Lotte Mullan

Lotte Mullan took a hands-on route by personally recording and independently issuing her first album, Plain Jane, yielding an encouraging account of maneuvering through the cutthroat realities of the record industry via clear thinking and determination—attributes seldom emphasized in that environment. While studying in Suffolk, England, she developed a deep affinity for American blues and folk. Exposure to country music and the catalogs of Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, and Rickie Lee Jones helped shape her distinctive British version of alternative Americana in her songwriting. Along the way she secured both a book deal and a movie deal, sidestepping an industry slow to value her input as a musician, producer, and business operator. Temporary roles at major London labels and stints as tour manager for other acts gave her firsthand command of industry mechanics. She composed, tracked, and produced Plain Jane while updating her website blog on a regular basis. Those posts supplied a sharp, observant, ironic, offbeat, amusing, and engaging maverick’s glimpse of corporate music from a woman’s vantage point, drawing widespread industry attention. The entries themselves earned her publishing, book, movie, and distribution agreements and were characterized as “The Devil Wears Prada meets Bridget Jones’s Diary.” An astute and purposeful songwriter and musician, Mullan released Plain Jane on her own in 2011; Universal later reworked, reissued, and distributed the album. With the record available and a book plus film in development, she stood ready for a multifaceted career she fully controlled.