I am a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, influenced by the music of a number of artists including but not limited to Dire Straits, Dokken, The Doors, Fuel, The Goo Goo Dolls, Don Henley, Metallica, Nickelback, Pink Floyd, Queensryche, Sade, Soundgarden, Bruce Springsteen, Tears for Fears, Three Doors Down, and The Who.

I began my solo music career in the mid 1990's as a classical guitarist performing in coffee shops and restaurants in the Delaware Valley area. Playing mostly traditional instrumental guitar music live for a variety of audiences was frequently challenging and always rewarding, however as time went on I found myself developing an ever stronger desire to try something more ambitious and more personal: a shift into the rock music which was more near and dear to my heart, incorporating not just guitar work but vocal performance as well. So I began taking voice lessons and eventually cut back on the classical gig schedule to more fully focus on my new direction.

However singing did not seem to come naturally for me, and playing guitar and singing together as an integrated act proved even more elusive. At one point my frustration with the effort grew so great that I actually put down my guitar and auditioned to be a lead vocalist -- and vocalist only -- in a local cover band. I knew the band's bass player, and saw a potential fit in their desire to cover modern rock artists including The Goo Goo Dolls. However in a cruel twist of fate the band changed guitarists one week before my audition, and in so doing shifted their focus a bit from modern rock into more of a classic hard rock and metal sound. I like plenty of that music as well... but I have a deep singing voice, and these guys were looking for a David Lee Roth, capable of singing high, and occasionally screaming too. I tried out anyway, and the result was humiliating, perhaps the most painful chapter of my musical life. Always sensitive to the quality of my performance, it was difficult to miss the mark so badly, and to watch the guitarist cringe as I did so.

The defeat forced a hard look into the mirror. Some of my vocal shortcomings of that day -- like my failure to connect notes as smoothly as desired -- could probably be corrected with more effort and time. But would I ever be able to add multiple octaves to my range? I considered my plight, and in conclusion told myself that I had three options. I could quit; I could wait around for a cover band willing to play only those songs I felt comfortable singing; or I could redouble my efforts to put together my own act, choosing cover songs that worked for me, and writing my own material custom-tailored for my voice, all the while working to expand and improve my vocal ability, but at my own constructive pace.

I chose the third option, and that is why you are here today viewing my web site. Although I still have much room in which to grow and improve, I am ecstatic to be where I am at right now, writing and performing my own music for guitar and voice. In retrospect my failure to join a cover band was a blessing in disguise, a watershed moment that prompted a healthy redirection. It is ironic perhaps that my initial failure to achieve something I dared to dream, paved the way for my attempting -- and achieving -- something bigger which before I had never even dared to dream.

Like many Americans I come from a mix of different ethnic backgrounds, in my case including but not limited to three equal parts of German, Italian, and Polish. Bearing a German last name, I tended in my youth to identify most closely with that German element, so when it came time to choose a stage name for myself I turned to a German dictionary and entertained German words which resonated with me in sound and in meaning. I settled on the word "Sehnen," German for "desire, longing, yearning." Do not fear the desire to become more than you are... embrace it, dwell in it, and realize it.

Paul Sehnen