In this review, I’m going to be delving into The Mulberry Purple’s latest songs. The Los Angeles based group has put together six of their new releases in a playlist, an excursion that offers a glimpse into the outfit’s brand of rock and roll. At times, the sound does fail to find original ground to land on. At the same time, however, The Mulberry Purple have glimpses of greatness in the mist. Let’s dig right into them.
Their latest single, ‘I Am,’ is a track featuring Shanna Gilfix. It’s a very well produced effort, and I found myself interested enough in the soundscapes and rather tight percussion pieces. Gilfix’s presence on the tracks is most welcome, bouncing back and forth with vocalist Blake Vaz very well. I do, however, want to talk about my problem with the track, and it’s an odd one that took me about a half hour of spinning ‘I Am’ on loop to discern.
There is absolutely nothing in the whole of ‘I Am’ that is ‘wrong,’ per say. It’s performed well, produced nicely, and everyone sings in tune. The ultimate offense of the track is its inability to be entertaining or enjoyable. After listening to the track five or six times, I doubt I could recall more than the titular vocal lines. More so, I never found myself humming, foot tapping, singing along, and it’s definitely not stuck in my head. It’s generic rock and roll without anything to set it apart from the pack. It’s not bad, nor is it overly good. It’s the musical equivalent of a mildly entertaining Robin Williams family comedy. I’m not laughing out loud, but it’s not offensively bad enough to make me leave the theater.
‘Crash the Line’ has a sense of soul to it, which doesn’t make it fall victim to the major pitfalls of ‘I Am.’ It doesn’t ever reach its potential, however, and feels a bit rushed and awkward. ‘Follow’ is the band’s attempt to create heavy, driving rock. It’s arguably their most successful effort, particularly due to the creative decisions in the chord structures and tempo. Voz stands out particularly strong on that track, offering a look into his potential as a frontman.
On the tail end, ‘River Red’ is a nice introspective effort, ‘Neverknown’ is a punk-infused garage rocker with some real personality, and ‘Rain’ ultimately struggles from the same monotony of ‘I Am.’ Thus, The Mulberry Purple isn’t bad band by any means, nor is this a particularly negative review. They’re just… a nameless rock band. You could take any album art, any name, and slap it on these guys and it would often be eerily similar to the vast majority of trope inundated rock. The guys have talent, they just haven’t found their sound or something worth writing home about… not yet, at least.
By Brett Stewart
I’m a professional writer and editor, a journalism major, and I have extensive experience in musical review. I worked for two years as the Editor & Chief of an arts magazine, Strike Magazine, where I worked closely with writers and musicians. Through this, I was able to interact with dozens of acts including Heart, Holly Williams, Robert Cray, John Hiatt, and more. The magazine printed thousands of issues and was even recognized by Rolling Stone’s founder, Jann Wenner.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:
Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?
Blake Vaz: I first heard about the site on Twitter. I work in Production and Marketing and I am constantly looking for opportunities to not only expose my music but that of the artists I work with as well. I stumbled across your platform by searching for music marketing sites.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Blake Vaz: I was born in the border town of El Paso, Texas but was raised on the other side of the border, Juarez, Mexico. Border towns tend to be gritty but also offer lots of diversity. This is especially true when it comes to pop-culture, music and entertainment. I was lucky to grow up learning from two different cultures and embracing both of them at the same time. From a very young age I was drawn to music and movies and it was interesting how I could relate to both American standards and Latin rhythms and songs. By the time I was in junior high school I was enrolled in guitar lessons and by my junior year in High school I was already playing gigs out of state with my first band.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Blake Vaz: The core of the band is basically the same since we were 15 years old. We’ve gone through a few name changes and personnel changes but our basic line up is the same. During one of those name changes we were exploring new ways to merge our two cultures with out necessarily forcing a Latin sound into the band. My lyrics at the time were heavily inspired by True Crime books and novels and it occurred to me that one of the most long standing forms of musical story telling that comes from Mexico and Latin America is the ‘corrido.’ Corridos have been around since the revolution and were used to tell stories about revolutionary heroes or bandits. In recent years this genre has evolved into a way of telling stories about local drug lords or ‘Narcos.’ Without borrowing any of the sound these corridos have I started writing similar stories but set to heavy riffs and rhythms but telling the stories of American mobsters. One day we were trying to come up with a name for the band and I started messing around with the idea of incorporating something from the Italian Mob lore to fit with the songs I was writing at the time. I think I said Mulberry St. or something along those lines, referring to the famous street in little Italy in New York. Not sure how we ended up adding the purple to it, but I think it had to do with incorporating something that would remind people of classic rock. Think, Purple Haze, Purple Rain, Deep Purple, Purple by Stone Temple Pilots, etc.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Blake Vaz: The band started in the early 2000’s, the Internet was still young, especially mp3 sharing sites. We’ve always been about exploring technology to benefit our music, sound and career, and from those early online music days we always took advantage of it. I think I built our first website in 1997 (the band was named PAPAHANA at that time), and our first demos were available to download there. Online sharing has evolved tremendously since then, after the Napster debacle and then the emergence of iTunes then streaming sites like Pandora and Spotify, I think technology allows independent bands to put their music out there. We certainly post our stuff on all of those Online Music stores but we also make them available at places like Soundcloud or Reverbnation for free.
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?
