--- title: "Iron Paul: Finally Hearing My Songs" description: "I've been writing songs since I was 16. Now I make music as Iron Paul, with Suno as my studio. Here's where the name comes from and the stories behind a few of the songs." canonical: "https://steveknowsweb.com/blog/iron-paul-finally-hearing-my-songs" date: "2026-10-30" author: "Steve Luiting" category: "Music" tags: "Music, Suno, AI, Songwriting, Iron Paul" language: "en" --- I've been writing and performing music since I was 16. For most of those years, the songs stayed with me. Now they finally have somewhere to go. I make music under the name Iron Paul, and here's how that happened. [Listen on Suno](https://suno.com/album/1fd19f0b-f471-4660-84ac-c2dfe0fb883c)[Listen on YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD2s2xvlV6uw) ### Writing since 16 I grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin, on High Street. This year I wrote a song about growing up in that house, and one line from it says a lot: "We had each other, and that had to be." These days I live in Westminster, Colorado. Somewhere along the way I had to choose between working as a graphic artist and designer or working as a musician. Design won. Part of the reason was simple. I had trouble finding anyone who wanted to play my originals in a band. So I kept writing, and the songs waited. ### Songs that waited decades Some of them waited a long time. I wrote "Here Comes The Light" in 1973. It was my Neil Young song. "Wineglass Innocence" came along around 1981, and I wrote it with my brother, Klaas Luiting. Both of them have finished recordings now. "Here Comes The Light" has a country version and an EDM version. The EDM version of "Wineglass Innocence" is called "Turning Out The Light." ### Suno is my studio Now I write the songs and upload my music, and Suno acts as my studio. Suno is an AI music tool, and I use it to build out the songs. It fills in the arrangement and the instruments, the band I never managed to put together. The words and the melodies are mine. I set Suno up with my own recorded voice, so on most of these tracks you're hearing me. I write and perform the music, and Suno helps it sound finished. ### Where the name comes from The first song I wrote on Suno was about the "Paul is dead" legend. The story goes that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike. Iron Paul is that look-alike, the one who has kept up the identity all these years. I later recreated the song with my own voice and edited the lyrics so they nod to both Paul and John Lennon. The version I put out is the fourth one. I like that the name has a second meaning, too. Iron will. I've held on to some of these songs since 1973, and I never stopped writing. Maybe that's a little iron of my own. ### The stories behind a few songs "Spiral Bound Jesus" goes back to when I was eight. I nearly drowned at Lions Beach in Janesville. Jesus was there, and I chose to come back for my mom. Years later, at the Cabrito House, a halfway house my dad helped build in LA, Jesus appeared to me again, and that's where I got sober. Later still, at a low point in my life, I found a letter he wrote me in a spiral-bound notebook at a bus stop. That's why I wrote the song. "Factory Floor Forever" is about what it felt like working in a factory in 1980. "Stay There" is a song I wrote about Cory. One line in it is simply "I feel safest when I'm with you." I also wrote us an anniversary song in the style of AC/DC. ### Here Comes The Light, with Mike Bollig "Here Comes The Light" owes a lot to [Mike Bollig](https://mikebollig.com). I played it live for Mike at the Porch Concert. Mike co-wrote it with me, and he's the reason the song was saved. Thanks, Mike. I also help Mike turn his own songs into finished recordings. I wrote about that in [Building a Home for Mike Bollig's Songs](https://steveknowsweb.com/blog/building-a-home-for-mike-bolligs-songs). ### Listen My first EP is called *ironPaul*. It's 16 songs I think of as hypnotic running songs, progressive psychedelic rock and deep house, with a four-on-the-floor kick under a long delayed guitar. - [The ironPaul EP on Suno](https://suno.com/album/1fd19f0b-f471-4660-84ac-c2dfe0fb883c) - [My Suno profile, @ironpaul](https://suno.com/@ironpaul) - [The iron Paul playlist on YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD2s2xvlV6uw) If you have songs of your own that have been waiting a long time, I'd love to hear about them. Say hello at [hello@steveknowsweb.com](mailto:hello@steveknowsweb.com).