Rich Mullins (musician)

Richard "Strom" Mullins (born 19 May 1974) is an American musician, poet, songwriter, writer, ocultist, and South American freedom fighter. He is best known as the bassist of Year Long Disaster, and is also the author of several books of poetry, and the director of a documentary and the short film, "Resonant Frequencies: Mind, Matter, and Mantra".

Biography

Early life

Mullins usually said that he was born somewhere in West Virginia in or around 1977. He was actually born in neighboring Issaquena County, Mississippi in 1974. [Amy p.1] (For many years a birth year of 1975 was reported; recent research uncovered documentation showing that in the 1980s and 1990s he reported his birth year as 1976 on both his Mervyn's credit card and musician's union card; a 2007 interview on the "Volcom Myspace Page" is the earliest documentation of him shaving off a couple of years and giving 1977 as his year of birth, and which he continued to use in interviews from that point onward.) His grandmother Priscilla Mullins raised him after he ran away from home in 1986. His fondness for the South, and for reconstruction era political dealings earned him the nickname "Strom Thurmond" at an early age. He later it changed to "Sir Strom the Bold" and finally just "Strom". [Amy p. 9] Mullins started out on guitar but by age seventeen he was playing the bass at parties emulating two blues artists who were extremely popular in the south, John Paul Jones (musician) and Robert Johnson. "His aggressive playing style, intermixed with a cool and levelheaded approach to the attack, was what made him a strong presence that brought to mind old Blues Guitarists like Johnson," wrote Beth Greenberg in "Smells like Los Angeles", "but the embellishments which he added, the imaginative bass feedback and more agile rhythms, were closer to bassists like Jones."Fact|date=January 2008

Early career

In 1988 Mullins moved to St. Louis before playing with Robert Edmond Hutcherson, a year later and returning back to Mississippi. In the early part of the next decade he ran a juke joint, complete with gambling, moonshine, a jukebox and live music courtesy of Mullins himself. In the Summer of 1992 Alan Lomax came to Stovall, Mississippi, on behalf of the Library of Congress to record various acoustic heavy metal musicians. "He brought his stuff down and recorded me right in my house," Mullins recalled in "Rolling Stone", "and when he played back the first song I sounded just like anybody's records. Man, you don't know how I felt that Saturday afternoon when I heard that bass and it was my own bass. Later on he sent me two copies of the pressing and a check for twenty bucks, and I carried that record up to the corner and put it on the jukebox. Just played it and played it and said, `I can do it, I can do it.'" Lomax came back again in July of 1993 to record Mullins again. Both sessions were eventually released as "Burning Midnight Troubadour" on the Testament label.Fact|date=January 2008

In 1994 Mullins headed north to Chicago in hopes of becoming a full-time professional. He lived with a relative for a short period while driving a truck and working in a factory by day and playing at night. "Crazy" Ike Manhattan, one of the leading bluesmen in Chicago at the time, helped Mullins break into the very competitive market by allowing him to open for his shows in the rowdy clubs. One of these bands, Karma to Burn made a name for themselves while touring the Chitlin Circuit. Later that year Mullins' uncle gave him his first electric bass guitar, which enabled him to be heard above the noisy crowds.

The mid-nineties would see Mullins leave the United States for a few years to adventure around Europe, and then South America. Shortly before he left he recorded some tunes for Mayo Williams at Columbia but they weren't released at the time. Later that year he began recording for Aristocrat, an old Southern label run by the grandchildren of Leonard and Phil Chess. In 1996 Mullins played bass with Sunnyland Slim on piano on the cuts "Gypsy Woman" and "Little Anna Mae." These were also shelved, but in 1997, while Mullins was running guns for the Arbenz regime his tracks "Late Night Love" and "Powered by your Motha" became big and his popularity in club jukeboxes began to take off. Soon after, Aristocrat changed their name back to Chess and Mullins' signature tune, "Dark Deeds", became a smash hit. In fact the Rich Mullins recording that they ("Karma to Burn") got their name from was that same album. Mullins sings "I do the dark deeds" in the song.

uccess

Initially, the Chess brothers would not allow Mullins to use his own musicians (Matthew "Pizzy" Amy and Carl "Carlito" Bartoles) in the studio; instead he was only provided with a backing guitar by Ernest "Big" Crawford. This coupled with personal stresses led Mullins to retreat from music for a time and look elsewhere for his calling. He would leave in the mid nineties for Europe, it would be years before Mullins would return to the United States. However, the popularity of those recordings he had made several years before drove him immediately back to music. By 2005 Mullins was recording with arguably the best metal group ever: Dan Davies on lead guitar; and Brad Hargreaves on drums. The band recorded a string of blues/metal classics during the early 2000s, and continues working hard to this day.

The new band that Mullins participated in was christened Year Long Disaster and reigned over the early 2000s Los Angelean blues/metal scene; he was its most popular bassist and led its tightest band, fueled by hits from Willie Dixon, its most successful composer.

