New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Pianist / Singer-songwriter Pete Muller has released the title track to his new album More Time, due out on May 10th. The song is a passionate, emotionally honest ballad that explores the classic themes of temptation and the journey to redemption. The album was recorded in Memphis with producer/engineer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price). Muller has also shared the song's video directed by Gus Black (Phoebe Bridgers, Sheryl Crow) with Rock and Roll Globe, who writes that More Time has a "looser, grittier feel that adds a new wrinkle to the expansive nature of Muller the songwriter and performer." More Time is currently available for pre-order now.
"Avoiding temptation can save you from getting into trouble," writes Muller about the meaning behind the new track. "But it's good to give in occasionally, otherwise life can get pretty boring. Wouldn't it be great to have 'More Time' before needing to make a choice? I recorded 'More Time' at Matt Ross-Spang's Southern Groove studio as a solo piano/vocal. There's an urgency and rawness to that performance that Matt and I love, and despite trying numerous times, we couldn't beat that version. Sam Shoup added some strings and brass to the track, and we also layered on some percussion and timpani for power and texture. My friend Gus Black filmed the video in Santa Barbara's iconic Lobero theater, and I'm still blown away each time I watch it."
Recorded with Ross-Spang in Memphis, More Time marks a dramatic leap forward for Muller, who grapples here with the push and pull of responsibility and desire, predictability and adventure, commitment and temptation. Muller writes with a candid, daring vulnerability, baring his innermost hopes and fears with unflinching honesty, Where Muller's previous work leaned more towards carefully arranged folk and roots, More Time is an expansive, hard-hitting slice of rock and soul, a shift that comes in part due to Muller's remarkable evolution as an artist and in part due to the all-star band Ross-Spang assembled for the sessions, including celebrated bassist Dave Smith (Al Green, Wilson Pickett), famed Texas guitarist Will Sexton (Joe Ely, Roky Erickson), Memphis organist Rick Steff (Lucero, Cat Power), longtime Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, and a host of local legend horn players and background vocalists.
"I was immediately drawn to the passion Pete brings to every performance," says Ross-Spang, who encouraged Muller to embrace a relaxed, grittier approach in the studio built around live takes and free-flowing improvisation without the rigid constraints of a click track. "Joy truly abounds in his music, and working with Pete reinforced those same feelings in me. I consider myself very lucky to have helped capture that feeling on his new record."
After becoming an extraordinarily successful businessman, Muller found himself needing to fulfill his creative urges. "I have these two sides," Muller explains. "One part of me is a very practical, analytical thinker, and the other's this creative artist who can't help but express what's going on in his soul. For a long time, I thought I had to choose between the two, but I've realized that I can love and nourish both sides of myself, that it's and not or."
"Once I accomplished everything and more that I'd set out to do in the business world, I realized that I hadn't nurtured the artistic side of my life," Muller explains. "My focus was so intense that I didn't touch the piano that often. My work was a single-minded obsession."
Feeling spiritually drained, Muller began drifting away from his work for a period of similarly intense focus on his music, busking in the subways, playing small clubs and cafes, and writing his own songs for the first time. After releasing a pair of early albums, he got married, and became a father, and while he eventually returned to the business he'd founded, he remained as dedicated as ever to his craft. In 2014, he recorded his third album, Two Truths and a Lie, which introduced him to Avatar Studios (a New York landmark previously known as The Power Station, where icons like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan had recorded). Upon learning the studio was under threat of being sold and redeveloped as condos, Muller decided to use his resources in partnership with the City of New York and the Berklee College of Music to save, renovate, and re-launch the space as a world-class recording and educational facility. He would go on to record his next two albums - 2019's Dissolve and 2022's Spaces - there, launching a whole new chapter of his career that would find him sharing bills with artists like Joan Osborne, Jimmy Webb, Livingston Tayler, and Paul Thorn in addition to landing festival slots everywhere from Telluride to Montreux.
And if launching a successful business, recording several albums and saving a landmark studio wasn't enough - the hyper-talented renaissance man also founded the non-profit Live Music Society to provide grants to independent music venues around the country to help keep their doors open during COVID. Muller has established himself as an artist dedicated to protecting and promoting music and its sacred spaces in addition to perfecting his own craft. On More Time, Muller has harnessed this passion and infused it into his most striking and bold set of songs to date.
