Paul Rooney was born in Dewsbury

Dewsbury

Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

.
He started playing guitar at age 17 and was initially a self-taught musician influenced by punk rock.
Early bands included Lenz from his native town of Morley

Morley, West Yorkshire

Morley is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies approximately south-west of Leeds city centre. Together with Drighlington, Gildersome, Churwell, Tingley and East/West Ardsley, the town had a population of 47,579 in...

 and Brik Marine formed by record producer / bassist Nev Barker.
Influenced by glam rock

Glam rock

Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...

, Rooney formed Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 band "Virgin", also taking influences from American rock.
Moving to London in the mid-1980s, he joined forces with ex-Vice Squad

Vice Squad

Vice Squad is a punk band formed in 1978 in Bristol, England. The band formed from two other local punk bands, The Contingent and TV Brakes. Songwriter and vocalist Beki Bondage was a founding member and is currently with the band, although there was a period of time when the band had a different...

 vocalist Beki Bondage

Beki Bondage

Beki Bondage is a musician in the punk band, Vice Squad and was one of its founder members in 1978.She featured on the front cover of a number of influential music tabloids such as Melody Maker, NME, Smash Hits and Sounds.In 1983, she left Vice Squad to form the band Ligotage with Steve Roberts of...

 and together they formed The Bombshells.
Rooney studied guitar at Guitar Academy of Music in London and continued to write and expand his music production skills throughout the 1990s.
In 1997, Beki and Paul re-formed Vice Squad playing at Holidays In The Sun punk festival. They have continued to perform and have recorded several albums including Rich and Famous (2005) released on EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 records. The most recent Vice Squad album Defiant (2007) was produced, engineered, and mixed by Paul Rooney.

Defiant has received positive critical acclaim and has been dubbed by many critics as the best Vice Squad album to date.

Currently, he composes music for T.V. and film, and has recently worked with director Gary Johnstone on The Secret Science of Killing for Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

.

Rooney also teaches guitar in South London and offers production and songwriting services.