Lindsey Childress and Paul Collins celebrate at their Pendleton High School graduation. <i>EO file photo</i>

There was a time when most independent bands would have to slave it out for years, slowly building up a following before making a mark on the world music scene … before, say, having their picture in Rolling Stone magazine.

For Pendleton native Paul Collins and the band Beirut, it happened almost overnight. At age 23, Collins has already experienced the kind of pop music success most people only dream about.

Mainstream media attention? Check. European tour? Check.

“We basically did a loop around the United States, checked out Canada – French Canada a lot – went to Russia once, went to Turkey once, went through most of Europe it seems like,” Collins said during a recent home-for-the-holidays visit. “I’ve just been really lucky. I don’t know what to say.”

Perhaps it was the Internet, which helped spread Beirut’s early recordings across the country like wildfire through a dry field. Perhaps it was the music itself, often described as Eastern European, gypsy and folk, a sound rich with acoustic instruments like horns, an accordion, ukulele and the soft romantic vocals of the band’s songwriter and front man, Zach Condon.

But who’s to say what may or may not have happened had Collins not left home for New Mexico, where he eventually discovered Condon and helped form the fledgling group in 2003.

For those still scratching their heads at this new reference to the Lebanese capital, a brief Google search of “Beirut” should provide a quick introduction to the band, also searchable on the Web site YouTube.com with music videos and live performance clips.

You may or may not see Collins, often blended with myriad of other instrumentalists. If Beirut does share one thing in common with the famous city, which has had no definitive census since 1932, the band’s population is hard to gauge.

“There’s essentially seven original members in the band and it goes out from there. We’ve had a lot of people on stage with us before,” said Collins, who has played everything from trumpet to piano to percussion. “My main instrument right now is upright bass.”

Growing up in Pendleton, Collins played in many bands and, according to his mother, was always the entertainer of the family. In high school, with the help of other friends, Collins regularly booked rock concerts and brought musical acts to town.

After graduation, Collins continued that hobby at the College of Santa Fe where he attended film school. Collins met the aforementioned Condon – the essential leader of Beirut – as a shy 20-year-old solo artist during the summer of 2005.

“He was just playing basically with a trumpet, a laptop – which would play his beats and stuff – and just singing,” Collins said, explaining he knew the young singer had something special.

Condon eventually moved to Albuquerque where a record label, after hearing one demo recording of his material, instantly signed him on board. So when Condon needed a band to play his material for a music showcase in Austin, Texas, his friend in Santa Fe helped him out.

“I was really one of the only people he knew who played music, or who knew other people who played music,” Collins said. “And I hooked him up with a drummer. He knew a cello player. And so I just kind of filled in the cracks. That’s how it got started, essentially.”

From there, as Collins put it, the band took off. With the support of his parents, Collins put college on hiatus and officially joined the group that first toured the states by van before branching out to international venues.

Even in foreign countries, Collins said, the performances continually sell out.

“It’s funny, too, because I see people from Pendleton all over the place,” Collins said, recalling one encounter with a friend working for Amnesty International who showed him the sights of Istanbul, Turkey. “We were sitting around the table with this dude from this Brooklyn band, The Rapture, and we were just talking Round-Up. … And this guy was like, ‘Where are you guys from?’ “

Collins managed to bring the band to Pendleton during the early tour, where they stayed the night at his parents’ house. But it was only as a stopover between gigs.

“They got out of the car and said, ‘Paul told us it was only a little bit out of the way,’ ” Paul’s mother Shannon Collins recalled, explaining how Paul actually took the group on a three-hour detour. “He always talks up Pendleton.”

Close Pendleton High School friend Peter Walters, who still puts on concerts locally, said he has tried from the beginning to get Beirut to play in Pendleton.

“They’re a little too busy touring Europe,” Walters said with a hint of playful scorn.

Not too many years ago, Walters and Collins began developing similar tastes in music, arts and other interests. Now, Walters said, his friend has played with some of the same artists they once worshipped during high school.

“I feel kind of like our group of friends had been very cocky about being sort of ahead of the game,” Walters said. “Paul has vindicated us.”

PHS teacher John Remington, who taught Collins, talked fondly of his former student.

“He was always more cosmopolitan than the average kid,” Remington said, noting Paul’s impressive knowledge of obscure foreign films. “Even as a young kid, an adult could talk to him like an adult about art and culture.”

But what truly set Collins, Walters and their other friends apart, he said, was their dedication to making Pendleton a better place for the arts.

“There were kids who thought it sucked here, you know. It’s a small town. There’s nothing to do,” Collins said. “But (with) the kids that I hung out with, just nobody wanted to take that for an answer.”

It was the attitude that prompted forming bands, concerts and events that continue in Pendleton such as Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp at the local Pendleton Center for the Arts.

It is, in many ways, similar to what Collins continues to experience in Beirut.

“I think our live show is really great. We have … a lot of younger people playing instruments that I guess aren’t seen as much in pop music today,” Collins said. “Because a lot of kids were in band in high school and just didn’t know how to apply that to what they were listening to.”

Beirut has released three main albums, available on Ba Da Bing Records: “Gulag Orkestar,” “Lon Gisland” (an extended play release) and their latest French-inspired “The Flying Cup Club.” In March, the band will hit up Australia and New Zealand.

While Collins will continue his involvement with the band for now, he said, he could see himself back in Oregon and possibly the Pendleton area where he hopes to continue seeing outlets for the arts.

“There needs to be places for kids to be able to play music in town,” Collins said. “I just know so many kids in this town who love playing.”