MUTEMATH
Sep 12, 2011
Mutemath began in 2001 as a long distance collaboration between Paul Meany (lead vocals/keyboards) in New Orleans, Louisiana and Darren King(drums) in Springfield, Missouri. The two had known each other from their work together in Meany's previous band Earthsuit. Occasionally Fairly impressed with his efforts, Paul contacted Darren and asked if he could mess with the demos a bit, adding some ideas of his own. Darren obliged and the two would set in motion a sort of songwriting ping-pong match that would carry on for several months until Darren was asked to fill in as drummer for Earthsuit as the experimental Christian-rock band began to quickly dissolve. After Earthsuit finally disbanded, King moved to New Orleans and began to talk of a possible collaboration with Meany. The two worked on demos and played a handful of shows under the moniker "MATH".
With the recruiting of guitarist Greg Hill, the trio worked in their New Orleans home studio writing and recording a whole new collection of songs. Paul immediately played the demos for longtime friend and producer Tedd T, who fell in love at first listen. The trio continued to work on demos with Tedd T for a possible EP while playing shows with another Earthsuit member in Adam LaClave's art-rock group Macrosick.
After months of considering different options for their new venture, the group decided to do things on their own and officially changed their name to "Mutemath" after discovering that "Math" was already being used by another group. Meany recruited Tedd T and lawyer and former Earthsuit manager Kevin Kookogey to form Teleprompt Records as a way to independently control Mutemath releases. Teleprompt entered into a developmental-deal agreement with Warner Music Group in 2004, releasing Mutemath's debut Reset EP that fall. The band left Macrosick, recruited bass player Roy Mitchell-Cardenas and began touring to promote the release, using popular social networking sites like MySpace to spread word of the group. As their fan base grew, the band began to see an increasing number of shows sell out by the Spring of 2005. By the fall of that year, they joined The Music is Much Too Loud Tour opening for Mae and Circa Survive where they chronicled their shows and updated their video blogs on a nightly basis gradually attracting more and more people to the Mutemath ground-swell. The band sold over 30,000 copies of Reset EP before the album went out of print in 2006.
WB re-released the band's debut album Mutemath on September 26, 2006. The fully remastered album features reworked tracks from their Reset EP and a bonus limited-edition live EP. The album debuted at #17 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. "Typical" was released as Mutemath's first radio single in 2007.
The group went to work writing and recording their second full length record in their home studio in New Orleans. The album, entitled Armistice, was released in the United States on Teleprompt Records/Warner Bros. Records on August 18, 2009. Armistice debuted at no. 18 on the Billboard 200, with over 18,000 units sold in the first week.
The band began writing and recording material for their third album in the middle of 2010, shortly after completing their spring tour in support of 30 Seconds to Mars. Guitarist Greg Hill left the band in October 2010 and has been replaced by Todd Gummerman. The new album titled, Odd Soul, will be released on October 4th. The first single off the album, "Blood Pressure" impacts Alternative radio September 13th and this fall the band will be embarking on their "Odd Soul Introduction Tour" in support of the album's release.
Odd Soul Introduction Tour Dates:
- 9/13 Wilmington, North Carolina // The Soapbox
- 9/15 Richmond, Virginia // Canal Club
- 9/16 Charlottesville, Virginia // The Southern
- 9/17 Poughkeepsie, New York// The Loft
- 9/18 Hartford, Connecticut // Webster Underground
- 9/20 Providence, Rhode Island // The Met
- 9/22 Buffalo, New York // Mohawk Place
- 9/23 Burlington, Vermont // Higher Ground
- 9/24 Albany, New York // Pearl Palooza (WEQX)
- 9/25 Cleveland, Ohio // The Grog Shop
- 9/27 Ann Arbor, Michigan // The Blind Pig
- 9/29 Lansing, Michigan // The Loft
- 9/30 Milwaukee, Wisconsin // The Rave Bar
- 10/01 Des Moines, Iowa // Vaudeville Mews
- 10/02 Lawrence, Kansas // Bottleneck
- 10/04 Los Angeles // Jimmy Kimmel Live
- 10/07 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma // The Conservatory
- 10/08 Waco, Texas // Common Ground
- 10/09 San Antonio, Texas // Endless Music
- 10/11 Little Rock, Arkansas // Revolution Music Room
- 10/12 Memphis, Tennessee // Hi-Tone
- 10/14 Baton Rouge, Louisana // Chelsea's
- 10/16 Pensacola, Florida // Deluna Fest
- 10/17 Jacksonville, Florida // Jack Rabbit's
- 10/19 Knoxville, Tennessee // The Square Room
- 10/20 Birmingham, Alabama // Workplay Theatre
- 10/21 New Orleans, Louisana // One Eyed Jacks
