Exposed Vocals Interviews Letto Mullen

Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?

Letto Mullen: Well, I found Exposed Vocals through the magical realm of twitter. I guess it’s another good example of the amazing ability and power of this day in age where we can conduct an interview entirely over the internet, having never physically met. It’s pretty amazing.

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Letto Mullen: I grew up on Cape Cod, MA. I am the youngest of four, and learned early that I had to excel at something if I was going to steal any spotlight from my parents. It was interesting for me because the Cape is an amazing place creatively. So many different walks of life come to there, so it is really a melting pot for different cultures and ideas. In that sense, I was constantly exposed to different types of music and such. I started writing songs at age eight, it started off as sequels to the nursery rhymes we would read in school. You know like Humpty Dumpty, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mother Goose, stuff like that. I would write new stories with the same characters and although I had no idea about song composition at that point, I just liked the way it sounded when it rhymed. As i grew up, writing songs just became kind of an escape for me. It was something that was my own, and as I grew older and through my teenage years, which can be a strange time for everyone, it was something I could crutch on. Now in my early twenties, writing and performing music is the only thing I could envision myself doing.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

Letto Mullen: I am named after the town in Ireland my grandparents were from, Lettermullen. My name is Letto Mullen, but when I was young I couldn’t pronounce it properly. I would pronounce it like lay-toe instead of letto, and so it stuck, and that is why it is pronounced like that today.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

Letto Mullen: I think online music sharing is a tricky subject when it comes to artists. In one sense I think it is amazing, amazing that I can essentially share my own music personally with anyone at any time. It allows for exposure of artists that would never otherwise have an opportunity. However I think also that some artists get monetarily exploited for their work, and I don’t necessarily feel that, that is fair. There are a small number of artists whom benefit from things like streaming sites, while other artists see little compensation, yet their music is still being used. For me at this juncture in time, it’s a great tool to gain exposure and allow for people to hear my music. I put my single “Freak Flag” on Itunes, but it is also on Soundcloud, and my other songs are on Soundcloud too for free. It is naive to think people are going to buy your music when they don’t know who you are, so right now I am fine with it.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Letto Mullen I have seen a lot of artists or bands fold when year two or three comes up because they don’t feel like they are making any headway. It’s different in a band because there may be three or four different people who need to come to a democratic consensus on creative decisions or directions that they take. I am a solo artist so whatever I decide, I do, so maybe in that sense I am blessed because I do have to rely on my own intuition a lot of times. The best thing a band or artist could do is to keep plugging away and playing and trying to engage with the social media market. I think you have to be prudent and understand that promoting your music is equally as important as making the music. Also there is no shortcut to success, you have to work harder than hard, and then you put yourself in a good position to succeed. Also I wouldn’t measure yourself up against anyone else, I don’t think you should approach music as competition, you should just try and make the best music you possibly can and whatever is unique to you. The audience can sniff that out quickly and get on board with that.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Letto Mullen: Sometimes I forget the lyrics to my songs,, but i’ll just rhyme something similar enough and come away unscathed. It happens so fast, especially with my music that I am able to sneak it by the audience. I have never messed up a chorus thankfully, that would be bad, and probably really ill-prepared haha. Steven Tyler always said “If you slip make it part of your act”, I don’t think you want to freeze on stage because it will snowball. Everyone makes mistakes or forgets here and there, it’s only human. During my music video shoot for “Freak Flag” we probably did 40-45 takes on the verses, because I kept messing up “Yeah find your truth and shoot to thrill and climb that peak and a top of that hill”, and jumbling up the lines.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

Letto Mullen: I don’t tour in the conventional sense yet. I’m still in my last semester of school, so I just play shows whenever I can. Right now I am focused more on writing and recording while I’m stationary, and then I will make some decisions.

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

Letto Mullen: Songwriting is a tricky thing and I think it is an entirely a unique experience for anyone who writes. It all depends, sometimes I will be journaling about my day and something will inspire me while I physically write. Other times it is something I see throughout the day, or it could be a song I’m listening to at that moment that plants a seed for a topic in my mind. If I get hit by a certain melody or chorus in my head I will just sing it into my phone and write my lyrics in my notes. I don’t toil over an idea, if I’m not feeling it then I don’t go with it. I don’t subscribe to the notion of forcing yourself to write, I just like to write when I’m in a good space and feel I have something to say. Two nights ago I had a dream about a girl that I’m really into at the moment. We were racing into a house and when we got to the door she went in and slammed it on me. When I opened it, there was a cheetah at the front door and it attacked me. The rest of my dream I spent trying to get into the house but that cheetah kept holding down the fort. That morning I wrote a song called “Cheetah Pride” and I actually really like it! I’m going to throw it on my EP!

