Benjamin Mullins: The Storytelling Behind ‘American Folk’

Hailing from Seattle, Washington in the USA, Benjamin Mullins is a singer/songwriter and composer with a story to tell.

He joins us to talk all about his latest album release, American Folk.

For Benjamin Mullins, creating music is a beautiful artform that creates a deep story, intentionally and purposefully surrounding the lights and shades of human emotion.

Benjamin’s latest album release, ‘American Folk’, brings together twelve songs that weave together topics of love, lucid dreaming and a snapshot of American society.

He has pulled together the American experience, an interpretation of the sounds, stories, and emotions of what is defined as the Americana genre.

Recorded and mixed by d Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, as you listen through the tracks, you will feel the raw discussions through the songs, with sounds of Ukulele, acoustic guitar and the smooth and alluring vocals of Benjamin Mullins.

You will almost feel as if you are sitting in the room with Benjamin as he plays.

You can listen to ‘American Folk’ below:

Would you like to start by telling us a little about yourself?

Sure, I’m a singer-songwriter, living here in Seattle.

I’ve worked professionally in the creative and design industry as a creative producer and manager on the west cost for about fifteen years. I’ve always played in artsy rock bands, and performed in shows since I was a teen.

I really enjoy writing and performing music – I did the top 40 cover/party scene for a while as a bass player, and tried to start a real rock band here in Seattle before realizing that intimate folk music was more my calling.

I’m drawn to the craft of composition; the way it can shape how you feel, and how a good song paints a picture in your mind, leaving it open to the soul’s interpretation.

It’s such a pure and limitless artform, I find folk music is one of the best mediums for that.

What was it that first inspired you to begin a career in music?

In middle school, I kinda wanted to impress a girl, and I was really into art and drama.

I saw a few other guys playing guitar and begged my dad to buy me one. He took me to the flea market that weekend and I still remember my first electric guitar – a harmony $40 flea market find…

I took lessons for a few years, and realized I had a knack for it. I moved onto drums, bass, audio engineering, electronic music, and then piano (which actually ended up putting me through college with paying my bills).

I never did get the girl.

I originally wanted to be an audio engineer, and when I finally got my big break at a super fancy studio in the Bay Area, I realized I was terrible at it and got fired. I now focus on the art of music composition, and let the engineers do their thing.

How would you describe the feel of your music?

Emotive?

Also, personal and intimate.

I really shy away from bubble-gum cliches and popular tone-of-the-month instrumentation.

I want people to feel my art and identify with it on a human level, so I focus on storytelling and keeping the sonic elements raw and open.

I find folk is a great way to do that.

You have recently released your album, ‘American Folk’.. what was the inspiration behind the creation of this album?

Well, to answer that I need to tell you what inspired me to make my first album as American Folk is my second full length.

On Little Wings (my first one), I had a few stories in me that just had to come out.

My father was dying (and has since passed) of Parkinson’s disease, which is a horrible, horrible way to go…

I felt like I owed it to him to immortalize him and wrote “I Love you Dad” about him.  

I was then inspired to write more songs at a personal level, so I would have something to leave behind in case I ever had the same thing happen to me.

It was a deeply personal project, with love songs about my children and family.

When I finally completed it, I realized ‘huh, I could really do this’, and I made it my goal to become accountable for an emotive, intimate folk album that was a bit more broadly focussed.

I guess I realized that I still have stories to tell?

What do the songs on the album mean to you?

The songs are still deeply personal, but also more broad and bigger in scope.

They’re stories about imperfect love and imperfect people, ghosts, crazy machines, and even demons.

The first song on the album, ‘Hold the Dark’ is about a sleep demon.

Once a month or so I jolt wide awake in bed and scramble away from some sort of monster that I’m certain is going to attack me.

I’m a grown man and this still happens pretty much every month…  

The song is about dreams, not trusting our eyes, or what our mind tells us.

The song itself is a sleep demon, a beautiful incubus chanting a siren song that lures you, sitting idly on your chest while you can’t move.

I woke up one morning and had the opening melody in my head, like a little bell reminding me not to trust my eyes.

The rest of the song spilled out afterwards. Some of my songs take months to write, this one took about four hours…

You have mentioned that the songs are a representation of American society.. What does American society look like to you?

It’s such a melting pot and amazing dichotomy of life, goodness, happiness, and inspiration.

It’s also deeply flawed and inequal with a dark undercurrent.

As Americans, we’re capable of so much goodness. Yet, we still can’t solve basic problems and provide support for our most vulnerable.

The album itself is structured around these themes, conceptually telling stories and exposing our imperfect flaws, temptation, and darker nature.

What did the creative process look like for your album?

I’m always playing guitar or ukulele around the house or in a park around my kids.

I tend to write little riffs all the time and put simple vocal melodies over them.

From there I begin to make sense of them, add structure and clean up the ones that really speak to me.

I work with an engineer named Jakael Tristram, He’s one of the leads over at Robert Lang Studios (a classic studio here in Seattle) and we would set up some demo evenings.

I would come in with a song on acoustic guitar or ukulele, and we would just record it live.

Then we’d listen and break it down. Once I was aligned on the instrumentation structure and vocals, I partnered up with another friend of mine named Andrew Joslyn who is a sort-of-mini-famous Seattle musician – He would work on the string arrangements – Cello, Violin, Viola with me.

Everything was going pretty smoothly until Covid hit. Then everything went remote…

Normally I would have just had my friends come on out to the studio for a week and we’d lay it all down together.

But with Covid, it took so much extra effort… It was pretty traumatic actually.

But in the end, I’m so proud of how it all turned out.  

Where do you find your inspiration for your music?

I find it in interaction with people, and random things like on walks, or at the park, or on a beach with a rum-filled-coconut.

I really bring my ukuleles with me almost everywhere.

If you’re ever in a park near Seattle and see a dude playing a uke on a bench, come say hi LOL. 

I’m lucky from an artist point of view that I’m just doing this for art.

It’s not something that I’m forcing as a career, because then it would be a job – so inspiration has come really naturally to me.

What would you like to see happen for you in your music from here?

I’d just like people to listen to it.

I put so much love and effort into the album, if you had 40 minutes, just listen to American Folk end to end.

I promise it’s good (Seriously) If I could dream? I think a lot of the songs have could have a future in Film/TV placements, they’re just so emotive and paint good pictures.

But then you have to know music supervisors, and pitch it, and compete against people who do this 40 hours a week…

So yeah.

Just listen, I promise you’ll like it.

Nothing more or less. 

What is one message you would like to share with your fans?

I hope that my songs bring you joy, make you feel alive, and inspire you in the same way that I was inspired to write them for you.

Where can people find your music?

You can find direct links to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube music here on my website.

I’m also on all the major streaming services, so just search “Benjamin Mullins” in your service of choice.

Thanks for having me!