Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Mullarkey.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
From an early age I was obsessed with music and basically had my ear glued to the radio in my parent’s car. It was whatever CDs they had that I’d listen to. A lot of Tom Petty, Springsteen, the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin. I first picked up the guitar in a serious when I was 13 years old. I had begged my parents for one year prior but didn’t stick with lessons. I grew up in a tiny farm town with brutally hot summers in Northern California, and the summer before 8th grade I looked myself inside and didn’t come out until I’d figured out how to play the thing. I knew the basics and could fake my way through my favorite songs enough to start a cover band with my friends down the street. I played in bands all through high school but took a break from performing and went to college. I never stopped writing, even when I didn’t have a band to play with. After graduating, I came out to Austin. Writing music, crafting a song, finding the chemistry with other like-minded musicians is where I’ve always felt best and I needed to start doing it again. Austin seemed like the place to do it.
I started Buzzard Company in 2019. My previous band had dissolved, my drummer at the time had moved back east, and I felt disconnected from the music we had been creating. After taking a little break from writing, I got together and started playing with my buddy Matt Botting, whose band at the time had a lot of friends of mine. We started fleshing some of my songs. The whole idea behind Buzzard Company was to reconnect to the music Matt and I love and the songwriters that had inspired me from an early age to pick up the guitar in the first place. We had a few lineup changes along the way and played as a duo for a bit throughout 2019.
In 2020, when the pandemic hit, we turned to recording demos of the songs we’d been performing live for about a year. That provided me a chance to explore different arrangements and experiment a little more than we had been. It was an incredibly stressful and uncomfortable time, and all these lingering anxieties relating to COVID, our band, performing live, finding work, etc. took center stage. It did, however, give me time to breathe and redefine what was important from an artistic perspective, write a little more, and record some ideas that became our first EP. Matt and I kept rehearsing as a duo at the Music Lab- before it shut down and became the Tesla showroom- and had a full record worth of songs to play by the end of the year.
We started playing out again when things felt a little more comfortable in 2021 and recruited Jesse Linneman and Kasey Schake on bass a guitar respectively. That’s been the band for about a year now. We got ourselves in a studio pretty quickly after Jesse and Kasey joined the band to record a proper record, and we have our EP to look forward to releasing this year. Two of those tracks- Head Above Water & Ghost Town Livin’ Blues are out now!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For me as the primary writer and frontman of my own band, imposter syndrome definitely has played a huge role in creating- or not creating. I struggle a lot with anxiety and at times it has stopped me entirely from completing pieces, booking, or trying to connect with other artists whom I respect. It’s been a process to get to this place. A place where I can speak authentically through my lyrics and not feel like I am writing the song I think I want you to hear. I’ve always felt confident behind the guitar and have never had a problem plugging in and playing. But songwriting is such a fickle thing, and all you can do is be honest. Figure out the rest later. The song will form around it.
It is not often an easy road working as a musician in Austin. It’s a solid gig economy, and there’s never a shortage of dive bars and club stages to play. People come here to hear great music, and they’ll find it. There’s no shortage of quality musicians. As a performer, some night’s it’s the most fulfilling experience in the world. You play a great set or have a really inspiring interaction with a fan or another musician. Other nights it truly feels like a grind. You can always count on your tight-knit community of fans and friends to show support and that fills a room, but the real struggle is building a sustainable fanbase in a city that’s always growing and changing. It isn’t getting any easier to live in Austin right now. Rent is through the roof, wages aren’t really increasing with it, and more than a handful of venues I love closed down during the pandemic or have been priced out. Most musicians I know work another job to pay the bills, which takes time and energy away from creating this world-famous live music scene.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
With my current project Buzzard Company, we are all about reframing the familiar. Taking something you thought you knew and turning it on its head. We’re keen on dusty guitar licks, big loud drums, growling vocals, and catchy hooks. Our songs draw inspiration from every end of the rock’n’roll spectrum to try and connect two potentially disjointed ideas into songs that feel good. I love garage rock and 90’s grunge just as much as I love folk and Americana, and I’ve never felt they have to be mutually exclusive. My first guitar idols all came from the blues so that’s in every song we write, too.
With our new EP, I am incredibly proud of how each song has its own distinct feel and hits you in a different place, but they fit together pretty seamlessly as a body of work. Everyone in the band has their moment to shine on the record, too, which I love. We recorded with Matt Gerhard at Hen House, who’s an exceptional engineer. Matt has a way of letting you be the band you are while steering you in the right direction to get the best take, and I think that translated into the record’s overall sound. Two singles- Head Above Water & Ghost Town Livin’ Blues- are out now, but the full-length will be out later this year and I cannot wait to share it.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
It’s so much easier said than done, but the lesson is to always find joy in the creative process. Plucking something out of thin air, like a song, and turning it into something I am proud to share is the most amazing thing. Just that is an accomplishment. Making something that connects with complete strangers, or complete strangers can connect through, is a worthy pursuit. Everything else- recognition, social media engagement, local radio plugs, making any money from it- is just a very fortunate byproduct.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://buzzardcompany.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buzzardcompany/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buzzardcompany/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5rZRQ-z8PBlC1EW3TkHBhg
- Other: buzzardcompany.bandcamp.com
Image Credits
Leah Kehoe, Mike Mullarkey