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Letto Mullen: I do have a website it’s Lettomullen.com. I use a lot of different platforms, ranging from Itunes, Youtube, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. I am searchable as “Letto Mullen” on all of those sites. I definitely want to be as engaged and available with my audience as I possibly can.

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

Letto Mullen: Oh boy, one may or may not find some disco songs…I made my high school basketball teams warmup CD one year and it was in oder: “Firework” .”Shout” by the Isley Brothers, “You Should Be Dancing” by the Bee Gees, and “Only Time” by Enya. That tells you how we did that year…But I’m actually a huge film score nerd, I like to run to like the Batman trilogy or the Forrest Gump original score. I may be the only person that has ever used these two names in a sentence together, but if you threw on my running playlist you would hear Chief Keef followed by Hans Zimmer, back to back. How is that for variety? Haha.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

Letto Mullen: If I was given half a million dollars and a year off, I certainly would not be taking that year off haha. I would try an invest that money into my musical career, towards promotion, maybe. I’d put some money towards mom and dad so they can put their feet up. That would be nice.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

Letto Mullen: No planned upgrades, I have a good situation now, where I get a good amount of studio time to record, but i try and prepare as much out of studio so I don’t waste time regardless. That’s a very artist thing to do I think, we are always cognizant of the value of studio time.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Letto Mullen: Promotion is always tricky. I think that old adage of “word of mouth works best” definitely reigns true. People have to tell other people about the music and you hope it takes off from there. But i will say social media, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, are definitely tools at an artists disposal, and it’s virtually impossible to build a fan-base without using those mediums. So just gotta keep engaging and creating.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

Letto Mullen: Man, if I could perform anywhere or with anyone, that is a great question. I would say if I could perform at the Boston Garden in front of a sold out crowd, that would really be a dream come true. I was born in Boston, I have roots there, I have seen countless shows there, it would just be surreal. As far as who to perform with? If you told me that I could play with the Imagine Dragons, BUT I had to remove my left foot’s pinky toe, I would consider it for three to four minutes and then I would give you the head nod. I love that band, and I got to see them twice in the last couple years, they put on an amazing show. They have been my favorite band and have meant a lot to me, so that would be pretty crazy.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Letto Mullen: Yeah, so I’m pretty excited at the moment, I just finished writing my third single and I’m going to be recording this weekend. I’m also set to release my second single in early march, and I’m in pre-production for the shooting of my second music video, which I’ll be shooting in Los Angeles. So it’s pretty busy but that is the only way I like it, I’m super thrilled!

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Letto Mullen: If I wasn’t making music, well I would be in school still. But if in my career instead of making music, I had to be doing something else, I always told people I would be a sheep herder in New Zealand before I worked a nine-to-five job. In other words, there is no plan B haha.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

Letto Mullen: I remember my older brother buying The Eminem Show, I was like nine years old, and I would listen to it secretly on my mom’s walkman instead of the stereo because I wasn’t allowed to listen to him at that time. I just liked the way he composed his songs, I thought it was brilliant. But I also remember at like age seven or eight my mom took me to a thrift store and she bought a double-sided Stevie Wonder cassette. My mom loves Stevie Wonder, and at the time I didn’t like him. But she told me that she would drive me to school in lieu of the bus ONLY IF i learned his songs and sang them in the car with her. He is probably my favorite artist in terms of song composition, thank you mom.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

Letto Mullen: I probably don’t juggle my responsibilities as well as I should but whatever. I think any serious artist will tell you that for them music is an obsession not a hobby, and I want to be successful so I really take it serious. But I also think writing and making music is fun so it’s not painstaking for me. It uses up my hobby time and my work time. If my mom ever complained that I was spending too much time on music and too little on school, I would respond that she needed to look at it like my medication. She never could see it that way when it came to school work…if only I could get the Dean to see it that way, that would be something!

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

Letto Mullen: I think fans should look forward to hearing some new and unique Letto Mullen records. It’s going to be a big year. I can’t wait.