An interview with Hercules Mulligan
An interview with Hercules Mulligan
HAMILTON
What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences?
We’d been kicking around some band names for a while but none of them really felt right. Then, this past fall, we took our significant others to Hamilton in San Francisco, and the moment that the chorus belted out “Hercules Mulligan” we looked at each other and laughed cause we simultaneously said, “that’s a great band name.” We’d never heard of Hercules Mulligan (he’s a side character in the musical Hamilton), and when we went home and did more research on the actual historical figure, we liked the idea of honoring the unsung side characters in history.
Our influences are all over the map, but I think if you made a salad with early 2010s indie pop like MGMT, STRFKR, and LCD Soundsystem, mixed it together with some Tears For Fears, Tom Petty, and Neil Young, then topped it off with a little bit of Chic and Hall & Oates, you’re probably pretty close to what we’re going for.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Most of our songs tend to come out of an extended jam / improvisation session. We both write songs but we tend to switch off who is the primary driver of the melody and the lyrics for each song. Usually Ben starts rocking a beat, Trent picks out a melody on a guitar or a synth, one of us starts yelling random things until we develop a coherent thought, and then we build around that.
We develop ideas off of something we are experiencing or feeling and have fun with it. We’re currently based in the SF-Bay Area and in addition to music, we run a business together, so a lot of our music has come out of jams to de-stress, take a break from the day-to-day ratrace of the tech world and make fun of ourselves and our experiences.
JAM
JAM
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Most of our songs tend to come out of an extended jam / improvisation session. We both write songs but we tend to switch off who is the primary driver of the melody and the lyrics for each song. Usually Ben starts rocking a beat, Trent picks out a melody on a guitar or a synth, one of us starts yelling random things until we develop a coherent thought, and then we build around that.
We develop ideas off of something we are experiencing or feeling and have fun with it. We’re currently based in the SF-Bay Area and in addition to music, we run a business together, so a lot of our music has come out of jams to de-stress, take a break from the day-to-day ratrace of the tech world and make fun of ourselves and our experiences.
DANCING
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
We both love the idea of writing music that we personally enjoy listening and dancing to. We’re not angling to play any genre or style of music – we just want it to feel right and create something we enjoy. We feel everyone needs some sort of artistic outlet and music is ours – it’s a blast to create it, play it, and perform it. If other people also enjoy it, that’s even better, but we’re doing it to have fun.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We play all of our songs live and the strategy for each is a bit different. We use a fair amount of layering and looping in our song creation process, and since there are only two of us in the band, we typically use some sort of combination of pre-recorded beats and live synths/bass/guitar/vocals.
STRATEGY
STRATEGY
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We play all of our songs live and the strategy for each is a bit different. We use a fair amount of layering and looping in our song creation process, and since there are only two of us in the band, we typically use some sort of combination of pre-recorded beats and live synths/bass/guitar/vocals.
ALBUM
What plans do you have for the future?
Our first full-length album will be dropping by the end of 2020.
We hope to get to the point we can start playing the musical festival circuit within the next year or two, but regardless of how that pans out, we plan to create music together for the rest of our lives. This band is a vehicle for our shared vision of writing fun music and throwing a rocking dance party for anyone who wants to join.