continued from page 26
have a different type of brain.”
Strangely, Mulherin has acquired all of
his hard-won wisdom without the benefit
of being a rabid bibliophile; he’s merely
lukewarm on books. “My mom and dad
are avid readers, and my girlfriend Kate,
she’s an English teacher,” he confesses,
sheepishly. “So I ingest my infotainment
and my information through documen-
taries — I’m more of a visual learner than
an auditory learner, so I listen to a lot more
things than I read. But I’m always search-
ing for a new philosophy, just new contro-
versial theories to think about. And I love
Eastern culture, even nihilism, and pes-
simism, even the dark stuff. I just love
thinking about thinking.” And he juggles
all of this in a motley daily regimen
designed to keep him on track, not squeal-
ing off the rails on some crazy train.
“Before this summer, I lived in a really
wishy-washy way,” the vocalist says. “I’d
stay up late, and I’d sleep late — I didn’t
really have a schedule. So I really had to
regiment my life. And as soon as I’d wake
up, I’d do RPMs — Ride, Pee and
Meditate. So I’d meditate for about a half
hour, 45 minutes, then I’d go for a walk or
ride my bike and try to get myself moving.
Now I just make sure that I’m eating well,
and that I also meditate each night before I
go the sleep. I basically just keep checking
in, and to meditate a few times a day as
part of that checking in.” He’d like to have
a base of operations, a place to call home,
but he’s still a vagabond, bouncing
between the low-key Massachusetts and
Vermont towns in which he grew up. “It’s
kind of hard when you’re always on the
road, but I’m actually looking for a place to
live in Vermont, in the middle of nowhere.
And — fingers crossed — we’ll see how it
goes.”
Which begs one crucial existential ques-
tion — does such solitude help or hinder
him, emotionally? He laughs. “A little bit
of both,” he replies. “Hopefully I’ll have
some roommates and people around me
because I certainly don’t want to live alone
alone. And I do have my significant other,
so I’m really grateful for her. But it’s differ-
ent because we were together before I
started touring and before I made a career
out of music. So she’s amazing and incred-
ibly important to me, and I’m really glad to
have someone who supports me in that
way.”
Mulherin finds it inherently ironic that
a Gothic, spleen-venting primal scream
like “Dread” has now become a product to
be bought and sold. “It gets interesting
when you’re mixing business with art,” he
notes. “But I just write to help me, and
then, in turn, I hope that helps other peo-
ple.” Has there ever been a nothing,
nowhere dirge too dark to release or recre-
ate in concert? He guffaws. “I listen back to
all my stuff, and sometimes I just can’t
even listen to certain things. So there are
songs I’ve shelved because I don’t really
want to put myself in that headspace
again. Sometimes when I listen back to a
song, I’m just grateful that I’m not there
anymore, ya know?”
"Chicago's
Best Kept
Secret For
Musicians...."
Since 1991
Chicago's best selection of used, and vintage guitars and vintage amps.
FENDER GIBSON RICKENBACKER
BOSS ELECTRO-HARMONIX and more!
MIDWEST BUY & SELL
6019 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL 60634 (773) 545-2020
Mon-Tue: 11am-6pm • Wed: 12pm-6pm • Thur-Fri: 12pm-7pm • Sat: 11am-5pm
[email protected] reverb.com/shop/midwest-buy-and-sell
january
2019
illinoisentertainer.com
41