Paul Josef Olsson (13 July 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and audio engineer, best known as the lead vocalist of the Alan Parsons Live Project since 2003. He is a Grammy-winning engineer for his work with Alan Parsons for the Eye In The Sky - 35th Anniversary Edition. As a recording artist, he has toured with various talents over his lifetime, including Deep Purple, Train, Muse, Simple Minds, Rufus Wainwright, Earth, Wind & Fire, Wyclef, Nelly Furtado, Beth Orton, Placebo, and many more.
Biography He was born in Pontiac, Michigan, to a musical family. His father had a DMA in choral music and was an avant-garde 12-tone composer, A&R executive for Metro Arts Detroit, known for its affiliation with the musicians of Motown Records and later the Director of Arts & Humanities at Michigan Tech, His mother was a music/voice major and school teacher. He started playing violin at age 6. PJ caught the attention of Columbia records, who in mid-2000, released the critically acclaimed album Words For Living. Olsson also made an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, singing his High Times song of the year, "Visine." His well known song, "Ready for a Fall," was included on the soundtrack album for the television show Dawson's Creek.
Olsson began collaborating with Alan Parsons in 2003 as his sound engineer and, within months of Parsons hearing his voice, was added as lead singer while retaining engineering duties. He has performed with many other notable acts, including Kid Rock, Iggy Pop, Bob Geldof, Something Corporate, Ben Harper, and Michelle Branch. In 2007 Olsson teamed up with Salman Ahmad to record a remake of the Nick Lowe song, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding", as the theme to The CW television show Aliens in America.
Olsson mixed and co-engineered Alan Parsons' album A Valid Path alongside Parsons and earned a Grammy nomination for the project. He has said that working with two of his musical heroes, Alan Parsons and David Gilmour (who guested on the album), is a career highlight.
Discography Solo 1998: P.J. Olsson 1999: Words for Living 2005: Beautifully Insane 2007: American Scream 2013: Lasers and Trees
with Alan Parsons Studio albums 2004: A Valid Path - co-engineer, vocals, programming 2019: The Secret - vocals on "Years of Glory" 2022: From The New World - vocals, keyboards, programming, bass guitar
Live albums 2010: Eye 2 Eye: Live in Madrid - acoustic guitar, vocals 2013: LiveSpan - vocals 2016: Alan Parsons Symphonic Project, Live in Colombia - vocals, guitar
Singles 2010: All Our Yesterdays 2014: Fragile 2015: Do You Live at All
Compilation appearances 1999: Songs from Dawson's Creek (various artists) - vocals on "Ready for a Fall"
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