Quality Americana

by Patrick Sullivan

Character Sheet

Names and known alias’s: Mustard (AKA Chad Smith), Mustxrd

Beatles or Stones: Beatles

Known Influences: Sam Cook, Childish Gambino, Mrs. Gray

My Favorite Piece: Georgia

Known Lair or Hideout: (Home Studio)

I first saw Mustard sitting in a pew at The Red Bird Listening Room. His hair was in a bun, and he sat “Indian style” with his eyes closed and his head down. He swayed from side to side, seemingly entranced by the artist’s musical communication. It was a committed selfless act of support for a very nervous songwriter. Later, when his name was called, Mustard took the stage and filled the room with his beautiful voice and his funky rhythms. I was instantly a fan, and instantly inspired.

Fortunately, I was honored to have him as my guest one beautiful evening, and after we opened a couple Busch tallboys, I asked him my first cliche musician question: “Beatles or Stones?” Mustard (while noodling on a solid white acoustic guitar) exclaimed, “It’s an important question. It’s very telling. For people who answer too quickly, it’s very telling.” He attempted to edit the question by bringing the setting to a deserted island for the rest of eternity, where, of course, the Beatles win by the sheer volume and diversity of their catalogue. However, Mustard added, “I am a Saturn chakra person. I’m in the hips. My soul, my passion, resides in Saturn. That, to me, is more Stones.” His style of playing and singing and writing definitely lends itself to some hip shaking and head bopping. Usually, he has a big smile on his face while he’s at it.

Passion

I wanted to know where this “passion” originated. What or who was the catalyst? I asked him if there was a family member or friend who first recognized his artistic inclination and talent. I was surprised when he told me he was actually an athlete in his youth, and even a pretty good football running back for a time.  But as far as music was concerned he explained, “I felt it, and I think I just wanted someone to let me know it was true.” 

He said “of course” his mother was always in his corner, but one early cheerleader for his artistic side was his grade school music teacher Ms. Gray. “She would wheel the piano in, you know, like to whatever classroom we were in. She gave us confidence. That was the thing. And that was the first time anyone really… you know, because I didn’t believe my mom. It’s like, of course your mom likes what you do. But this lady, I believed.” Mustard described a childhood abundant with love and support and shelter.

Musical performance seems to me effortless for Mustard. As he smiles, and dances, and strums and wails, I always feel envious of his confidence. I was curious when he began to hone this craft. He said he had a brief stint in concert choir in the fourth grade, but then was “kicked out” of junior high choir for ignoring some of the more disciplined choir practices. “I harmonized during warm ups, and I wasn’t serious, and my teacher was real serious.” He explained feeling like he missed some early integral learning about reading music, and instead concentrated more on sports. However, near that time he also began to sing in local talent shows and fronted his first band, Tadpole Stampede. I told him that was a badass name for a band.

Hollywood

Mustard would go on to be in other groups, including Another Roadside Attraction and a band in Kansas called Dumptruck Butterlips. Between bands he spent some time in Hollywood as a solo act playing on the street and then gigging and writing songs for other artists.

Songwriting

At first impression, his performance experience is obvious, but I have been most intrigued by his creative song writing. One of the reasons I chose him as my second “Super Hero” was something I had heard about him from a mutual friend. Our friend said, “That dude will just sit in his studio and make stuff up for hours and then just sit there and listen to it.” 

I told Mustard about some of the song writing techniques Slim had described, and asked him if he had any special angles at it. At this point in the interview he treated me to an abbreviated version of my favorite song of his titled “Georgia” He described writing little notes with ideas or lines on a notepad and later on his phone. Then, when he can get to his guitar, he will play around with them.  

He described being aware of successful songwriters who emulated other artists or styles, but that he always wanted to be more unique. “I felt like I wanted to reinvent music from my own point of view,” Mustard said. “I think people should just do the music that is coming out of them, and I think everybody should do it confidently so that we can show people that ‘yeah it doesn’t sound like blues’ even though I know I could play a blues song and everybody’s gonna like it because it’s tried and true. And I have written blues songs and I still do today, but I want to focus on something that is coming from me. Maybe these two chords have never gone together before, and maybe it doesn’t strike everybody in the heart strings.”

Free Styling

The type of confident creativity that he was talking about was inspirational to me. In a time when seemingly everything has already been done, he trudges on looking for something new. “My process is literally free styling. I’m playing guitar. I’m finding like a major 7 chord that sounds good with this other thing and it puts me in that mode. It puts me in that place, like right before you go to sleep. If you can catch that feeling that you’re having, where you’re just sort of in between and it’s real nice. Then I try to remember to turn my phone on and I just go.” It occurred to me that this improvisational semi-subconscious technique to writing is something A. I. will never be able to achieve.

The Future

When I asked Mustard about his thoughts on art created by artificial intelligence, his answer surprised me a bit. “I think A.I. is a really fun tool. Because, what it is is all the things we’ve all learned collectively right at our fingertips. To be able to say, ‘what’s the possibility if everybody were thinking about this?’” 

This subject comes up often these days, but Mustard was the first person to have a somewhat positive take on it. It is the future, and the future is important to him because he is also the father of three daughters, the newest only one year old.

I really enjoyed my evening with him. He seemed to be constantly smiling and noodling on his white guitar. As the musical and songwriting landscapes continue to change, it becomes harder and harder to stand out in the crowd. Listeners have access to infinite choices in the palms of their hands. As a songwriter, it is easy to lose yourself to the notion that it has all been done before. However, possibly…if we find those sounds that maybe at first don’t seem to go together, but try it anyway and lose ourselves “in between,” maybe we can find a new flavor that is as individual as we are. Maybe this flavor will pierce through the expected spaces in our palate, like a good strong Mustard.

Support the Artist

More information on Mustard can be found here.

Patrick Sullivan is a Texas based singer-songwriter and author of Super Heroes of Song, a column about artists.