This bio was written in January of 2004

One of Nothing (the p.e.e. Project) was started in December of 2002 by myself, Paul Etchison.  It was originally intended to be a few songs to be used by my previous band, illicit.  Illicit was started in August of 1999 and would continue until fall of 2002 when our drummer quit.  In hopes to keep the band going, we sought out for a new drummer.   We found one, but eventually the energy of illicit died before we got back on our feet to keep it going.  During the eight month transition to creating a new illicit, I had continued to record my own compositions until May of 2003, when the remaining members of illicit decided that it was over.   Illicit was my first serious band in which we had played numerous shows and composed all of our own original music.   While in the band, I enjoyed it very much, but it wasn't meant to be and I longed for more control in the composition aspect.   

At the present time, one year after I started One of Nothing, I am a fifth year senior at UIUC majoring in advertising with a minor in chemistry.  I am currently only taking my last 8 hours until I graduate in May.  After that, it is either going to UIC for dental school, or sticking with Second Son, my current band.  I am under immense amounts of pressure to go to dental school.  It is a great opportunity, yet I feel that I love the music more than the opportunity.  So basically it will be decision between reaching my highest potential through academia, or doing what I love to do and sacrificing everything I have worked so hard for in Undergrad.  As for the decision, who knows?   I have a couple of months before I have to choose, so we’ll see…everyone lives with regrets and with the opportunities I have before me presently, I don’t think it is possible for me not to have any regrets with whatever decision I make.  

Onto who I am as a person…I think I have a very open personality, while maintaining somewhat of a "no bullshit" attitude.   A lot of things make me angry, mostly when people are too timid to get what they want or when people would rather ask questions about something rather than figure it out on their own.  I am a very hard worker and pity those who half ass everything they do.  Everyday, I try to make myself do something productive.   I hate not being good at something, and will often go to great lengths to better myself at whatever I am doing.  I am somewhat of a perfectionist.  Unfortunately, I often find myself always worrying about the shit I have to do.  I really don’t watch any TV besides the White Sox during baseball season.  I spend most of my time writing, recording, and mixing music or screwing around with graphics and web stuff on the computer.  Recording music has become a great fascination for me and it is definitely something I will be doing for the rest of my life.  The ways that sound can be manipulated in order to bring a shitty mix to life interests me.  I have spent so many hours just playing around with the equipment I own to find what kind of sounds I can get out of all of them.   All of the One of Nothing songs have been recorded in my studio, which I call MFATW.   I feel I am getting quite good and you can tell the huge difference between Blame me, My first song, and Tribulation my most recent.  I think my vocal capabilities have also progressed.  I think my voice as well as my style is maturing the more and more I write and record.   

And now for my faults and things I am currently working on.  First, I have a definite swearing problem.  If you have ever drunken with me you know this.  I remember one time my friends and I were recording ourselves as we were drinking and hanging out, and I used variations of the word “fuck” five times in one sentence.   I try not to swear so much, but I guess at the point I am in life right now, it is not that big of a deal.  Another thing I would like to change about myself is my sleeping patterns.  I usually go to bed around four or later.  I swear I can never sleep, I am always worrying about shit I want to do the next day every night when I lay down.  I need to try not to stress out about every little thing I need to do.  

As for my tastes in music, I think I have an extensive collection of music that I enjoy listening to.  In junior high, I was on a huge country kick until high school started.  Then I began listening to alternative, and then Hard Core.  I think my favorite music to this day is still the heavy stuff, though I have opened my mind to pop, punk, emo, dance, rap, and latin.   I basically don’t listen to just one type of music.  Music can be beautiful no matter what it's style, as long as it has that drive that makes you enjoy it.  Most people would probably call me a fag if they heard half the shit I listen to.  Currently, I listen to a great deal of vocal trance music.  Winamp radio is awesome for this shit and I can’t get enough of it.  Most of the lyrics are stupid, but the progressions and vocal melodies are what I love it for.   I think this is a genre of music more people need to open their mind to.   

So what do you like to do, Paul?   Well, I am glad you asked.  I spend most of the time that I am not doing the things previously mentioned playing pool.  My crew and I spend every Wednesday (which we call “the push”), Friday, and Saturday at Legends playing pool.  I also have a pool table in my apartment right now.  We gamble a lot too.   Usually we play hold’em, but occasionally we play other games.  I could definitely see myself having a gambling problem one day.  When people say they don’t understand how someone gets a gambling problem, they obviously haven’t ever won.  I enjoy getting drunk and hanging out a lot too.  Sometimes the best nights are the ones where you and someone else just get drunk have good conversation.  I don’t do drugs.  I wouldn’t say that I am against other people doing them, I just choose not to.  What you do is your thing, not mine.   I have done my share and probably way more than the average person and I know how fucked up you start to think when you do too many.   I had my bad experience one night and that was the last time I did anything.  I choose not to and that is my decision.  

