Paul Hardcastle (born 11 December 1957, London, England[2]) is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.
In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the trombone and also keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo. He achieved some acclaim for his early singles, notably the instrumental, "Rain Forest" (1984), but came to greater prominence in 1985.