Chattanooga Times Free Press music reporter Casey Phillips spoke with Philadelphia-based pop/soul singer/songwriter Mutlu about his current tour with fellow ‘delphian Amos Lee and how he started collaborating with Daryl Hall.
CP: You’re currently on tour with Amos Lee. How do you know him?
M: Amos and I are good friends. He was one of the first people I met when I started playing around Philly about 5-6 years ago. We just hit it off, and when things started taking off for me, he took me out on tour as his opening act. He also produced one of the first EPs I recorded. We became good friends, and we’ve been touring together for the last few years. I’ve been performing mainly as his opening act, but more recently, I’ve started playing in his band when he does full-band shows. This tour is an acoustic tour, so I’m just opening these shows.
CP: How is the tour going so far?
M: I was actually at the first tour in New York, and it was great. I’m not on all the dates. I’m on 14 dates, beginning in Knoxville. It was great. The first show in Brooklyn sounded really good. It’s kind of stripped-down versions of his normal songs. He’s giving the fans something different and playing some of the new material he’s been working on. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
CP: Have you been to Chattanooga before?
M: This will be my first time. It’ll be a new experience for me. I’ve had a great time in Tennessee and the South in general. I’ve played Knoxville and Nashville. I always love coming down south. I have a good feeling about it.
CP: I have to ask, is Mutlu a stage name?
M: That’s actually my first name, although a lot of people think it’s a stage name or even a band. It’s actually my given name.
CP: What’s your last name?
M: Onaral. But with a name like Mutlu, I just have to go with the one name. (Laughs.)
CP: How did you get into playing music to begin with?
M: When I was in college, I always liked music, and I always had a sense that I could sing and perform, but when I was in college, I had few friends who were good musicians. I started learning from them, picking up some chords on the guitar. As soon as I started playing on the guitar, I felt this need to write songs and perform. By the time I had finished college, I started going around to open mikes in Philly and New York. It was a really good to get the ball rolling.
CP: What were you in school for?
M: I actually have a marketing degree, which applies to some extent. (Laughs.)
CP: Have you ever had any second thoughts about playing music for a living instead of doing something with your degree?
M: I love it, you know? I love writing and recording and especially performing and being on the road. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’m pretty deep into it.
CP: Listening to some of your songs on Myspace, particularly “Livin’ It,” your vocals have a very Stevie Wonder vibe to them. Was he one of your influences?
M: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I love Stevie Wonder. He’s one of my favorites, along with a lot of the classic soul artists like Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Bill Withers. Especially from a vocal stand point, that’s 100 percent bang on.
CP: What about your guitar playing? Who influenced you there?
M: It’s a lot of different people. I love the sound of guitar on a lot of those classic soul records, even though I play acoustic, which is that tight, rhythmic playing. I also like Brazilian style, that cool, hand-picked acoustic style. It’s that with a little bit of a jazz mixed in there. It really comes from an R&B place, in terms of my general style. Whenever you pick up the acoustic, it takes on a little bit of a different dynamic.
CP: Do you ever do any shows electric?
M: I haven’t really, but I’m thinking about it. As far as touring, I mostly tour as an opening act for Amos or artists like Hall & Oates, a bit with Joe Jackson. I’m always solo or duo, and in that context, it usually makes more sense to do acoustic. Now, as I’m doing my band gigs, which are mostly regionally in the Northeast, I may want to start mixing some electric into the set as well.
CP: You just mentioned Hall & Oates, and you and Daryl Hall have had some pretty extensive collaboration recently. You’ve opened for him and Hall & Oates, and he even sang a duet with you on a song on your album. How did that partnership come about?
M: Actually, it was through my good friend T-Bone Wolk, who unfortunately just passed away a few weeks ago. He produced my album, and he was a long-time music director, co-producer, guitarist and bass player for Hall & Oates. While we were working on the album, we actually cut some of it in Daryl’s studio in upstate New York. I met Daryl, and we just hit it off.
