“At the time I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is sick.’ In hindsight, it wasn’t that much, but it got me so excited,” Mutsch, 22, remembers.
The following summer, he performed on a side stage at Chicago’s Spring Awakening music festival, crossing paths with major players like Kaskade and Steve Aoki.
“Each time you release a song or play a show, it’s like buying a lottery ticket,” Mutsch says. “Any one of them could blow up. You just have to keep buying lottery tickets.”
“To actually get somewhere, you have to be able to write when you don’t feel like it and push yourself to get in that zone.”
For the nonmusical skills he hasn’t learned – like accounting and brand management – Mutsch has leaned on Backline, the 88Nine Radio Milwaukee accelerator project aimed at helping select Milwaukee artists reach the next level.
“It’s been absolutely cool to see Milwaukee put their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting their artists here,” he says.
Backing from Backline has allowed Mutsch to visit Los Angeles and New York City to network and make music, and hire a PR company to promote Crystal Knives. “Treating music as a job is a skill that most people need to learn and a lot of people don’t get,” Mutsch admits. “To actually get somewhere, you have to be able to write when you don’t feel like it and push yourself to get in that zone.”
