Off the Record - Recording the Debut

The catalyst for recording what was to become The Oxygen Ponies debut was the 'break-up.' Paul Megna backed out of his impending marriage two months before the wedding. Faced with the idea of starting a life with someone while still hustling as a bartender terrified him. So much so, that he sabotaged the most supportive relationship he'd had in his adult life. Along with his wedding, Paul's other aborted plan was to enter Juilliard's playwriting program. Two years in a row he was told he made the final cut but ultimately wasn't selected because he didn't seem to be seriously pursuing a writing career. In the months that followed, staring at the walls of his empty Hell’s Kitchen apartment, drunk and heartbroken - ►Paul decided to record his songs. "I felt like I had spent my life running away from things I should have been holding on to and holding on to things I should have been running away from. As much as I loved writing songs, I was terrified to commit them to record. But I knew I had to - They were all I had left."

Soon after, he began his first professional music collaboration with Don Piper. After seeing A Don Piper Situation play at Brownies, Paul was star-struck – (he'd been introduced to Don through Don's girlfriend because they were in a play together.) Don agreed to meet with Paul and listen to his songs. The results were not encouraging. Don asked Paul if he had ever played with other musicians before or if he even ever strummed along to any of his favorite records. Paul grinned and told the truth – he had not. Don told Paul he wasn't ready to record anything, handed him a drum machine and suggested he go home and practice every day for a year. Then maybe they could do a song or something. Talk about a gift horse. Four long months later, they started recording. Don couldn’t believe how much progress Paul had made in such a short time.

In the spring of 2005, they settled into Don's studio in Dumbo, just the two of them, an acoustic guitar and a click track. They recorded six songs. Track by track. All piecemeal. Not a single guest musician actually saw Paul play or sing anything, but somehow the songs miraculously came together. Initially, Paul intended to make an acoustic EP, but after listening to what he and Don had created, they decided to reconvene in six months to finish a full album. Paul decided the final batch of songs would only be played on electric guitar, he bought a hollow-body Epiphone and plugged it into an amp for the first time in Don's studio. The Oxygen Ponies was completed in the winter of 2005. Somehow, Paul had managed to record an entire record without playing in front of anyone except Don. In hindsight, this was probably not the best way to go about starting a career as a singer/songwriter, but he wasn't thinking that far ahead.

In the months that followed, before the record was released, Paul opened a Myspace page and started submitting songs to various blogs and publications. The positive response was overwhelming. The Deli Magazine asked if The Oxygen Ponies would play a show they were sponsoring. Paul was terrified of performing his intimate songs in public. He attended open mic nights in NYC for a few years but never mustered the courage to sign up and perform. Playing guitar in front of a room full of strangers with nothing to hide behind felt utterly alien and uncomfortable. It was a million miles from memorizing someone else's words and playing a character on stage. That show turned out to be the very first time he took the stage and played with a band. "I felt like an imposter. Like I had no business calling myself a 'musician' after seeing all these other people show up and play on my songs without ever having heard them before. I just wanted to die." No one even noticed. The Oxygen Ponies had arrived. But Paul Megna still had a lot to learn. 🔙