MP3 Joseph Mulhollen - Polar

A combination of all things contradictory, with a strong acoustic framework and carefully crafted songs that tip toe between folk/punk/pop, changing moods and sounds faster than a channel surfer with ADHD.

13 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Pop, POP: Folky Pop



Details:
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH MULHOLLEN

Joseph Mulhollen grew up on a small farm in western New York. He is the youngest of four children. Joseph grew up with a healthy appreciation for music and poetry. At the age of 14, after winning a local speech competition, Joseph spent his earnings (with a little added financial help from his sister, Kimberly) on a used acoustic guitar. Tacking a guitar chord poster above his bed, Joseph quickly began to learn chords, strumming and picking techniques, along with the music theory he was studying in school. Then, the songs came.

A year later, Joseph had recorded three full-length albums on a used 4-track that his brother, Brian, bought him as a present. He gave the recordings away to friends as gifts. Though the recordings were primarily focused around his acoustic guitar, Joseph began the framework for his later multi-track recording by adding simple percussion, solo guitars and background vocals. Though sparse, the early recordings are still his favorite.

It wasn't until he attended college that Joseph thought about his music seriously. Thanks to the greatly appreciated advice of friends, Joseph began to perform at local open mic nights, eventually working his way up to headlining local shows and establishing himself as a local musical favorite.

In the winter of '98, Joseph was asked to contribute a song to a local independent artist compilation CD, entitled "Rock Stars Anonymous." Joseph entered a professional studio for the first time after not recording for over a year. Writing a song on the spot, Joseph created a twisted tale about a boy and his unhealthy infatuations, called "Henry." The song was a landmark for Joseph, rekindling his desire to record.

In the summer of 2000, Joseph recorded rough sketches of songs that would later appear on his first professional effort. The session of songs, entitled "Adecoradora," proved to be just the beginning for Joseph, who ended up recording 30 songs when he finally finished recording a year and a half later.

During this time, Joseph was also busy honing his live performance, opening up for the likes of Sara Lee, Andy Stochansky, Pamela Means, and Sara Slean.

This last winter, Joseph chose 13 songs from his sessions, and decided to call it "Polar." The songs on this album stretch across a broad surface, with the sound of a killer band (with all the tracks recorded by Joseph, and mastered with the help of sound recording guru Dan Berggren) coupled with the haunting feeling of a lone guitar player strumming away in his bedroom. The songs range from funk to pop to punk to folk, with Joseph screaming at one point as if he were taught by PJ Harvey or Frank Black, and the next crooning and whispering like Jeff Buckley or Thom Yorke. His guitar playing is reminiscent of Ani DiFranco's ferocious strum/pick, with a careful tendency to hush just long enough to channel Nick Drake. These songs are tangible representations of the human need to create, to comment, and to cure.
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