Q with Rob Mulhearn – Secret Annexe’s lead singer discusses Deviations

By now, local band Secret Annexe should be considered Baton Rouge rock royalty. In its decade-long run, the five (sometimes six or seven)-piece has released four full-length albums and an EP with a revolving door of talented players. Statistics aside, the band’s staying power could probably be attested to the fact that they know how to write a damned good song. On Tuesday, lead singer Rob Mulhearn gave me a call to talk about the band’s incredible new album, Deviations, and how the band has kept rolling. The band will perform at Radiopalooza this Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Rob Mulhearn: In different ways, both I guess. We have recorded a few records in the same format—tracked it all at home. Then, we give it to somebody to mix. We did that with Seven Headed Monster and our EP (The Nights are Growing Long). We had our methods down. But time-wise, we’re sort of all have a lot less free time now. This one was more having to squeeze in a recording session here and there. One person would come in to record, then another. We made it work, though. That was one reason why we hadn’t played in forever. We could either be playing shows, or make this record because we’ve got all these songs. We didn’t have time to do both so we decided to record. That break from playing just got longer and longer. Finally, we’re getting back in the swing of talking again. It’s been a year and a half since we’ve played live.

RM: We hadn’t recorded it before. We had been playing live before. The record’s not the debut of most of these songs. Some people had heard them before from our shows. That song was also on Monster Ballads, that’s probably where you heard it.

RM: Before, we’ve recorded at my house. Now that we have a son, we moved the equipment to [guitarist] Shelby [Rushings’] house and recorded it over there. We did it with the drums first, then took it one instrument at a time.

RM: Yeah, this is the first one we recorded without her. Phil started playing right after we recorded the EP.

RM: No. She’s glad that Phil [Gallagher] has taken over. He’s a friend of ours. Actually, it was funny. We had gone out to eat with Phil and his then-girlfriend [who is now his wife], Tammy tells him, “Hey, I’m having a baby,” and he immediately asked if he could take over on drums. He was always a friend and family to the band; so it was fine.

RM: Yeah, that’s about right. In one form or another, since 2000 or 2001. The real lineup has been together since ’04. Before that, we might have been a different band for every show. I guess it was around ’04 when we had solid lineup. Then, we put out that first real record in 2005.

RM: Well, we just started playing again, with another new lineup, because [violinist] Kelly [Stone] has moved to Colorado. [Guitarist] Kyle [Bailey] is back playing with us again. It’s different not having Kelly. We’re so used to hearing her parts. We’re figuring out what we have to sacrifice or if a guitar plays her part. It’s a challenge to figure out how to do things a bit different, but I’m glad we’re playing again. The first thing we did, we played that Guilty Pleasures night, learned all these ’90s R&B songs. We had a blast with it. It was a way to get back started again.

RM: When you have the new record, it’s always the best one, right? I always feel like that anyway. You might go back and listen to it in five years, and that might not be the case. But, yeah, I like the songs a lot. I’m glad it took awhile. We had it finished a year-and-a-half before we put it out. We just kept waiting for the right time to put it out. I’m pleased with it. The songs are really good. There are a lot of guitar solos on this record. Maybe next time, we’ll just put out an album of guitar solos, like Steve Vai.

RM: We were all focused on different things in our life. We had the record. We were listening to it and enjoying it. The band wasn’t focused on the music at that time. I was doing my first year back at school, Shelby was back at school, I’ve got a son, and Kelly was back in school. We enjoyed making it, but it wasn’t like, “Oh my god, I need to do something with this,” like it was when we were a younger band. I don’t know if it’s because we’re getting older, but it felt right.

RM: No, there wasn’t an ultimate low point. I knew when I went back to school it would be more difficult, but I never thought the music was finished for good. I always thought I would come back to it. There’s a line in “To Bid You Farewell” where I sing, “Please, don’t forget about me,” and the idea of not coming back to music was going through my head. That song is my way of saying, “Just hang on, I’ll be back in a bit.” We’ve put out I think it seems like a lot records. It’s not like we’re super-prolific. I think some of staying power comes through the fact that we haven’t been super fast, we haven’t toured…We just keep chugging along at our own pace, maybe that allows us not to get burnt out on it.