folk music might have developed, up to that juncture when meaningful tradition and continuities of locality dissolved into the glacial wastes of cyberspace, global capitalism and the unsolicited sales pitch… Rooney is an unusually attentive, perceptive and responsive artist and his work salvages touchstones for human value, and seeks to fend off their erosion.” Julian Cowley (The Wire magazine). Oct. 2021.
“A track from local artist Paul Rooney’s second album, a real treasure trove of glorious computer composed hyper-pop.” George Maund, PMS (BBC Radio Merseyside). 20/8/2021.
“Curiosity was twigged by a Wire magazine review… I was expecting something far less accessible based on the review… surprisingly accessible and compelling.” Nate Champion (Thumped website and forums). 28/12/2021.
“It’s a great thing. Paul Rooney, always up to something good…” Michael Fenton (Fenny), On the Wire (Otwradio on Mixcloud and occasionally BBC Radio Lancashire). 18/9/2021.
Credits:
Surface Industries I
1. Hold the Line for a Moment
Words from call centre agents from 2004: Kevin, Newcastle; James, Cardiff; Chris, Midlands; Susan, Belfast; Julia, Chatham; Jon, Brighton; Gareth, Yorkshire; Michelle and Sinead, Belfast; and Steve, Bangalore.
Voices of St Nicholas Singers of Liverpool Parish Church and Sabrina Surace (all recorded 2004). Thanks Shrinking Cities project, Berlin.
2. Stay Polite
Words from a description, from 2001, of a day at work by Helen Riley, taxi phone operator. Thanks Davy Liver Cabs, Liverpool. Voices of Treorchy Male Choir (ALTO ALN 1963, by kind permission of Alto Distribution), The NWRA Male Choir, Paul Rooney and Jackie Oates. Thanks Patterns of Change project, Liverpool.
3. J for Whatever
Voices of Terrie Kidner, call centre advisor, and Yehie Rakha, customer (recorded 2001). Thanks Park Online Ltd, Wirral.
4. Words and Silence
Voice of Manpreet Mann (recorded 2008). Commissioned by Art Sheffield 08. Thanks Jan Verwoert.
5. J for Juliet
Words from a phone conversation, from 2001, between Terrie Kidner, call centre advisor, and Yehie Rakha, customer. Voices of Lisa Dalton and Michael Bruce (recorded 2004). Thanks Park Online Ltd, Wirral and Burning Bush 2 project, Dundee.
6. Don’t Throw Up On WIndow Sills
Words from AOL Gardening Chat UK internet chatroom from 2002. Voices of Marion Jordan, Graeme Stevenson, Rachel Allan, Jennifer Wilson, Melissa-Rose Grimley, Naomi McCourt (all recorded 2002) and Paul Rooney. Strings by The NWRA Chamber Ensemble.
7. Good Morning Call
Words from a description of a phone interaction, from 2001, by Terrie Kidner, call centre advisor. Voices of Liverpool University Choir, choir master Gareth Wall (recorded 2001), Paul Rooney and Jackie Oates. Thanks Park Online Ltd, Wirral and Crossing Over 6 project, Liverpool.
8. That Venus Thing
Words from email chats about the weather, from 2004, between Anne Gregory in England and Christine Holmes in Australia. Voices of Sabrina Surace and Annabelle Brown (recorded 2004). Thanks Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford; Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne.
All songs composed by Paul Rooney 2001-2021, incorporating multiple text sources (see above).
All music performed by Paul Rooney unless stated. Produced and mastered by Alain Chamois in 2021.
Surface Industries II
1. Something Happening (Sound of the Crowd)
Words from an interview about crowds from 2003 with Pauline Congreve, employee of Bradford and Bingley Bank, Sheffield, formerly the Crazy Daisy Nightclub, where Human League singer Phil Oakey ‘discovered’ Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley who then joined the band. Voice of Saskia Cocker (recorded 2003). Music and lyrics written by Phil Oakey, Ian Burden and Paul Rooney. Commissioned by Site Gallery, Sheffield.
