New Release – Levitate by Mulholland Jive

New Release – Levitate by Mulholland Jive

Mulholland Jive is an instrumental funk-rock project by Irish musician Ben Mulholland, a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Cambridge (UK). Ben originally wrote a lot of the Mulholland Jive tracks for some of his secondary school students to rehearse and perform. The tracks proved very popular with the students and so Ben decided to record them properly. After initial plans to record as a live band had to be abandoned due to the pandemic, Ben started recording everything from home; recording some parts himself and hiring musicians to record other parts remotely.

The new single ‘Levitate‘ will be out on 26th March. It’s the third single this year. ‘Levitate’ will be followed by a 5-track EP in April 2021.

“‘Levitate’ leans towards a more subdued indie-rock sound compared to the lively funk-rock of Mulholland Jive’s debut single ‘Adrenaline Junkie‘ and the epic melodrama of second single ‘Kryptonite‘. It is still a piano-heavy instrumental track that incorporates the energetic and multi-layered sound that is fast becoming part of Mulholland Jive’s signature sound.”

“It’s a bit of a slow burn, starting with a fairly gentle piano introduction and gradually building throughout the track until an explosion of sound in the final section. It’s all based around a piano riff that gets repeated throughout the track. While it is mostly an indie-rock track, it also combines elements of jazz, folk, blues and pop music. The piano takes the lead role – as it does in all Mulholland Jive tracks, but there is also a prominent electric guitar part and a violin solo in the middle of the track, making a small nod to my Irish roots.”

“I do most of my composing when I’m not trying to compose, and Levitate was no different–I composed it while sat in my car in a traffic jam! The main melodies came into my head and I hastily sung them into my phone as best I could. By the time I got home I had the A section and B section fully written, knew which instruments I wanted to play each part and that I wanted the sections to sound really contrasting. After that, it was just a case of working out how to play it on piano and then recording it properly. Recording became a bit of a family affair, with my dad recording the acoustic guitar part and my wife recording the violin part. Other musicians were used for the electric guitar and bass parts but everything else is me.”

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