Meet Sullivan Marsters
I picked up a guitar lying around my house at age 12 and started writing shortly thereafter. I was living in a rural environment, (and by rural I mean having to traverse a valley, evade bulls and hop fences to make it to the school bus) so the dive into music was spurred from boredom and a lack of external stimulus. The passion grew rapidly. By the end of middle school I had turned my bedroom into a recording studio. There were 4 guitars, a bass, a Rhodes piano, an organ, and several mics & stands laying about (there may have been a bed in there somewhere). My aversion to using existing samples led me to all kinds of strange experiments – hitting FedEx boxes for drums, miking the piano from the bathroom, and digitally manipulating the blood curdling calls of the coyotes that dwelled in the dark forest behind my home. Mid-way through high school my family moved onto a boat to avoid California’s high cost of living. Far away from both the friends I had known and my new “land lubbing” peers, I dove further into my obsession and persevered, despite the seagull calls and fog horns that inevitably made their way into my early demos. I remained musically possessed through college, and continued to dream up melodies throughout a dizzying study-abroad around the globe. I had to develop altitude sickness 90% of the way through the Har Ki Doon trek in the Himalayas to convince myself to pursue “this thing” as a career. With my recent single release “Frequent Flyer,” and 4 more on the way, I feel good about where I am artistically and look forward to riding a wave of suppressed creativity and collaboration after the country opens up again. Currently, I write this bio sitting on that same boat, preparing to record another batch of demos on liquid ground. And yes, the seagulls still won’t shut up.
When I was playing with my former band in high school, we had worked for years building up our fanbase and our bank account to book a full European tour. Just a couple weeks out our frontman abruptly withdrew. We could not provide refunds as the money had already been spent to finance the tour, so we were forced to move forward with me as the lead singer. Learning how to sing while on tour is rough, but probably not as rough as it was for the people listening. Needless to say I learned a great deal and my confidence grew exponentially. This experience taught me that crisis and opportunity are two sides of the same coin. Although not always feasible, I do my best to transform the former into the latter. Lead singer abandons the band? Learn to sing. Can’t find a drummer at your school? Learn how to play drums on your own. Can’t keep a band together because your family keeps moving? Form your own band inside your computer.
I am a one stop shop for music composition, arrangement, performance, production & distribution. I literally cannot stop writing songs, please help. At the moment I am building up my discoreograyhy with some solo releases. I am primarily known for producing original content, often in the form of music and video. I perform each main instrument heard in my work (exceptions being the occasional reed or brass instrument) and record them from scratch. Meaning that if I want a crazy guitar tone, I will not search for a plug-in or sample, but rather mic/play it unconventionally. This helps me cultivate a unique sound and forces me to commit to them rather than endlessly make micro-adjustments to the reverb on a tambourine or something. Above all else, I just enjoy the process more when it is hands-on.
I consider success to be uninhibited and anti-perfectionist. Allow yourself to create without the pressure of perfection from inception. This pressure can quickly turn your creative product into something that has nothing to do with what inspired you in the first place. Adhering to perfectionism subjugates your creativity to unrelated external expectations and corrupts it. Needing to have everything right & in place is toxic the artist. You don’t need the latest computer, or microphone, or a better mood, or more inspiration to get started. Just get started and build from there. This all stems from accepting yourself for who you are, ultimately allowing you to play to your true strengths. And that is when something truly unique and exciting occurs.
