Lotte Mullan

Lotte Mullan's D.I.Y. approach to recording and self-releasing her debut album, Plain Jane, makes for a refreshingly redemptive story of how to navigate the shark-infested waters of the music business with intelligence and focus, two qualities that are too often missing in the industry. Mullan fell in love with American blues and folk while in school in Suffolk, England, and as she listened her way through country music and the work of singers and songwriters like Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, and Rickie Lee Jones, she developed her own uniquely British approach to alternative Americana as a songwriter. She also ended up with a book and movie deal, and essentially leaped the line in an industry that wasn't recognizing what she brought to the table as a musician and as a producer and businesswoman. Mullan learned the ins and outs of the music business by temping at various major record labels in London and working as a tour manager for other performers. Meanwhile, she wrote, recorded, and produced Plain Jane, while also posting regularly to her blog on her website. Those posts were focused, astute, wry, quirky, funny, and fascinating as she presented a kind of maverick insider's view of the corporate music world from a woman's perspective, and they drew the attention of the industry itself. Mullan ended up with book, publishing, movie, and distribution deals based on her blog entries, which were described as "The Devil Wears Prada meets Bridget Jones’s Diary." An intelligent and focused songwriter and musician, Mullan's Plain Jane was self-released in 2011, and then repackaged, reissued, and distributed by Universal. With an album out, and a book and movie on the horizon, Mullan poised herself for a promising and multifaceted career, one in which she was in complete control.
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