Blake Vaz: The business has changes a lot in the last 10-15 years, but the one thing that doesn’t change is the groundwork. You have to hit the ground hard. It used to be posting flyers, now is posting on social media. Twitter and Facebook are great tools if used properly, there is a lot of content and options out there, but there is a reason why certain things go viral. It’s all about exploring; it’s all about volume with out sacrificing quality. As for gigs, we were deeply involved in the local scene when the whole pay-for-play thing was going hard in LA. I don’t want to say everyone is like this, but many promoters take advantage of the dreams and eagerness of new local bands to play all the legendary spots in town. Your best bet is to get organized and befriend other local bands. Put together great shows, it doesn’t matter if it’s a less known venue or even a local party. There’s still a lot of people out there wating to hear great new music and for all the internet can do, there is nothing like good ol’ fashioned buzz… play your ass off, hit the streets, promote the hell our of yourself online and get it done.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Blake Vaz: I think everyone makes mistakes. We are certainly a band that wants to reach perfection on stage, but sometimes a mistake can create something spontaneous that can then evolve into something great. You have to respect the craft and make sure you are well rehearsed and ready for any gig, but you also have to be open to exploring new things on stage. I’ve been caught exploring and experimenting on stage with a vocal melody and there’s been times when the result is not the best, but great things have come out of experimenting.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Blake Vaz: We don’t tour anymore; we are more focused on creating and recording great new music on a constant basis. Our last tour was almost 10 years ago, and I can tell you we had a lot of crazy stories from those days. We did our share of hard core partying and I could tell you a lot of stories involving, cops, arrests and broken stuff but we are kind of over that stuff. A story that stuck with me is how our van broke down in the middle of nowhere and we basically had to make the trip back from San Francisco to Texas in second gear…. Fun times.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Blake Vaz: It all depends on who begins the process. Usually David, our guitar player, will come up with a bunch of riffs and parts. He records them and sends them to me and Julio (bass). I then write a vocal melody and lyrics over it and we develop the idea from there. Sometimes songs begin as jams in the studio. Like our last single ‘I Am..’ We wrote that in one day at the studio, both David and I came up with riffs and parts until it was at a good place. We recorded the base tracks, I then took it home, wrote the lyrics and melody and Julio and I polished it and produced it a little further in his studio.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Blake Vaz: Our website is www.themulberrypurple.com. I’ve owned that domain for 16 years and almost lost it last year!!!! To some online fake women’s purse seller! Got it back tough… so we’re good.
Our music is pretty much everywhere, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Apple music, Soundcloud.
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
Blake Vaz: I love all kinds of music; I am not really embarrassed by any of it. I think for some it would be weird to hear some Mexican boleros on my playlist, next to John Legend, then some Slayer and finish it up with Sinatra.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Blake Vaz: Ha! Probably give half to my kids so they can go to college. Then put aside $250K to produce one of my movies. We can record a great album with $50K easily; we already have most of the equipment. $100K to play with some light investments. Then definitely go back to Europe and unplug for a month or two. And of course… use some of that for promo and marketing… there’s no use having an amazing album/movie if no one knows about it!
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
Blake Vaz: I think we’ve recently spent a little more than we wanted on gear. We use Logic to record and produce, but I think we’ve learned the hard way that for strictly mixing ProTools is better. We have a really decent collection of plug-ins and we recently invested on some really nice Universal Audio Compressors. Next on the list is upgrading our main recording Mac Pro.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Blake Vaz: As I mentioned earlier, social media can be a great tool if used properly. I’ve experimented with FB and twitter paid ads and other services. I compare the insights and results and evaluate what works best for us depending on the site and/or song being promoted. The key is being creative in how you put your stuff out there, traditional promotion and marketing doesn’t really work for independent bands and products as much as digital content does. There is a reason why Youtuber’s are getting millions of hits on their own. It’s about finding a way to relate to your audience.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Blake Vaz: Dead, no contest, Mr. Frank Sinatra at the Sands in the 60’s. Alive, there’s a few; I love the energy the original Gn’R had on stage back in the day. I’d be awesome to be part of that. A collaboration with Draco Rosa would be nice…
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Blake Vaz: We just released a single titled ‘I Am.. (feat. Shanna Gilfix).’ We are really trying to explore new stuff. I’d never done collaboration with another singer, and this was the perfect time and opportunity to do it. Shanna has an amazing voice and it was a challenge coming up with melodies that worked with someone else vocal style and range.
We are focused on creating music that can be used in TV and film and find a new audience for our music.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Blake Vaz: I have a lot of passions. I love film almost as much as I do music, so I am involved in that as well.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
Blake Vaz: This is one of those weird things that go back to living on a border town and being the product of two cultures. I remember requesting an album by Mexican Ranchero Singer ‘Vicente Fernandez.’ I wasn’t even able to pronounce his name, that’s how young I was, maybe 4. Apparently I specifically requested this from my mom. She got me a cassette of his latest ‘Corridos.’ After that I think the next one I can remember buying was ‘Apettite for Destruction’ and some album by Anthrax.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Blake Vaz: I’m a single father to two teenagers, it gets crazy. But when you love something and you are passionate about something there’s no excuses…. I always make sure I make time to get together with the band and make some more TMP(The Mulbery Purple) music.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Blake Vaz: Hopefully more music. Our plan is to get our system down to were we could record and release one single a month. We are completely self sufficient, it’s just a matter of finding the time.
