Jealousy is rarely reasonable, but few examples expose its destructive logic quite as vividly as resenting a rival who cannot be confronted, defeated or removed. On his latest offering ‘That There Is Our Problem’, South London singer-songwriter Paul Garside transforms an extraordinary real-life incident into a sharply drawn alt-folk narrative about possessiveness, wounded pride and faith becoming the target of an increasingly desperate man.
The song was prompted by a news report concerning a husband whose wife admitted that her devotion to God exceeded her love for him. But rather than accepting the limits of human affection, he responded by attempting to set fire to his neighbourhood church. It’s a story so extreme that it might initially resemble black comedy, yet beneath its absurdity lies the belief that love is a hierarchy to be conquered and that another person’s inner life should remain entirely under one’s control.
Throughout, his writing draws upon the shadowed storytelling associated with The Handsome Family, where strange headlines and apparently ordinary characters often become entrances into much darker psychological territory. Like the finest murder ballads and rural folk narratives, ‘That There Is Our Problem’ doesn’t need to embellish reality extensively. The central act already contains obsession, sacrilege and a peculiar form of romantic competition.
At the heart of the recording is his acoustic guitar and vocal performance, providing the directness necessary for a song driven by character and consequence. His approach belongs to a tradition in which the storyteller doesn’t need to explain every moral implication. By presenting the events clearly and allowing us to recognise the madness within them, he gives the narrative greater force.
The arrival of Finnish multi-instrumentalist Niilo Sirola significantly expands that foundation. His banjo and Irish bouzouki bring movement, texture and an older folk vocabulary into the arrangement, placing this contemporary act of possessiveness within a much longer history of songs about jealousy, betrayal and ruin.
Recorded at RMS Studios near Selhurst Park, the single also feels grounded in its South London origins. There’s no attempt to manufacture a falsely rustic identity around the project, as the artist brings Irish folk influence into contact with an urban British sensibility, allowing the song to belong simultaneously to traditional storytelling and the strange realities of contemporary life.
In all, ‘That There Is Our Problem’ finds Paul Garside operating in a compelling space between folk ballad, social observation and pitch-black humour. It takes an incident that might otherwise vanish into the endless churn of unusual news and preserves it as a study of faith, insecurity and the destructive desire to possess another person completely.
With its memorable premise, understated wit and richly textured acoustic setting, the single confirms him as a storyteller capable of finding the timeless darkness concealed inside a modern headline.