2. In the Distance the Dawn is Breaking
Words from written descriptions of dreams from 2004 by ‘anonymous’, Lillian Wall, Val Marshall and Mark Smith, all shop workers in West Bromwich town centre. Voices of Martin Evans, Carey Marsden, Bev Harvey and Steve Page. Commissioned by The Public, West Bromwich.
3. Dear Guest
Words by Paul Rooney, incorporating an interview from 2004 with Abidor Rahman, hotel room attendant at Sofitel Hotel, Melbourne. Voice of Mary Dunne (recorded 2005).
4. Open Plan
Words from interviews from 2003 with Heather Boley, Tony Ashcroft and Mike Bellamy, staff of Leigh Library. Voices of Margaret Shannon, Chris Robert and Clive Green (recorded 2003). Commissioned by Turnpike Gallery, Leigh.
5. On This Pitch
Words from a written description of a day at work from 2001 by Tommy Threlfall, Big Issue seller. Voices of Liverpool University Choir and Paul Rooney (recorded 2001). Commissioned by Patterns of Change project, Liverpool.
6. A Million Darkened Kitchens
Words from the poem ‘Bread and Roses’ from 1911 by James Oppenheim (set to music by Leon Rosselson). Voices of Susan Whitwam and the Bread and Roses singers (Frankie Armstrong, Laura Bradshaw, Pauline Down) (all recorded 2022). Thanks to Mobile Academy, Berlin. Commissioned by Colne Valley Museum.
7. Tea, Coffee and Desserts
Words from a written description of a day at work from 2001 by Bob Yee Lee, restaurant waiter. Voices of Paul Rooney (recorded 2001) incorporating ‘Restoration’ by the congregation of Liberty Baptist Church, Henagar, Alabama (616892 983224, 2008, by kind permission of Awake Productions). Commissioned by Patterns of Change project, Liverpool.
8. Dust
Words by Paul Rooney, incorporating interviews from 2006 with Karen Dale, Audrey Preston and Stella Guarini, all room attendants at The Crowne Plaza Hotel, Liverpool. Voices of Paula Berry, Marissa Dunlop and Melody Jones (recorded 2006). Violin by Byron Parish, viola by Adrian Turner, cello by Catherine Ardagh-Walter and piano by Oliver Jackson. Music written by Oliver Jackson, Greg Arrowsmith and Paul Rooney. With acknowledgements to Brecht and Weill. Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella.
9. Willem van Liverpool
Words from a written description of his allegiances, from 2004, by William Rooney, postman, adapted by his nephew Paul Rooney and translated into Dutch by Michael Carpentier and Hannes Vennik. Music (national anthem of the Netherlands) written by composer unknown. Voices of Hannes Vennik (recorded 2003) and the Dutch nation. Commissioned by artists Emma Rushton and Derek Tyman.
10. In My Head
Words from an interview from 2001 with Jenny Mountain, University of Sunderland fine art student.
11. Author’s Route Through France
Words from ‘Railway Holiday in France’ by George Behrend. Voice of Ken Fitzmaurice, small gauge railway enthusiast (recorded circa 1983). Thanks Leo Fitzmaurice and Roger Hill. Commissioned by PMS, BBC Radio Merseyside.
12. Psalm (live at Tate Liverpool)
Words from an interview from 2003 with Louise Holden, nightclub singer and former patient of St. John’s Hospital, Livingston, Speech and Language Therapy Department, and excerpts of Psalm 77. Music (two chants for Psalm 77) written by William Fitzherbert and John Edward Hopkins. Voices of St Nicholas Singers (recorded 2003). Commissioned by Artlink Functionsuite.
All music and lyrics written and performed by Paul Rooney unless stated above.
Produced and mastered by Alain Chamois in 2023.