Joel Mullins

“Releasing this album into the world will in itself be an emotional experience and one that I feel like I need to have to get some closure and move on with my life.”  

-Joel Mullins

Joel Mullins, Austin-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, first rose to prominence in the mid-2000s as the songwriter and frontman for Austin indie-pop quintet Tammany Hall Machine. Selected by the Austin Chronicle as one of the best new bands at that time for their energetic live show and Joel’s melody-driven songwriting, THM disbanded while still on the rise, after two well-received albums and on the heels of opening for The Bangles at La Zona Rosa. Joel quickly assembled a new band and released one album as The Deaf Ears before spending most of the 2010s playing keyboards and guitar for The Pons.

Joel released Mid-Life Crisis, on Friday, July 29, 2022. The album is his solo debut and was self-recorded and self-produced by Joel, mixed by Matt Gerhard (Spoon, Tennis, Walker Lukens), and mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering. The musicians playing on the album include Joel (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keys), Steve Sanders from The Pons (drums, bass), and Geoff Dupree from Tammany Hall Machine (electric guitar).  The Pons’s bassist Ruby Painter created the collage art for the front and back cover of the album and the 7-inch record. "Musically speaking, Steve and Geoff were a massive part of these recordings and where they ended up, so much so that I almost hate to release it as a solo album. But emotionally, it's all me. It's such a personal record that it feels like it needs my name on the cover. But Steve, Ruby, and Geoff are all close friends, so it means a lot to have them help me with something so personal." 

Burnt out from years of leading a band and having recently become a father, Joel joined The Pons in 2011 as a sideman and didn't write a single song from 2012 through 2018, an unusual move from a prolific songwriter, but one that allowed him to work on his instrumental chops and experience being a musician in a new way. In early 2019, Joel lost an extremely close and lifelong friend and was suddenly faced with grief on a scale he had not previously experienced. "Seemingly overnight, I became an emotional wreck. I was already a binge drinker, but then I started drinking more and more to self-medicate, which is a vicious cycle that is really hard to get out of. Things got a lot darker. But I did start writing songs again for the first time in quite a few years.” From September 2019 through January 2020, Joel wrote around 22 songs and started planning to record a solo album called Mid-Life Crisis. “Then COVID happened. Like everyone else, I was forced to stay at home and not go anywhere. No rehearsals, no gigs. Playing music with my friends in The Pons had become a real lifeline for me over the previous year. And then it was just gone. I was already depressed, but the pandemic made it much worse."

By the third month of the pandemic, Joel was drinking wine until the point of sobbing almost every night. He was extremely depressed, his marriage was in severe trouble, and he was consumed by guilt over how a divorce might affect his children. Amid this, Joel started tinkering with home recording and remotely collaborating with other musicians in different houses. His first solo single, "I Know When We Go," was recorded in this way and was released in July 2020. Joel quit drinking that summer and has remained sober since. Recording the songs for Mid-Life Crisis began in earnest in the Summer of 2020. A few months into the recording, Joel's 18-year-old niece, his brother's youngest child, died by suicide after a long battle with bipolar disorder. "I wrote ‘Sweet Orchid Moon’ for her; it's the only song on the album that I wrote after the pandemic's start. The recording is just me alone, no one else. I was in tears when I sang that.” Joel released the third single, a 7" double-A-side "Desperation Times" + "Mid-Life Crisis," on Friday, April 1, 2022.

All the turning points in Joel’s life seemed to come together at once in June 2021, when within the same two-week period, the final masters for Mid-Life Crisis were sent for pressing, Joel’s 15-year-old dog Ringo died, and he moved out of the house he had lived in with his wife and kids for 16 years. “Making this album was total catharsis. I don’t know how I would have survived without this music to work on.” 

Joel grew up with a love for music. When Joel was around five or six years old, he heard John Denver's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 on his grandmother's 8-track. "I fell deeply in love. That was a defining moment in my life because it was the first time I remember feeling overwhelmingly moved by music." Joel started taking piano lessons when he was eight years old, but quickly quit. “Learning someone else’s music never seemed appealing to me; it’s too hard, which was very frustrating as a kid. Then at some point, I just sat down at the piano and made something up. That was way easier and felt more natural, so I just thought ‘oh, I’m a songwriter.’” As a songwriter and performer, Joel is influenced by a diverse group of artists, including Simon & Garfunkel, The The, Pixies, Billy Joel, Spiritualized, Luna, Wham!, and more. "Robyn Hitchcock is my most significant influence. The first time I heard one of his albums, which would have been around the age of 14, he sounded so familiar and at the same time so different from anything I’d ever heard before. I still don’t know what a ‘Tropical Flesh Mandala’ is, but it’s a catchy song. I’m also a sucker for a piano ballad with a good pop melody, so yeah, I kinda dig 70’s Barry Manilow, and I’m only slightly ashamed to say that. Frankly, I just love music. There’s nothing better than a good song."

Press Quotes

“Joel Mullins has a warm, everyman kind of voice that resonates with longing romantic idealism.”

-Austin Chronicle

 

“Joel Mullins' effortless falsetto even wavers at times near that of Elton John.”

-Dallas Observer

“…carefully crafted pop perfection.”

-The Daily Texan

“Joel Mullins’ elastic voice…slips effortlessly from a quavering falsetto to a Muppety croon with playful Beatles-esque melodies.”

-The Onion

Joel Mullins by Nicola Gell

Photo by Nicola Gell
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Joel Mullins by Nicola Gell

Photo by Nicola Gell
Click here to download hi-res copy

Joel Mullins Desperation time

Joel Mullins 7-inch Single Release, April 1, 2022
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Joel Mullins Mid-Life Crisis Album Cover

Mid-Life Crisis Album Cover
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