MEET ANDY MULLEN
“I like writing about what you can’t see by just looking at a person. My songs are about people who have modest addictions, as most of us do.â€
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ANDY MULLEN is about as capricious as an artist can be. Challenging the definition of “songwriter,†he is more a true storyteller than your average pop star, embracing the title of “folk music’s newest smart ass.†This NYC-based singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist has written an album of compact, finely crafted songs that are at once urbane and folksy with an old-time-y feeling, yet completely contemporary. These tunes, featured in a Songwriter's Hall of Fame New Writers Showcase, have been lauded as “songs that are crafted with a generous serving of intelligence, a heaping portion of humor and a splash of perversity.â€
Despite still “hanging onto my twenties with both hands,†MULLEN writes with the experience of someone who’s been around a lot longer. In “Brooklyn Rain,†a two-minute gem, he relays a conversation between a father and son, perfectly suggesting longing and regret - like a fleeting thought, or well, the rain. However, MULLEN’s just as adept at displaying a wicked sense of humor as in “I’m Sorry, Jeanie,†wherein he sings about being over-served at a party, proceeding to insult the guests but in the end, still hopes everyone had a good time. “Who of us has not been in that situation?†he muses.
MULLEN’s distinctive voice is the factor tying all his music together. Whether the song requires a little country twang, the slurred speech of a saloon song, rushing a phrase in double-time to get everything into a bar-line or soaring blues-inflected notes, MULLEN covers it easily. He claims a wide range of influences, sheepishly admitting to having listened to Billy Joel and Broadway musicals “until I got a clue and started listening to Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, and that opened up a whole new can of fish for me. Folk, jazz, real old-time stuff, which all fit in very nicely with my desire to be an old man.â€
Although MULLEN as narrator often hangs back and takes a writer’s approach by not interjecting himself into the proceedings, his recordings and live performances take a different line of attack. On his second album, I Wish My Name Were Jack, MULLEN plays at least 10 instruments including guitar, piano, percussion and mandolin. And at his live performances, MULLEN is decidedly extroverted and irreverent, getting the crowd to sing along with a chorus, or chatting with audience members between numbers, often leading shows into surprising, humorous directions.
I Wish My Name Were Jack is slated for release June 2006 and the artist will follow up with a tour of the Northeast this summer. He’s been practicing before a captive audience: MULLEN’s “day job†has been as an English teacher to middle school students. “I probably went into teaching because, where else are you going to get an audience of 30 people five times a day to try out your material? And of course because I wanted to help the kids. And they’re very honest. That’s fine, I don’t need their approval, nor am I threatened by their youth and bad skin. It’s not like I use my ‘A’ material on them!â€
Any reservations about switching careers? None at all: “I can’t stand these smart-aleck kids anymore; I mean, you can only be told so many times that your shirt is too tight, or that you’re boring, or ‘you never said we had homework Mr. Mullen’ before it starts to get to you. So, I’m taking my act on the road. People in that school have been telling me to get lost for years. I’m finally doing it.â€
And although he sings in “Breakfast of Champions:†“If I keep mixing my drinks like my metaphors - I’ll be dead in a year,†we’re pleased to tell him that his metaphors are addictive.
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.AndyMullenMusic.comTrack List:
1. Salt Water Jam
2. I'm Sorry, Jeannie
3. Keep Real Busy
4. Vincent Van Gogh's Bad Ear
5. My Name's Ray
6. Bottle On The Shelf
7. Make Me a Man
8. Old Route 6
9. I Wish My Name Was Jack
10. Footsteps on the Ceiling
11. The Doghouse
12. Brooklyn Rain
Other Genres:
