Okay so I started digging into Steve Mullins’ career journey last Tuesday after seeing his name pop up everywhere in music biz chats. Honestly didn’t know much about him before this.
The Deep Dive Begins
First I grabbed like five different podcast interviews where Steve talked about his grind. Wrote down timestamps every time he dropped gold nuggets. Then found his old Twitter threads from 2013 where he was literally begging venues for gig slots. Crazy seeing where he started.
Spent Thursday binge-watching studio session clips where Steve produced tracks. Noticed he always did three things:
- Made musicians do minimum five takes even if take one sounded perfect
- Kept asking “does this feel true to you?” during vocal recordings
- Always ordered the weirdest pizza toppings at midnight sessions
My Experiment Weekend
Tried Steve’s approach during my friend’s demo recording on Saturday. Got pushback at first – like “seriously? another take?” but man… that fifth take? Chills. Absolute magic happened when the singer stopped thinking.
Then came the hard part. Steve always talks about “creative tension” – making people slightly uncomfortable to get real art. Sunday I made our drummer play without sticks. Just hands on drums. Awkward silence for like three minutes… then boom. Most hypnotic rhythm we’ve ever created.
Surprising Takeaways
Biggest lesson though? The pizza thing isn’t just some quirk. When Steve orders anchovy-pineapple pizza at 3AM, it forces collaborators out of autopilot. People either bond over hating it or discover new tastes together. We tried durian ice cream instead – same effect.
But here’s the real kicker I’m still processing. Steve’s success came when he stopped chasing industry formulas. Those early Twitter rants? He wrote them after some A&R guy told him his music was “too human”. He doubled down on the messiness.
Trying to apply that today. My new demo has a vocal track where you can literally hear me knocking over a mic stand. Keeping it in. Because Steve’s whole journey taught me: imperfections become your signature.