When he heard my music, he really took a liking to it. He was around one day, and we actually started singing. He came up and sang on the album. That was a huge honor for me because I’ve always been a fan of Hall & Oates; they’re one of my favorite groups. To get a chance to know him and collaborate with him has been great.
He started his web cast series, “Live from Daryl’s House” where each month he has a different guest artist come through. I’ve been out doing some touring with him and Hall & Oates, but the original connection was through T-Bone Wolk, who was a legend in his own right and died suddenly of a heart attack a few weeks ago.
CP: How did you originally meet T-Bone?
M: My manager, Bill Eib, had worked with him on a few different projects, and he had an instinct we would hit it off. Sure enough, as we were getting ready to make the album, he introduced me to T-Bone, and we were very much on the same wavelength, musically. That was my whole in to the Hall & Oates camp, so to speak.
It’s a sad situation because he became a mentor. He was a great friend and a great guy. It kind of happened very suddenly. At he very least, he left a great impact. He worked a lot with Hall & Oates, but he was also in the SNL (Saturday Night Live) band and he worked with Billy Joel and Carly Simon. He made a huge impact as a musician and arranger and producer.
CP: One thing that really struck me about the album he worked with you on is the production, which is really tight. Do you feel like your production style has acquired a similar feel thanks to working with him?
M: Yes, I think so, no question. He influenced me in a huge way, just through his sense of arrangement. I had done a few recordings before that, a couple of EPs that I was proud of, but he helped take it to another new level through his knowledge of music. He was like a musical encyclopedia. He had a way of being in the moment and getting the most out of me. I think, in the process of making that record, I learned a lot. That’s going to be an indelible part of what I do moving forward.
CP: What typically inspires your music?
M: It can be a number of different things. Sometimes, it could be a situation that has happened to me and I’m trying to find a way to express that. I write on my own, but I also like to co-write. If I’m co-writing with somebody, maybe we’ll think of a scenario or a concept and base it off that.
Sometimes, it’s abstract and something that’s created, like I want to tell a story. Sometimes, it could be a little more personal. I usually start from a melody and a concept, and the lyrics flow out of that. I know some people start with lyrics, and that occasionally happens, but more often, it starts off in a melodic or musical place.
CP: Do you find that either side, abstract or personal, tends to lend itself more readily to R&B music?
M: You know, although the abstract thing can be great and a lot can come out of it, but I think that, more often than not, if it comes out of something more tangible and real to you, especially with R&B and soul, that’s a deeper well. They both can be good, but I would give the edge, as far as writing, to real-life circumstance or a place where you’ve actually experienced something.
CP: Can you give me an example of a time that a personal experience has been the inspiration for one of your songs?
M: Looking at “Livin’ It,” that was something that, even though it sounds more like a general, conceptual thing, my friend and I wrote that. We had done some writing together, and when we wrote that song, we were both at a moment in time when we were both struggling to get things going. We were both going through a tough time, personally, and trying to figure out what was going on in our careers.
We both said, “We gotta write something like it’s summertime. We’ve both got the doldrums. We gotta write something that’s simple and upbeat.” It’s almost like we were trying to encourage ourselves. Hopefully, people will hear the song, and it will encourage them as well. That’s one example.
The song, “See What It brings,” which Daryl sings on, was the same kind of thing. I wrote that trying to psych myself out and say, “Don’t get too stressed out about things. Just take them as they come.” Sometimes, it’s almost like writing a song is like therapy for yourself.
CP: I know you list reggae as a genre that you feel you fit in, and the reggae mentality seems to mesh well with what you just said.
M: Absolutely. I love reggae. I kind of see reggae as a cousin or R&B because they come from the same place. You hear a lot of great reggae artists covering soul tunes, artists like Toots & the Maytalls. It’s really that spirit of upbeat and positive.
CP: What’s your personal litmus test for a song? How do you determine for yourself that a song is successful?
