This story is featured in CityBeat's Jan. 24 print edition.
Mol Sullivan has been making and performing music for 20 years. Put in perspective, that’s the same amount of time Barack Obama has been a household name and longer than Netflix has existed as a streaming service. Yet the Cincinnati born-and-bred singer-songwriter has never released a full-length collection of songs. That surprising fact ends this month with the unveiling of Goose, a self-released effort that culminates with a celebratory show at the Woodward Theater on Jan. 26.
Sullivan wrote the album’s 11 songs over the last decade, the majority of which she crafted following her sobriety from alcohol, a topic she’s not shy to discuss both in song and out. It’s a cohesive, slow-burning set of folk-leaning chamber pop, each song buoyed by Sullivan’s versatile vocals and textured compositions that range from sparse to jaunty.
Sullivan has released a couple of EPs (most recently last year’s A Little Hello), various singles and some creative, well-crafted videos over the years. She’s also been a persistent live presence, playing shows both solo and with a full band, garnering multiple Cincinnati Entertainment Awards in process. But Goose represents her first proper album.
“This is really the first full-blown, honest-effort studio production for a full-length record that I’ve ever done, which is almost unbelievable to me,” Sullivan says by phone in a recent conversation with CityBeat. “I thought I would be reveling in it a bit more but there is just so much work that goes into the release. I’m kind of a one-man show over here with my merch design, graphic design for posters, the album art, the videos, booking rehearsals, booking the tour and planning the release show.”
Album opener “Still Tryin’” sets the tone immediately as softly strummed electric guitar interweaves with pensive vocal coos before Sullivan plaintively delivers the following lyrical vision: “You grew your roots under the floorboards/You raised your hands to the sky/I ran away, always laughin’/And then I couldn’t make you stay.”
Sullivan says “Still Tryin’” was written in the aftermath of a bad breakup. In fact, it was the first song she wrote after getting sober in 2018. The lyrics nod to her specific situation without being so overt that multiple interpretations aren’t possible. The song closes with an evocative visual metaphor, a lyrical approach that remains a strength throughout Goose: “One last cigarette, and I am out of here/A flicker of red decay/Tell me one more joke/I’ll smile if I can and be your personal ashtray.”
It’s no coincidence that “Still Tryin’ ” kicks off the album.
“I feel like that song speaks the most,” Sullivan says. “It’s like a song to me, even though I’m talking about my former lover and dealing with the heartbreak. Ultimately, the ending of that relationship was a catalyst for me starting to quit drinking. Watching somebody move on and (me) being a hollowed-out shell of a human being, feeling bitter and depressed but still what I call ‘white-knuckling’ life. There is hope in it. I love the song. I feel like it’s a lullaby to myself. It’s pacifying in a way. I also love how direct it is, coming in with the clean electric guitar. I feel like it sets the stage for a nice, crisp, direct opening for the record.”
The very next song, “Cannonball,” reveals the record’s range — it’s a buoyant pop song that brings to mind a melding of Aimee Mann and Cat Power. The lilting, impressively layered instrumentation includes piano, pedal-steel guitar and what sounds like someone hitting a block of wood. Sullivan even employs a bit of twang in her voice.
“When I was first getting started, I think there was more of a focus on having a consistent sound,” Sullivan says of her evolving vocal approach over the years. “I had a couple different affectations that I used. Like the female indie vocal (she attempts to mimic it through the phone before trailing off, embarrassed). It makes me cringe to think about now. I went through a phase with that. I was a little scared of playing with my voice as much as I do now because of my tendency to want to police things.
“Sometimes I go to a show and I’m like, ‘Okay, this person has an incredible voice but there is almost no dynamic range to it,’ ” she continues. “For me, the way that I’m singing, the texture and the tone, it’s just as important to my storytelling as the lyrics are. It’s the delivery — it’s like a guitar with an effects pedal. That’s kind of how I view it.”
Sullivan credits Chicago-based producer/musician Sima Cunningham as a unifying influence when it came time to record Goose in 2021.
“Sima is a brilliant musician, but she’s also highly organized,” Sullivan says. “As a producer, she helped craft the sonic palette of the record. She also project-managed things. I went up there several months after our initial talking and stayed in her home for a week. Her studio was in the basement. We spent a week just recording every day. She provided a really nice structure for the programming of it, so we had a plan of attack every day. They cooked pretty much all of our meals, and they were so delicious. It was such a nurturing, professional but comfortable setting.”
Goose is the culmination of a challenging period in Sullivan’s life both creatively and personally. And while she’s eager to begin the next phase, she admits how important it was to finally get these songs out in the world.
“It’s already been two years since we recorded it,” she says. “So, I guess it feels like I’m a parent who’s been teaching their kid to like ride a bike for a really long time and I’m getting ready to take the training wheels off. It’s exciting but I’m also so excited to have my life back and just keep moving forward. I’m excited to get some of this new material that I’m writing out.”
Sullivan is already talking about dropping another EP of material this year. She’s also been making networking trips to New York and Los Angeles. But Cincinnati and its nurturing music scene remains the biggest influence on her.
“I feel like because it’s a smaller city, everybody feels very visible, so it can feel very vulnerable and intimidating to be seen trying to succeed,” Sullivan says. “But fuck it, I’m trying and I’m doing. I’m choosing to do things myself rather than waiting on maybe a label having interest. I just need to keep moving. Stagnation is the death of me. I don’t have control over if I’m successful or not, but I have control if I’m doing it or not.”
Mol Sullivan celebrates the release of Goose with a performance at Woodward Theater on Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. Info: woodwardtheater.com.
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