The place where those amaz­ing sounds came from.

DIY music­maker from California, flat­sound is a bedroom/bathroom singer-songwriter of the purest kind.

To be hon­est, I often find musi­cians like him quite annoy­ing. Maybe that’s because I know too many. Most of them share the same old story. In their late teens they had a moment of serendip­ity while fool­ing around with cheap record­ing equip­ment, sit­ting amidst memen­tos of child­hood, when they finally man­aged to pro­duce the first song of their own that sounded sur­pris­ingly good to them.

Never mind it was most prob­a­bly just a car­bon copy of an iconic track they adored. From that moment on, they knew how to make music. They’ve never learnt to play an instru­ment prop­erly, to sing using their own adult voice or to write lyrics that actu­ally mean some­thing. Yet, they think they are the epit­ome of authen­tic­ity, and will advise any­one on how to be like them, with­out being asked.

Judging by his new LP ‘sleep’, Mitch Welling is a glow­ing excep­tion. His music is with­out any direct showi­ness, yet never bor­ing. What he stum­bled upon back then at that par­tic­u­lar moment must have been his true self, I guess. Lucky boy. His songs bleed sin­cer­ity. At the same time, it’s all a very con­scious act. For all you whin­ers and moan­ers, here’s the exam­ple how to do it right.