Biography
The Lost Highway started in 2002 in Glasgow, Scotland, when founder member Paul (or his tongue in cheek online persona "industrialgod") decided to bring his musical ideas to fruition. Paul gained experience fronting several bands in the mid to late 1990's, most notably Gentech but it wasn't until the turn of the millenium that he realised his solo project "the minds dark ocean" could be utilised in a more dynamic way. At this point he centralised his ideas into forming "The Lost Highway"....the name drawn from the movie by director David Lynch..... leftfield idealogies materialised yet the basic principles of human emotions remained at the forefront of the songwriting process thus introducing rich & varied ideas to the pallet.
A large body of the first album came from workings from his "minds dark ocean" sessions but with the focus on a brand new project he was able to concentrate on blending the audio elements of that project with art immitating life, to create a bold conceptual idea whereby the forum of The Lost Highway was born.
Interest was starting to grow and several demos of the new songs started receiving heavy rotation in the clubs throughout Scotland...so much so "The Lost Highway" were offered their first headline live show at the Cathouse, Glasgow. This coincided with the release of the debut album "Scandinavia"...with themes ranging from nightlife, addiction, love & the creation of an expressive central character that would dominate throughout the highway story.
The title track "Scandinavia" was to make the band's first commercial release on the Armalyte Industries "Defcon 2" compilation while art graduate Sally French offered a fresh visual angle on the art & design of website/covers.
In 2003 work continued on the follow up album which was entitled "International Space Zulu"....a concept based around the central character who had embraced the artistic side of his appearance continuing the flamboyant and visual element to "The Lost Highway"......tales of nightlife and lights were offset with some of the more fragile aspects of the central character...opening new dimensions to the creative storytelling of the music.
This album was rated number 1 album of the year by DJ Coppertop, one of the leading alternative DJs in the world & saw the sound deviate from layered Industrial overtones of the debut to a clearer techno sound. At this time new member Modus I-V joined the set up to help with live production at shows.
In 2004 the album "mountebank & westerland" appeared & once again the writing had progressed to offering one of the most intruiging insights into the conceptual workings of the band. The lyrical content portrayed a burning fire exposing the central character on an at times stripped down canvas to the point where the emotions were plainly on the surface. Meanwhile the traditional elements of nightime beats, textures & atmospheres retained the heartbeat of the highway sound. Tracks from this album received heavy airplay on radio stations/clubs.
In 2005 the track "Coastline" was completed and was followed up in 2006 with the band working with director Mark Wright on the "Coastline" video, shot on location in Glasgow. The video received airplay on the music channels but by 2007 Paul briefly decided to bring The Lost Highway chapter to an end as a result of the character moving on. However 2008 saw the re-emergence of the band with fresh new ideals and a new dynamic. The sound had changed, the image had changed, the entire philosophy of The Lost Highway had entered into a phase of re-invention, which in turn reflected new colours and of course a fresh new beginning for the Highway as the music for "Tales from an abandoned airport terminal" was born.
After the success of "Tales from an abandoned airport terminal" Paul started writing songs through his acoustic guitar building up a core of songs which later become the new record entitled "Alpine Skier". Released at the very end of 2010 the journey saw Paul working with digital artist Paul Cook and entering Chem19 Studios to record vocals, bass and guitar lines. Several sessions proved highly successful and the record started coming together. Additional mixing and production took place over the course of the year and by the end of 2010 "Alpine Skier" was released. The higher clarity of sound was offset by darker themes, as troubling territories were explored and this became Paul's most personal record to date.