Mutemath's Paul Meany on what matters most as a musician
Grammy-nominated electro-experimental rock band Mutemath is unveiling their most progressive work to date with the release of their fifth studio album, Play Dead. The album deviates from the sunbeam-laced collection of songs that comprised 2015’s Vitals, the electronic spin of 2016’s Changes, and their collaboration EP with twenty one pilots titled TØPxMM (The MUTEMATH Sessions).
In making this new music for Play Dead, the band took an unhinged and unguarded approach, while also pulling inspiration from previous albums. The band’s Paul Meany sat down with BUILD series in New York City to discuss the album, as well as give a little sage advice to budding musicians who are looking for advice on how to manage life as a career artist.
“I think that as long as you’re enjoying the music you’re making, that’s it,” he noted. “That’s all you get to control in the journey. If you’re lucky enough to get a record deal, or there’s people that book shows and manage you and all the things you’re going to have to do in the extracurricular — we always talk about that ‘tax time’ in bands, where you have to ‘pay your taxes.’ ‘We gotta write the bio again? T-shirt designs?’ You just wind up letting go and it’s like, whatever. But in the end, the source of life, the thing that keeps you going, is getting some headphones, getting some chords going, getting the beat going, and just writing songs.”
Watch the full interview with Meany below:
