Emmett Mulrooney’s “bedroom pop” has enticed millions of online fans while leaving him virtually invisible in his hometown. Not to mention unfulfilled.
Now the Milwaukee musician is aiming to fit in rather than stand out.
“I think I’m like every other 20-year-old kid,” Mulrooney says. “It’s difficult to find meaning and find purpose, learning about myself and humility, selflessness, love, passion, following the right things.”
If it seems Mulrooney is prematurely in mid-life reflection, it’s because by one measure, he has already experienced a daunting dose of success.
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Milwaukee Magazine asked the music data firm Chartmetric which metropolitan Milwaukee artists have been the most popular since 2020. Based on performance across 16 streaming and social media platforms, including Spotify, Instagram and TikTok, Mulrooney’s Chartmetric Artist Score was highest. (The others, in order: Lotus Ash, American Bandit, L.E.X and Athas).
For Mulrooney, the COVID pandemic was pivotal to gaining a national following. Shutdowns in early 2020 led the Waukesha native to release a song about every two weeks, and one popped. “Sunset Wife,” with St. Louis musician Sean Gerty, has been streamed more than 5 million times on Spotify.
Mulrooney followed that with a 1.8 million-likes video on TikTok that boosted “Sunset Wife” and cemented his bond with online fans. He worked social media hard. “I just had some crazy animal inside of me at 17 that was like, I really want to be famous,” he says.
Mulrooney got a place of his own, signed a record deal with Wilder Records, landed bigger gigs and, for a while, did music full time. But every million Spotify streams was worth a mere $4,000 or so. And the short-lived record deal only covered the expenses of making music. Touring? “Every dime that I’ve made has gone to gas, Milky Way bars and Diet Dr Pepper,” Mulrooney says.
Moreover, hardly anyone showed up for his set at South by Southwest. The stage at Summerfest was too big for the crowd. Mulrooney has been working a day job in influencer marketing, feeling almost no community with Milwaukee musicians.
So?
Time for a reset.
“I’ve learned in the past year the true value of local community,” Mulrooney says. “This kid who has millions of streams online, how does that translate into real life? And in Milwaukee, it really didn’t. I had to come and cultivate an audience.”
That cultivation is now well underway. One of the best nights of his life? Headlining a show in August at the venerable Cactus Club in Bay View, capacity 200. “Since I was a child, I wanted to feel a certain superiority to the people around me, and I don’t feel that way anymore,” Mulrooney says. “The goal is just fulfillment and humility; authenticity, that’s the goal, that’s my end. If it turns out to be crazy monetary success, I just hope that it came from something true.”
