Jacob Mühlrad: Where Classical Music Meets the Unexpected

Coat, pants and shoes GIVENCHY, shirt and tie PAUL SMITH.

Hey, how are you doing?

Doing great. It's a good day.

Nice. All right, so who is Asha?

In what sense?

You talk a lot about intersections and how important they are in your music. What intersections do you exist in and where do you see your music? 

I'm at the intersection of Soul, Funk, Hip Hop, R&B and Alternative. It's a space that we're creating for people to collide from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Left: Coat LOUIS VUITTON, top KENZO, pants THEOPHILIO, shoes BURBERRY, sunglasses GENTLE MONSTER, ring VEERT. Right: Coat PAUL SMITH, top MARINE SERRE, necklace VEERT, ring TALENT’S OWN.

How important is community in your artistry?

Community is vital to my artistry. I literally wouldn't be here sitting talking to you in New York if it wasn't for my community. As I grow, it's a hope that my community continues to grow and that my work champions and uplifts other artists. The main difference between PINS & NEEDLES and Good News is my community. It's a combination of three years of me stepping into other artists, producers, songwriters, stylists and photographers worlds and getting seasoned by everything that exists in the spaces between.

I think that joining the KOGO Home was kind of like when things started to get really real and I started to understand where I fit into things a little bit more. It’s wild there, CONNIE could be downstairs doing his thing, producing his Hi_TEK music and Zack Fox is coming through or Matt Ox is coming through but then there's also Alé Araya in the other room working on her music which brings this ethereal, warm, soulful feeling. 

There's all of these different worlds and textures that I get to be hearing faintly around me as I’m finding my own shit. There’s also the utility of being able to play your music for another artist who's figuring their stuff out. So, it's this exchange and it's not like a transaction, it's like a friendship, which also makes it more fun. 

Yeah, that's really cool that y’all live in an artist community. You’ve been working on these songs a long time? 

Three years.

So how does it feel releasing them into the world?

Man, in a lot of ways, it's terrifying because it's like, some of these songs are super personal. A goal with this album was making it digestible so that the first feeling you're met with when you listen to it is joy. But when you spend more time with it, you’ll notice the themes and messages of self acceptance, processing self doubt, processing grief, and just making your way through anxiety. 

Coat, top and pants BALENCIAGA, boots HERON PRESTON, necklace MARTINE ALI, sunglasses ALEXANDER MCQUEEN.

What does your daily artistic practice look like, and how do you take care of yourself?

My daily artistic practice is a lot of studying. I listen to a lot of podcasts and read a lot of books, especially Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. That's like pretty much everybody's new textbook. It feels like a holy book. You could keep reading it and open to a random page, and there's insight there for you. It feels like panning for gold. Everywhere I go, I'm trying to find little gems and just that spirit of exploration and putting myself in new situations. 

As far as taking care of myself, it's practicing mindfulness, meditation and capturing moments of stillness, trying to be aware of my thoughts. Stuff like that. I think, especially with this album, I've gotten to reckon with things that otherwise probably would have just never been fixed in terms of what sometimes holds me back in that process.

So talking about some of the things that you had to face making this album, what were things that were holding you back in the process before?

I'd be scared to say stuff sometimes, like leaving things vague. I tried to protect myself in my lyrics and didn’t create from a place of complete vulnerability and creative exploration.

I'm singing more than I ever have and just stretching my voice and my production ability more than I ever have, doing things that make me feel like a baby again. And I am a baby in this shit when it comes down to it. Sometimes I’m held back by things as simple as not sleeping for multiple days and things as complicated as addiction, overindulgence, and getting really healthy with my relationships and leaning into family.

Left: Jacket and top Y-3, sunglasses BALENCIAGA, earrings VEERT. Right: Jacket, shirt and pants DOLCE & GABBANA, ring VEERT.

Is your family supportive of your music career and artistry?

Yeah, definitely. I have a super musical family, so they understand, but in a different way. A lot of my family has a gospel background. My grandmother played piano in churches all through San Diego, and my big brother was a rapper before me. My uncle is a producer, so they kind of loosely get it. But it's a different time now, too, so it looks different. And it's like, when I come home, they just want to know all the cool shit I've been doing in the time between. 

But I think topically, covering some things with families can be uncomfortable. Like, there's a song on the album where I talk about when my brother got locked up or the time that I tried acid and it kind of fucked my head up. They get to see an angle of me in the music that they might not get just by talking to me, so it's kind of scary for them too, sometimes.

I know that you've talked a lot about your niece and nephew and how important they are to you. What kind of uncle are you?

Oh, man, I'm the best uncle, bro. I'm the favorite uncle. 

Are you the only uncle? 

I'm technically the only uncle but I’m the one that comes around with a stuffed animal every time I see you. I’m the ‘let's listen to Jill Scott and Erykah Badu’ type of uncle.

Left: Coat, pants and shoes GIVENCHY, shirt and tie PAUL SMITH. Right: Jacket THEOPHILIO, top KENZO, pants CASABLANCA, shoes SEBAGO, sunglasses MAXMARA, necklace VEERT.

