RELEASE COVER ARTWORK / PLAYLIST COVERS

Music has been a central facet of my life since before I can remember. Growing up I remember our house being filled with instruments, and my parents somehow letting me bang on a drum set for hours before the age of five. My late father was the lead singer and guitarist of legendary Columbus band “The Danger Brothers” for over 30 years. The apple did not fall far from the tree… at all, as I am now the lead singer and guitarist of my own band, MUDD, which I put together in May 2022.

I have built MUDD from the ground up over the last three years (with the help of many great people). I record, mix, and master all of our music myself. I plan and create all of our social media/promotional content. I book (almost) all our shows. I put together old-school, boots-on-the-ground marketing campaigns with flyers and wheat paste. Anything with MUDD’s name on it I’ve touched. Combined with my professional roles, my experience with MUDD has really helped me hone my craft when it comes to being a pro marketer and knowing what people want!

I have put countless hours into researching music and social media trends, release and marketing strategies, and seeing what works by trial and error.

MUDD is the true testament to my potential as a creative. Through it I have touched almost every corner of media creation over the last three years and only expect to expand my horizons going forward.

I have played instruments my entire life, but my obsession with music really began to form in late high school/early college. I took a particular interest in artists who create their music independently from front to back, like Kevin Parker of Tame Impala or Mk.gee. By that I mean from writing the song all the way to recording, mixing, and mastering it, everything is done by the artist. I had great ideas, but no idea how to produce a song. Furthermore, most of my ideas involved guitar, which I didn’t know how to play. I didn’t want to ask someone else to play my songs, and I didn’t want to pay for studio time, so I decided I would just learn how to do it all myself.

It was right before COVID when I first picked up the black stratocaster hand-built by my dad in 1980. I would teach myself songs from YouTube videos then sit with my dad at his place and show him what I could do. It was still very bad, but he was proud nonetheless. We spent a lot of time bonding over music over the course of 2020 before he suddenly passed in December.

After his passing, I found myself with a profound sense of purpose to carry on the legacy he left. I continued to practice guitar, learning at a rapid pace, and also spent hours mastering small technical mixing and mastering skills. By the time MUDD started in 2022, I was still learning (still am), but had enough of a base of knowledge to bring my ideas into reality. I worked on our first EP and was so thrilled to realize that I was actually creating all the sounds I heard in my head.

Fast forward to today and I still have plenty to learn, but I have five valuable years of experience under my belt and a wealth of knowledge from my own successes and mistakes. The most valuable thing I’ve learned this whole time is there are no rules. At the end of the day, it only matters if your music sounds good to you. Oh, and have fun doing it.