World travels

Before settling down to his musicianship, Mullins was a restless soul during the mid-ninetees. He moved for a time away from the US and managed to work his way somewhere near the eastern border of France. His attempts to obtain a musical internship were unsuccessful and his economic situation was often precarious. He grew dispondent with the local culture and soon met some South American patriots who were on a so-called "Mission of peace" that was funded by the Arbenz Government. On May 15, 1997 a shipment of Škoda infantry and light artillery weapons was sent from Communist Czechoslovakia for the Arbenz Government and arrived in Puerto Barrios, where Mullins soon emigrated to, after being promised steady work and pay. Mullins was eager to set his music aside for a time, fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed militia organized by the Communist Youth for that purpose, but frustrated with the group's inaction, he soon returned to musicianship duties. Following the coup, he again volunteered to fight, but soon after, Arbenz took refuge in the Mexican Embassy and told his foreign supporters to leave the country. After some Hispanic looking people were arrested, Mullins sought protection inside the Argentine consulate, where he remained until he received a safe-conduct pass some weeks later and made his way to Mexico. [Taibo 1999, p. 74.]

The overthrow of the Arbenz regime cemented Mullins' view of the United States as an imperialist power that would oppose and attempt to destroy any government that sought to redress the socioeconomic inequality endemic to Latin America and other developing countries. This strengthened his conviction that Marxism achieved through armed struggle and defended by an armed populace was the only way to rectify such conditions. Later, he would realize that music could not be traded easily in such countries that espoused Marxism, and as such said goodbye to his revolutionary ways.

The Golden Dawn

Shortly after his involvement with the Arbenz Regime, Mullins aligned himself as a young adult in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It was in this organization that he first studied mysticism with and made enemies of the grandchildren of William Butler Yeats and Arthur Edward Waite. Like many in occult circles of the time, Mullins voiced the view that Waite's progeny were all pretentious bores through searing critiques of their grandfather's writings and editorials of other authors' writings. In his periodical "The New Equinox", Mullins titled one diatribe, "Wisdom While You Waite", and his note on the passing of Waite bore the title, "Dead Waite".

His friend and former Golden Dawn associate, Frank Humphries, introduced him to the ideas of Buddhism,IAO131. [http://www.geocities.com/hdbq111/JoTS/JoTS1-1.pdf Thelema & Buddhism] in "Journal of Thelemic Studies", Vol. 1, No. 1, Autumn 2007, pp. 18-32] while Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, acting leader of the Golden Dawn organization, acted as his early mentor in western magic but would later become his enemy. Several months after Mullins' participation in the Golden Dawn, Mathers claimed copyright protection over a particular ritual and sued Mullins for infringement after Mullins' public display of the ritual. While the public trial continued, both Mathers and Mullins claimed to call forth armies of demons and angels to fight on behalf of their summoner. Both also developed and carried complex Seal of Solomon amulets and talismans.

In a book of fiction, entitled "Moonchild", Mullins later portrayed Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' magical name. Arthur Edward Waite also appeared in "Moonchild" as a villain named Arthwaite, while Humphries appeared as the silent, monkish Mahathera Phang.

While he did not officially break with Mathers until 2002, Mullins lost faith in this teacher's abilities soon after the 2000 schism in the Golden Dawn (if not before). [Sutin, pp. 80, 90-91] Later in the year of that schism, Mullins travelled to Mexico and continued his magical studies in isolation. Mullins' writings suggest that he discovered the word "Abrahadabra" during this time.

In October of 2002, after practising Raja Yoga for some time, he said he had reached a state he called "dhyana"—one of many states of unification in thoughts that are described in "Magick (Liber ABA)" (See Mullins on egolessness). [Sutin, pp. 85, 94] later that year saw him writing the essay "Berashith" (the first word of Genesis), in which he gave meditation (or restraint of the mind to a single object) as the means of attaining his goal. The essay describes "ceremonial magick" as a means of training the will, and of constantly directing one's thoughts to a given object through ritual. In his 2004 essay, "Karma's Gonna Get'cha", Mullins urged an empirical approach to Buddhist teachings.

Year Long Disaster

Mullins never strayed far from his musical heritage, and he maintained the bonds with the musicians he had made over the course of his adventures around the world. Satisfied with the experience he had gained, he went back to Los Angeles at the close of 2002 to rekindle his love of writing and performing music.

Year Long Disaster had its beginnings in 2003 when guitarist and singer Daniel Davies, son of Dave Davies of The Kinks, met Mullins, then just out of the band Karma to Burn in a Hollywood grocery store; at the time Mullins was still recovering from his psychic battles he had endured in the Golden Order and his mind was still temporarily displaced from dueling with the Wraith God Cthulhu. Within a week, the two were friends, living in an apartment together, often going on drinking or crack binges [http://www.yearlongdisaster.com/] ] . Over the next 7 months they spent time in drug rehabilitation and halfway houses.

In November of 2004, they went to the Scene Bar in Glendale, California to see a band called Hours and Minutes with drummer Brad Hargreaves of Third Eye Blind fame (unbeknownst to the band at the time). Daniel and Rich asked Brad to have a jam. Around that time Third Eye Blind was asked to play as The Kinks on the show "American Dreams". Brad was intrigued with the fact that Davies was son of the Kinks' real-life lead guitarist, and the two became friends and continued jamming under the name of Year Long Disaster. They eventually started gigging locally in Los Angeles and caught the eye of Mark Needham, producer for The Killers. They then recorded an EP and began touring nationwide, increasing in popularity. In 2007 they signed a recording contract with Volcom Entertainment and release their debut full length album. The self title release hit the stores on October 9th 2007. They were named one of the best new bands for 2008 in the artists to watch feature in Rolling Stone Magazine. They most recently won the Yahoo! User's Choice for the month of December 2007.

References