With social media, I feel like artists are expected to constantly be putting work out. How do these expectations influence your process?

I feel like coming up in this era, it feels a little bit more natural, but it's always quality first, and we just try to set things up so that there's as much to share as possible. But I think that I've always been headstrong about making sure that anything that we're sharing feels like it's forever, and it's not just for any given moment.

How do you make forever music?

I think it's just going with your gut, not making the formative decisions creatively from any place other than what's felt.

What music is your forever music?

I really love Sade’s song “Like a Tattoo”, Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady” and Jordan Ward’s “FAMJAM4000”. It's music that has a soul in it and can't really be watered down. Forever music, for me, has a specific tone and resonance to it. It's something that speaks to the fabric of who I am. 

And that's why I bring up Jordan Ward. Jordan is an artist that I feel is going to be here forever because he's that. I think with the music that I make and that I'm a part of making, I'm always trying to bring out the thing in my collaborators that makes them, them. 

What makes you, you?

What makes me, me? Man, I'm curious. I think that's one of the biggest things is like, I could ask a million questions about anything, sometimes to a fault. But I like to explore. 

Left: Coat, jacket, shirt and shorts LOUIS VUITTON, bracelet VEERT, ring TALENT’S OWN. Right: Jacket and pants, RAINS, top MM6 MAISON MARGIELA, shoes CAMPERLAB, necklace MARTINE ALI, sunglasses GENTLE MONSTER.

This album explores a lot of different themes and formations of love. Are you pro or anti situationships? 

I mean ‘situationship’ has a negative connotation to it, kind of, but I don't think there's a right or wrong way to go about things. It's all about honesty. Are you being real with yourself and the person that you're dealing with? What level do you want to go to? For me, I'm in a relationship right now, and it was one that I wasn't looking for. I stumbled upon it. That's something that's magic. And I think that a lot of what we're looking for is the magical part. I'm pro exploring and just being real. Honestly, because it could be complicated and still be beautiful, you know?

If your album was a cologne, what would it smell like?

Burberry touch, mint.

Quick with it. How did you come up with the title Pins and Needles? 

Pins and Needles? Yeah. It kind of goes back to what I was talking about earlier and that sense of discomfort. The album started, actually, while I was working on my last mixtape, Good News, and it was in the middle of the pandemic, and I was literally stuck in one place, but I think I put it on the back burner and came back to it in a place of motion, and it helped me to appreciate that place of stagnation.

I realized that I’m just this imperfect person trying to figure shit out in real time at the moment and that’s where the positive growing pains come in. I think that there's a spectrum of feelings that we have to appreciate in their totality to really get the best things out of life. Because if you live just for the joy or excitement or whatever, everything else is going to suck. 

And for me, whether it's dealing with anxiety or trying to hold onto moments of joy and celebration and shit like that, it's all a fleeting thing. And I think that's the main theme of the album, the pins represent that internal struggle and change, while the needles represent the external.

Sweater MR. SATURDAY, pants MARINE SERRE, shoes UGG x TELFAR, sunglasses BALENCIAGA, necklaces and earrings VEERT.

What are your favorite bars on the album?

I'm scanning through because I have my favorites for sure. I'm trying to think of the ones that feel like they kind of represent the feeling, too, but… Oh my God, on “DID I CALL AT A BAD TIME?”, Rizz Capolatti says “Pop out with some out of pageant/Pop out with some out of magic. No, look, I pass it like magic/ While I do racks, I do magic.” That's just so hard to me, like the wordplay.

That's very hard.

Or Boogie’s verse on “PHONICS”, he said “I know you finna hurt a nigga, you love going with the wave and I'm just your current nigga”. 

Yeah, that's so fire, There's that line where you talk about ‘something something, and now I got a handful of your ass’ or something like that. Got that stuck in my head. What's the line exactly? 

“I know it hurts but what the fuck I'm supposed to do? 2 AM you talkin bout when I’m comin through. My hands full of your ass again, accident.” 

That's a situation, sir.

Yeah, that's a situation [laughs].  

Left: Jacket, shirt, pants and shoes DOLCE & GABBANA, ring VEERT. Right: Coat PAUL SMITH, pants WILLY CHAVARRIA, top MARINE SERRE, shoes SEBAGO, necklace and bracelets VEERT, rings TALENT’S OWN.

What's your favorite beat on the album?

My favorite beat on the album is probably “DO u WANNA BE  HIGH?” I'm picky. They all feel like my kids, but I love the drums on that song.

You got a favorite kid! It's all right.

Parents do, too.

What will your next album sound like?

I'm still finding the sound, but I definitely just want to make more fun shit that people can bounce to and vibe to. I definitely want to embody some of the more afrobeat world influence, but blending it with the funk, soul shit that I love. 

I want to make a kind of dance record. I love seeing how people react when we put that song out “DO u WANT TO BE HIGH?”. It’s so fire. And the idea of people not even thinking about the lyrics kind of plays a little bit more into that main ethos of, like, I'm going to give you the message, but I want you to live with the song enough for you to stumble upon it as opposed to it being in your face and shit.