Paul Gill, who records under the name Purbeck Temple, is an artist based in a small village near Hull in North England. His path to creating music came through circumstances no one would choose. In 2009, he was attacked outside his local pub and left for dead. The injuries were catastrophic: every bone in his face was broken, serious head trauma, MRSA, and double pneumonia. But Paul survived, though the aftermath brought new challenges: agoraphobia, double vision, dizziness that prevents him from driving, and a face so changed that his own children didn’t recognize him. Paul turned to songwriting, transforming his home studio into a creative space where he could work through his trauma and eventually produce “The Agoraphobia Files,” released this August.
“This album is the sound of someone refusing to disappear.”
Spanning thirteen tracks across rock, acoustic rock and indie pop styles, “The Agoraphobia Files” took years to complete. Paul started writing it in 2009 during his recovery, with “No Hard Feelings,” the album’s second track, being the first song he penned after leaving the hospital. Some tracks lean into fuller rock arrangements with driving guitars, while others strip things back to acoustic basics. The indie pop moments bring lighter touches, and the indie rock framework ties it all together.
Lyrically, Paul writes like someone who’s spent a lot of time thinking, which makes sense given his circumstances. Agoraphobia means his world has become smaller than he’d like, but that’s also given him plenty of internal space to explore. He writes about the gap between who he was before the attack and who he became after, about small victories that matter more than most people realize, about finding humor in situations that could easily crush you.
“The Agoraphobia Files” is independent music in the truest sense. You don’t even need to know Paul’s backstory to appreciate the work, though knowing it certainly adds context. Give it a listen, see which tracks resonate with you, and if you connect with what Paul’s doing, support the work.
Muse Chronicle 
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