Matty Mullins

His voice rings loud from car stereo speakers, from headphones, from the Vans Warped Tour’s mainstage. Each phrase deeply connects with a disenfranchised generation who feels cast aside, abandoned and looked down upon. His face graces the covers of magazines like Alternative Press, Big Cheese and HM. Memphis May Fire’s official videos have racked up over 40 million views and their frontman’s collaborations with Sleeping With Sirens, For Today, and Hands Like Houses account for 5 million more. Memphis May Fire’s last album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 chart. Over 2 million fans follow his band on social media. The temptation to use that influence for self-promotion, for vanity, or for profit, is a great burden to anyone blessed with even an ounce of fame. But MATTY MULLINS is putting his unique gift as a singer, songwriter, youth culture ambassador and relatable public figure to work for a purpose much higher than himself. The powerful frontman whose motivational metalcore commands the crowds at prestigious festivals like Riot Fest (US), Download (UK) and Soundwave (Australia) has crafted a debut solo album harnessing melody, harmony, top-tier pop grooves with a heartfelt, worshipful devotion to his Christian faith. The electrifyingly diverse 11-song record explores a different side of the multitalented singer, as it hearkens even further back than his most cherished heavy music influences like Blindside or Underoath, to the Christian Contemporary rock and pop his mother took him to see as a kid. “I’m super thankful for everything I’ve gotten to do in Memphis May Fire and everything we’ve done as a band,” Mullins explains. “The musical opportunities for me to share my message came from metalcore and heavier stuff like that. I love playing heavy music; I think I always will. But as long as I’ve been in music, I’ve wanted to make a record like this, too.” Mullins cites familiar Christian Contemporary Music touchstones like Australian pop-rockers The Newsboys; Grammy winners Audio Adrenaline; multiplatinum hit-makers MercyMe; and 40-year-strong hard rockers Petra. These CCM groups shaped his early childhood, setting the stage for when harder edged sounds would enthrall him as a teenager. His solo album – simply entitled Matty Mullins – shares a deep fellowship with those roots. “DC Talk is one of the greatest groups of all time,” the singer declares enthusiastically. “I love Tenth Avenue North. I love everything Toby Mac does. And I have so much respect for singers like Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman; musicians who put so much positivity out there.” From a songwriting and production standpoint, Matty Mullins solo work is refreshingly modern, yet effortlessly timeless in its earnest sensibility. Longtime collaborator Cameron Mizell, the producing maestro behind records from Memphis May Fire contemporaries like Sleeping With Sirens, Capture The Crown and The Word Alive, took on the instrumental and programming portion. His music runs the gamut from dance floor worthy beats to something one might hear from singer/songwriter Phil Wickham. The duo first got together to hash out an EP. But after blazing through a half dozen tracks in as many days in Seattle, they felt so enlivened by the process they decided to write enough for a full-length album. The rest of the record was made in Nashville, where Mullins and his wife now reside. “I took the remainder of the recording budget from the EP and had a studio built in my house,” he explains. “I flew Cameron to Nashville. It was literally just he and I writing and recording together. We put together a really solid record that I’m so proud of and I’m so excited to share with the world.” Mullins was emphatic that their pop songs be free of boundaries. “Cameron has so much talent, it’s crazy. People don’t realize how much of the stuff he co-writes when he produces. He’s got a huge passion for pop music.