As for what inspires me…I think I most of the content of music comes from the things I am dealing with at the time that I write the songs.  Many of them are about my shortcomings and things I think about.  I wrote a couple of these songs about being stressed as fuck as I often am.  In Second Son most of the songs are about my father’s unexpected death in June, 2003.   That was a difficult time for me and our album Ten Banana Cream Pies spends a lot of time describing the feelings and frustrations I was having these past couple months.   People always say healing takes time, and from experience, I now know that that couldn’t be more true.    I thought I was strong through the whole entire thing.  Which more or less, I was, on the outside.   I took an entire summer off doing absolutely nothing but getting drunk and partying.  By August, I felt I was done grieving and was beginning to move on, but once schoolwork started up again, it hit me like a train.  I had a really difficult time feeling normal or happy.  I am still going through this to some extent, but not nearly as severe.    What kills me the most is the dreams I have.  I have them all the time.  My father is there, I am there, and everything is normal, until I realize, “Hey, what the fuck is going on?”  I often wake up in tears.  The dreams don’t happen as often as they used to, but I occasionally still have them.  All in all, everything I have experienced in my life has led to be who I am today.   Many of my unfortunate experiences have nonetheless made me stronger and more prepared to handle whatever may happen when God hits me with the shit stick again.  My old bio talked about my father a little more, I have left that here if you want to read it.  I really don’t want to dwell on it much further here.

Before I start thanking people, I would like to get my fuck you's out of the way.  Starting with the all people who thought I was a slacker because I never went to class and all the professors and TA's that didn't give me the time of day because I didn't need to go to their classes to do good in their classes, I showed all of you fuckers.   Anyone who talked shit about me behind me back, anyone who dicked me over or stabbed me in the back, and anyone who thought my decisions and aspirations were stupid, you only make me stronger.   The UIUC American Red Cross Club, good cause, but you people are no better than me, I never wanted to associate with you, I only did it for my resume.  Sorry I was so intimidating, you know who you are.  People who talked shit about Second Son before even hearing us, open your mind, fuckers.   The person who stole the house built by my father that I lived in for 18 years of my life after my father died, you knew it was wrong, you'll get your's.  Everything you do comes back to you somehow.   The roommates I had that stuck me with rent, you need to take responsibility.  Get a fucking life, dickheads.  People who stole from me, I don't know who you are, I just know I am missing shit.  People who made me feel out of place, that hurt.    And finally, those who'll never give me a chance.  It's your life.

So lastly, if you read this far, you get read my all the people I would like to thank.  Starting off, I want to thank my parents, for raising me the way that they did and giving me the direction I needed.  They truly had the largest impact on my life and who I am today.   I want to thank my brother Nate for being such a good friend, always being part of music with me, and believing in me.   I want to thank the rest of my family for supporting me as well as believing in me.   My girlfriend Joanna, for always being at my side through everything.   Bernie for helping me with school and everything.  Kip and Rachel Braunsteder, and Jeff Gibbons for all there help with recording.  Jeff Jakob for his constant and sometimes relentless promotion of my bands.   Mary and Tom Pierson for letting me hang around there house 24/7 and for letting me live with them when I needed to.  Jim Pierson for being a good friend.   Dave Tarrant, for being the awesome friend and kind of person he is.  College wouldn’t have been half as fun without you.   Rory and Andy Mckeague, John “Beef” Leopaldi, Mark Golack, Vytas Dailide, Jeff Natywa, Drew Wohlberg,  “Choppers”, Ashley Potempa, Matt Stout, Greg Mitterman, and Zack Muscato for being awesome people to hang around with here at U of I.   All my good friends back home, Phil Gabel and his family, Brian Popodowski, Rachel Thomason, Bernie Stahurski, Nard Attack, Shannon Ross, Tony Friscia, Shanna, Derek Frieberg, Glen K. and Angela, Aaron Jenscovich, “Scrappy”, Grant Oostema, Thomas White, Bobby Harrison, Chris Vandermeer, The Chingos, Gentiles, Drew Mormann, Dan Borne, Jon Hull, Kevin Stec, Utz, Ricky Ortiz, and all the other Lockport folk that I couldn’t possibly list here,  I know I don’t get to see or even talk to a lot of you, but we are still friends.    All my brother’s friends, all my friends that went to other colleges, all the people from high school that still say what’s up to me even though we haven’t talked in years, all the people who continually came to the illicit shows even though we played so many and played the same shit every time,  anyone who has ever told me that they liked our music after a show,  and all the people I have ever shared any kind of connection with in my life.   I would like to specially thank everyone who signed up for the mailing list.  I do this for free and spend a lot of money putting this together.   You may be surprised about how much someone signing up for the mailing list means for me.  I want to thank the members of Second Son,   Matt Angel, Josh Avila, John “Beef” Leopaldi, and Nate Etchison.  You guys are by far the most talented group I have ever collaborated with.  I am looking forward to seeing what we can do with this.   Lastly, I want to thank anyone who has ever given my music a listen, anyone who has ever been to a show of mine, anyone who has ever taken the time to tell me what they think about what I am doing, and lastly, everybody I know that has helped me to get to the point I am at today.