M: The first step is that I have to be able to sit there with the guitar or just a cappella and feel great about singing it. Before I can bring it in the studio or to a band, I have to feel inspired by just performing it and feeling good about it.
If it passes that litmus test and I’m feeling excited about it, the next real test is to get in front of an audience and have it connect with them. That’s the great opportunity I’ve had over the last few years getting to tour with these established people. Being up there by yourself in front of an audience of 500 or 1,000 or more people, if you play a tune and feel that connection with the audience and it really resonates with them and with you, that’s the greatest test because the proof is in the pudding, if it transcends and can make an impact on people.
CP: Do you remember the first song you wrote?
M: The first song I wrote? Wow. I had a few other tunes that I’ve forgotten by now, but “See What it Brings” was one of the first songs I wrote. It’s fitting that it ended up on my first full-length, even though I’d had that tune for years. A lot of the other songs were more recent, but that was one I had from very early on. That was the first one I had that really stood up and held up. I continue to play it to this day.
CP: What do you think it is about that song that gave it such lasting power?
M: I think it’s a few things. It’s the message, that positive message. I’m not always in that sunshiny place – I also play songs that represent a more down or darker side – but I try and bring that positive message in.
Also, the groove, the reggae aspect of it. Even on the record, where we did a little more of a rock thing with it, it has that skank to it.
It’s got a melody and lyrics that floats along and works in a way that feels natural. You can do it a number of different ways. That’s always a good test of a song. You can play it like a straight-up folk tune or play it with more of a rock feel or groove it out as a soul thing. There are a number of things I think made it hold up.
CP: Your voice is really well suited to R&B and soul, but what drew you to that style of music to begin with?
M: It’s a Philly thing. I think there’s something about the city of Philadelphia – R&B music is really prevalent here. Listening to classic Mo-Town and Stax Records and all that stuff, from when I first started listening to music, there’s something about the emotion that comes through in a great R&B singer, someone like Otis Redding or Sam Cooke or Stevie Wonder. There’s that ability to cut loose.
Daryl Hall, of course, is one of my favorite singers of all time, and that’s something I really admire about him, alongside his songwriting. When he’s on stage, he really commits to the moment and gives it 150 percent.
It’s that feeling and just the groove. There’s something about the R&B thing that just feels right. To some extent, it’s a Philly thing. That’s a level that Amos and I really connect on. We have a lot of the same influences. There’s this incredible tradition of soul music in Philly.
CP: Tell me about your upcoming recording project.
M: Yeah, I’m in the process of wrapping it up, putting the finishing touches on it. In the month or two before T-Bone Wolk passed, we worked on a few tunes, and I’m going to to put it together as an EP.
It’s crazy, because the last day of mixing we did was about a week before he passed away. The last time I saw him was when we were finishing it up. When I get that recording together it’ll be a really nice tribute to the working relationship we had.
CP: Have you got a name picked out yet?
M: Not yet. (Laughs.) I’m still trying to figure it out. That’s always a tough thing. I’m trying to come up with something different this time. I had a couple self-titled EPs, and “Livin’ It” was named for the title track. I’m trying to see if I can get a little more creative with it. For the time being, I might just take one of the names of the songs, but I’m still trying to sort that out.
CP: When would you like to see that released?
M: I’m hoping in the next month or two. For this tour, I have the last few hundred copies of “Livin’ It” that are in stock. I’ve also put together a live EP with some live recordings and some outtakes from the album. Pretty much, I’m hoping to sell through my current stock of records. As soon as those run their course, hopefully for later spring, early summer, I’ll have this new EP with some new material to float some new stuff out there.
CP: Have you thought beyond that? Are you hoping to work on another EP or try for another full-length?
M: I would like to do anther LP. I’m continually working on new ideas and new songs. I love the EP thing. Especially with this climate of the digital age, EPs are becoming more popular again. I may do an EP, but in my heart, I’m still leaning towards doing another full-length.