HIP HOP MOTORMUSIC
PAUL THOMAS
COO
317.682.3806 [email protected] HIP HOP MOTORMUSIC
Paul Thomas a.k.a. “P” is a multifaceted artist with 42 years of professional experience in the entertainment business. Working with some of the best musicians, producers and artists in studios and venues throughout the United States he has crafted a career centered around music.
In the seventies, he began his career, performing professionally with various R&B, Pop, Rock, Jazz and Gospel acts playing at different times bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion and vocals, while also working as a live sound and effects engineer for recording star acts Manchild, Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign and Amnesty.
In 1979 Paul was introduced to multi-track recording, enabling him to record multiple instruments separately on individual tracks. He used the creative control it provided to spend more time writing and recording, ultimately working both as a session musician and composer. Two years later this led to a two-year road tour with LTD, the legendary late 70’s R&B band. At the end of the tour, Paul returned to Indianapolis, where the independent gospel label Tyscot Records, had started a secular R&B record division called Circle City Records. Between 1983 and 1985 Circle City Records released four of Paul’s songs as 12 inch singles. The first song “Magic” by the Circle City Band, received excellent reviews in Billboard, Cash Box and Record World music trade magazines and from national DJ record pools. It made the Top 10 list in several states and was used as the theme song for the station ID on the BET cable channel. This led to a distribution deal for Tyscot from Becket Records, a subsidiary label of Buddha Records.
In 1983 Paul founded Sizzlin Hot Music Publishing BMI, to publish his own material as well as participating in the development of West End Productions, a concert promotion company producing several major live concerts in Indianapolis. In 1987 he accepted a studio manager and engineering position with Felstar Productions in Vallejo, California under long time friend Felton Pilate (the multi-platinum, Grammy award nominated producer/songwriter and co-lead singer of the R&B group ConFunkShun.) There he ran the day to day business operations of the studio working with Bay Area recording artists and engineered MC Hammer’s first 3 projects on Capitol Records including Hammer’s first album “Let’s Get it Started” (which went double platinum), on which he also helped with some of the music tracks and vocals.
In 1992 he was one of the organizers of the production / promotion company, Straight Player Productions continuing to consult with the most of the local independent R&B and Rap labels and production companies to develop new acts. In 1996 this led to the founding of United Music Entertainment Group Inc. UMEG Inc. primarily focuses on Gospel, Hip Hop and R&B related entertainment, engineering, producing and mastering album projects and providing web design and graphic arts to compliment production.
Paul has an aspiring career and an actor and writer of motion picture films and has been working with film- maker Michael Caporale to develop screenplays built on urban and musical themes including “ The Black Dove” , “Uncle Joey” and “Bootlegged” Paul has acted in and co-written the featured song on the motion picture film by Michael Caporale "The Black Dove" starring award winning film star John Savage titled "The Weakest One" the Circle City Band also has a song (Cole's Maserati) on the soundtrack as well. Paul has also acted in 3 films with film director Bobby Easley titled “All Sinner’s Night”, a 2014 remake of the Stephen King classic “The Boogeyman” and an animated World War II period film “Devil Dogs of Kilo Company”
More recently Paul has founded the new Management division of UMEG Inc. UMEG Management and Productions In 2010 Paul accepted a position with Sugarfoot’s Ohio Players as Road Manager and Sound Engineer where he assisted directly with the original lead singer of the Ohio Players the late Mr. Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner (R.I.P.) and worked several on the road shows including the “Masters of Funk” tour which included such legendary bands as ConFunkShun, The Bar-Kays, Dazz Band, Zapp and Slave.
From June 2011 till July 2012 he also served as Manager/Production Manager for Stones Throw Records recording artist and former lead singer/drummer for the funk band Slave, Steve Arrington and went on tour with him and his band for a year. Today, through UBIQUITY/LUV N’ HAIGHT Records has partnered with Paul and UMEG Inc. to finally release the complete Circle City Band album with digitally remastered versions of “Magic”, “My Place” and “Party Lights” along with unreleased material from that time and a bonus track of a current song re-make of Barbara Lewis classic hit “Hello Stranger” A live band and tour is in the making for 2013 managed and produced by UMEG Inc. Almost thirty years later, Ubiquity/Luv N’Haight Records presents the complete full-length album of the Circle City Band including unreleased tracks. The Circle City Band (CCB) is made up of eight remarkably talented members. lead by producer/singer/songwriter Paul Thomas and based out of Indianapolis, IN. The band is managed and produced exclusively by UMEG Management and Productions Thomas recorded an entire album in the early 1980s as The Circle City Band but only three 12” singles were actually released. While on tour with Steve Arrington, Thomas noticed the recent interest in the Circle City Band by deejays and also fans on YouTube, he dug out the masters and hooked up with the folks at Ubiquity Records, who enthusiastically agreed to release his “debut” album, which combines the three singles with six previously unreleased tracks and the band’s sound has maintained a timeless popularity due to today's internet phenomenon. Currently the Circle City Band is scheduling bookings for touring live worldwide thru UMEG Management and Production.