When all else fails, do it yourself.
That's the way New Orleans' Mute Math has been doing it for the last few years, and it has paid off in a big way.
Mute Math started as a long-distance collaboration between friends Paul Meany and Darren King, who traded demo CDs back and forth while King kept busy with his former band Earthsuit. When that band disbanded, King moved to New Orleans, the duo recruited guitarist Greg Hill and began recording new demos in a home studio.
Not concerned with fortune and fame, the band created its own label -- Teleprompt Records -- to release its first album. The label was created with the idea that the band could independently control all its own releases. Still in need of distribution, media giant Warner Music Group stepped up, and the band's first EP, Reset, was released.
Mute Math immediately started touring and began chronicling their journey using video blogs updated regularly to the band's website and, of course, MySpace. The band's diverse mix of styles, including rock, jazz, new-wave and electronica, began selling out shows across the country and sold over 30,000 copies of their EP.
Its newest, self-titled album has been released twice, first as a "tour-only" CD before being made available for download via the Teleprompt Records website. This caused a bit of a stir, because the band was technically still under contract with Warner, but Mute Math was unhappy with its albums being distributed through Warner's Christian label, Word Records, so the band breached the contract and released the album on its own. This garnered much attention and ultimately helped album sales. After months of legal wrangling, the band finally renegotiated its contract, and Warner released the record to the masses.
Mute Math has continued to tour constantly in the spirit of its DIY roots. All fans of the '80s cartoon, Mute Math was asked to rework the theme of Transformers for the big- screen adaptation earlier this summer. The song made the final cut of the soundtrack despite not appearing in the finished film. Following that, the band is hot on the heels of numerous TV performances including Jimmy Kimmel Live, where it re-created the video for its single "Typical" and performed the song backwards.
With a new tour and new album in the works, the future looks bright for Mute Math. Catch them at Club Sound on Oct. 2 with opener Eisley.
t.hale@chronicle.utah.edu
