We digs through old demos, and chases fleeting moments with Mitch Meyer
We caught up with New York artist Mitch Meyer in the middle of a typically packed day – voice lessons uptown, coding work in between, and a night lined up at a friend’s show downtown.
It’s a rhythm that mirrors his music: restless, instinctive, and quietly obsessive.
His latest single ‘Mulholland Drive’ has taken the long road to release, first sparked during a freeform jam before sitting dormant for nearly two years.
Now revived and reworked, it lands with a warm, tape-worn glow, thanks to sessions tracked in a Brooklyn studio on vintage gear.
But beneath the analogue charm is something more introspective – Meyer’s fixation on capturing fleeting emotional states rather than neat, narrative arcs.
As he gears up for a larger project, Mulholland Drive feels like a mission statement: less about arrival, more about movement – letting go, staying present, and chasing the feeling wherever it leads.
HAPPY: What’d you get up to today?
MITCH MEYER: I had a voice lesson earlier in the Upper West Side, did some work on my coding job, went for a run, and headed out in a bit to a friend’s show in the Lower East Side at the spot called Pianos.
HAPPY: Tell us a little about where you’re from, and what you love about it!
MITCH MEYER: I grew up in a town 20 min outside of Chicago.
It was an interesting blend of middle American culture and city culture.
I love going back to visit friends and family, the west neighborhoods of Chicago Humboldt and Pilsen have really amazing restaurants, cool bars and always have good music coming through town.
HAPPY: What is the inspiration behind your new single ‘Mulholland Drive’?
MITCH MEYER: This song came out of a ‘jam’ with a good friend and collaborator of mine Frank Poma.
We were playing guitars and synths and I had a microphone with tons of crazy FX on it.
Songwriting for me is about having a spark melody pop into my head seemingly out of nowhere, which happened that day during our jam: lyrics, melody and all.
Writing the rest of the song required dozens of hours of work writing lyrics, editing, re-writing and trying to capture a certain feeling I was going for.
The meaning of the song crystalized as it was being developed, the first day it was just a few vague lines that made me feel something.
HAPPY: The track sat as a demo for about two years, what made you revisit it and bring it back to life?
MITCH MEYER: I had written parts of a record for a completely new project (the record this single is on), and I didn’t have enough tracks yet, so I dug through all my old demos and files and I felt really inspired when I dug up the ‘Mulholland Drive’ demo.
HAPPY: You recorded much of the track on a vintage 4-track tape machine, what did that add to the sound and feel of the song?
MITCH MEYER: We recorded these tunes at my good friend Quinn Devlin’s (@quinndevlin) studio in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
He produces tons of bands in our network and his production style is very Americana and 80s country.
I love the sound he produces, how warm and human it is, how alive it sounds.
We were out one night having a beer and talking about my demos and we decided to track over the next month or so at his studio.
He thought that sound would pair really well with my songs, and I agreed.
HAPPY: The chorus talks about “taking the light” and moving forward, what does that message mean to you personally?
MITCH MEYER: As I got older, it became apparent that my perspective and the way I thought about things were not working for me.
It was an anchor constantly pulling me down.
It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, just human stuff, disappointment, loss, etc.. but dwelling in the past and worrying about the future was stretching the pain to an unnecessary duration.
This song is about my (fairly successful) attempt to let go of control, stay in the present, try my best and see what life gives me.
HAPPY: How does ‘Mulholland Drive’ represent the direction of your upcoming album?
MITCH MEYER: Mulholland Drive is the second single out on this record and it represents the tone musically and lyrically pretty well.
Each of my songs are not stories, they are microscopes on moments.
I try to capture the feeling of an instant.
Each moment of experience has a different color to them, each one unique.
I try to grab that and put it in a song, I feel compelled to.
HAPPY: What was the most challenging part of bringing this single to completion?
MITCH MEYER: I am a perfectionist about the ‘vibe’ of the vocal recording, so I redid the vocal over 100 times, each time honing in on the right emotional tone I had imagined.
HAPPY: Can you tell us a bit about the upcoming music video and the creative vision behind it?
MITCH MEYER: The music video is out and released.
It was a quick one that I collaborated with my good friend and filmmaker Mike Vassallo (@micvassallo_) and my seamstress / model friend Liv (@bylivhandmade).
We took out Mike’s old Bolex camera and shot for a few hours on black and white film.
It’s a bit of an abstract piece, but it suits the song and much like the song was shot analog. Its double exposure was done on the camera not digitally and it’s all on film.
HAPPY: Lastly, what makes you happy? :-)
MITCH MEYER: I love connecting with people, and making art.
So grabbing beers with some pals, having a jam with music collaborators, going to a friends show at a cool club.
Also I love to read, wrapped up the Three Body Problem trilogy recently and I will never be the same again lol.
