Beckley band launches crowdfunding campaign for vinyl record

Jul. 12—A local musician, who helped put Beckley's Bill Withers Memorial Festival on the map, is looking to keep the art of music alive in a different way.

For his band's recently released album, musician Matt Mullins of Matt Mullins and the Bringdowns has started a crowdfunding campaign to create a vinyl version of the album.

"Vinyl is the best format to listen to music, the quality, and I think it's also that tangible thing with holding — it's like art, it's a piece of art, holding a vinyl record in your hands," Mullins said.

To turn the band's album, called "Monarch Sessions," into a vinyl record, Mullins said he needs to get 100 pre-orders.

"With pressing vinyl records, our first two albums, I paid for it out of my pocket, and just what ends up happening is you end up with more records than you're selling, and so we decided that we would do a crowdfunded record press this time," he said, "which is really cool but it's also pretty nerve-wracking because they only give you an allotted amount of time to get all these pre-sales."

Mullins said his deadline to get 100 pre-sales is July 22 and so far they have about 40. For the vinyl record, Mullins said the band has added several vinyl exclusive tracks including two live tracks as well as cover songs that were voted on by fans through Facebook.

"We did a poll on our Facebook page of what covers that they would like to hear us to do because we have our own sound ... and I can't sound like Prince, but I can sound like me singing a Prince song," he said. "So we put a poll up and put a bunch of songs and the top three that were voted on were Prince, 'Little Red Corvette,' Warren Zevon, 'Lawyers, Guns and Money,' and then Tom Petty, 'Even the Losers.' So we recorded those three covers and I paid for the rights to put them on this record."

When asked to describe the genre his music fits in, Mullins said it doesn't exactly fit into any well-known genre, so he had to make up one.

"We call it Ya'llternative Dad Rock," he said. "We've always called ourselves kind of an alternative country rock but I never really liked that label because when you say country, they would associate it with pop country and I don't think that's us at all. I think that we're more into maybe a Southern rock than country.

"So I think that Ya'llternative kind of fits us because we could do anything from a Nirvana cool sound to Jason Isbell or, you know, a Tyler Childers sound."

Mullins said this record is particularly special for several reasons, which is why getting it made as a vinyl record feels so important. "This record is special because the other members of the band all have one song that they wrote," he said. "Our band's first two albums are all songs that I wrote by myself and then kind of presented them to the band, and then they put their touches on it. So this is a more collaborative effort. It shows that we're more of a cohesive band."

Members of the band include Stuart Hill, lead guitar; Justin Puett, keys and guitar; Dylan McInturff, drums; Bob Campion, bass; and Mullins, who does vocals and guitar. Mullins said the album was recorded in Beckley at Monarch Entertainment, which is why it's called "Monarch Sessions."

"Robbie Lanham is the owner and sound engineer (at Monarch Entertainment) and he did such a great job recording these songs. We were trying to come up with a name for the record, and it's a relatively new studio and we were trying to pay tribute and we wanted to show him love," Mullins said.

He added that the album has taken two years to craft and is "all about our love of West Virginia." "We're so proud of being from southern West Virginia and showcasing that," he said. "So that's what it's all about with this record."

To pre-order the vinyl version of Matt Mullins and the Bringdowns' "Monarch Sessions" for $50 go to linktr.ee/thebringdowns