Paul Haig

Paul Haig (born 1960) is a Scottish indie composer, musician and singer. He was originally a member of 1980s post-punk band Josef K who were signed to the Postcard record label. Other bands with Postcard at the same time were Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and the Go-Betweens.

Josef K recorded five singles and an album (The Only Fun in Town) with Haig on lead vocals, before splitting after touring in July and August 1981; their final Scottish date was in Glasgow. The exact reasons behind the split remain obscure, but Haig said in an interview by Johnny Waller in Sounds a year after the split:

I was pretty depressed for a week because it was the end of an era, but after that I was really happy that we'd split, because I could get on with everything I wanted to do. I don't listen to any of those records now. It's all gone. Nothing from that period interests me, except maybe Sorry for Laughing. We didn't really get on all that well towards the end. We didn't have anything in common, so there were no jokes, no happy feeling. It was just down to doing a job. Josef K weren't that famous anyway. We've split up, so what? Everybody changes.

I've lost a lot of the ideals I had in Josef K. About not wanting to be commercially successful, suffering for your art and all that. Not that I wasn't sincere about it at the time... But I got sick of it. I want to be signed to a major and make a great record that will get radio airplay and be a big hit, then make my own money from that. I don't mind being manipulated to a certain extent in order to get what I want, but in time I want to control everything.