Getting to Know. . . JOEY MUTIS III (Electric Farm)
 by Kathy S-B  ·  5 May 2008

The name Electric Farm may not be familiar to you unless you’re from the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania where the locals there have been enjoying the folk-rock sound of this band for many years. I was recently a judge for the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) and had the challenge of listening to over 150 artists who submitted three songs each for a showcase opportunity at next month’s conference in the Catskills. I was on a panel of a few DJs and a couple of venue presenters. Our job was to rate each act on a scale of 1–10. Within seconds of listening to Electric Farm, I knew they were something special and the good news is that they made the “cut” and will be appearing at NERFA and I’ll have the distinct pleasure of introducing them at their showcase. Check out some of their music on their MySpace page. The driving force of The Electric Farm is Joey Mutis III and he was nice enough to take some time out of his busy life to answer my questions.

Upon first listen to your songs, I was struck by the unique sound — to my ear, it’s almost like an aural landscape that sweeps over me as I listen. Your website says that your latest CD, the self-titled The Electric Farm, contains original compositions that take soft pop into a folksy space rock milieu. That’s as good a description as any. How would you define folksy space rock though?

That’s just our kooky sense of humor, but I also think it describes the sound of our CD. Kind of like an acoustic Pink Floyd. Plus, those seventies songs like Space Oddity, Rocket Man, I’m Not in Love . . . and the space ethics of Sun Ra. . . the airy-ness of Miles Davis’ playing.

The song “Rainfall” is simply gorgeous. I like the way you allude to the rainfall as water falling from God’s eyes to help the farmers, the soil, and the plants. Have you had experience living on a farm or is it just all around you in rural Pennsylvania? It’s important for songwriters like you to educate urban dwellers like myself about what it is like for people outside of our own communities. Thanks.

I live near farms, but haven’t ever lived on one. Farms are all around me. We get our vegetables from a local organic farm. Maybe that’s why I have a fair amount of nature images in my songs. And primarily what we do musically is earthy and natural.

So tell me about “The Man of the Town.” This song could be interpreted as saying that you, the songwriter, was a child predator. Tell us that”s not so and that it’s just artistic license! ;-) It’s a compelling song, that’s for sure.

First of all, no. And in general I never felt completely comfortable writing revealing songs about myself. I went through a period where I discovered the Ray Davies character study style of songwriting.

I spent a lot of time in my youth hanging out in Emmaus, PA. So while my friends and I were sitting outside the record store, I’d often notice this guy who the locals would refer to as the town drunk. I guess I’m a people watcher and somehow internalized him . . . because years later he came out in this song. I never thought of him as a child predator, but he would obviously bother people and make everyone uncomfortable. I guess I could see myself ending up like the town drunk given different circumstances. And by the way he just scared children and people . . . didn’t hurt them. That’s just a natural fear that gets embellished in the song.

You cite the British Invasion bands as a major influence on you, especially the Kinks. Yet, your songs are considerably darker than any of those mega-hits from the mid-1960s. What is it about those groups that you like so much and what kinds of infliences have crept into your own music?

For me Ray Davies is the kingpin of the British invasion as far as songwriters. And once again it’s his use of simple everday people that has had the greatest influence on me. I had an experience one day while driving home when Waterloo Sunset came on the radio. . . I’m guessing this was about twenty years ago. . . I knew the song, but this time it hit me like never before. The way the music and lyrics paint a picture of a place, a time, and people’s lives — instantly transporting you there with all the imagery, plot, and emotion of a movie — is simply magical.

Plus, when I was a kid the Beatles were my first musical love, so I grew up on sixties and seventies pop. It started with the Beatles and the Stones . . . then I got hip to their influences like the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry. Later I discovered jazz, soul, blues, Brazillian, folk, country, etc. In particular, artists like Townes Van Zandt, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Tim Buckley, Zombies, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Van Morrison, Judee Sill.

I understand that your music has been used on one or two different TV series. How did that opportunity come about? How do TV producers choose music for their shows? That must have been a real thrill to hear your songs being played on a nationally syndicated show.

The first time was for a movie called Drive Me Crazy. . . and the call from Hollywood literally came out of the blue. The caller, now a friend, was originally from Pennsylvania and had gotten a copy of our CD through a string of local connections. His business is to supervise the music in films, television and commercials. Through his efforts and other independent music supervisors he collaborates with, we’ve had songs featured on a number of television shows — One Tree Hill, Numb3rs, (see the clip from Numb3rs here), the premiere of Drive, and also on DVD releases of past television series — where Farm songs replace those which originally aired like Criminal Minds and the eighties cult classic, The Fall Guy starring Lee Majors.

Okay I’ve got to ask you about your blog in which you write about your latest hard-to-find vinyl record acquisition: the ever elusive Nervous Breakthrough by Bill Cowsill. You’ve told me already that you actually saw the Cowsills (perhaps your very first concert) when you were three or four years old. Seriously, did you actually remember the experience of hearing their music or were you fed a steady diet of power pop when you were growing up? And I agree with you: “The Rain, the Park, and Other Things” is one of the greatest songs of that era.

My first memory of The Cowsills is playing the 45 “Hair” over and over again as a child. Their vocal blend got me. And I do have a little visual memory of seeing them on stage when I went to a concert with my grandma and her friends in Atlantic City as a little kid.

I guess their vocal sound will always have a magical element because of those childhood memories. But even now I can still listen to Cowsills records and dig them. When I think of the Cowsills it reminds me of how much I love the sixties bubblegum, psych, soft pop genre. There’s so much music from that era that I’m still discovering now like the Free Design and Margo Guryan.