GUS BLACK
PETE MULLER
Singer-songwriter and pianist Pete Muller will bring his genre-blurring music to The Outpost in the Burbs in Montclair on May 16. Performing solo, he will open for Livingston Taylor.
Muller’s latest album, 2025’s One Last Dance, features poignant confessional songs with rich arrangements. Self-produced and recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in England, the album features his band The Kindred Souls, with appearances by Allison Russell and the duo SistaStrings.
Muller, who was raised in New Jersey, has also built a successful career in finance as a prominent hedge fund manager and quantitative trader. He co-founded the investment firm PDT Partners in 1993 as part of Morgan Stanley, before it became independent in 2012. He also serves as a founding board member of Live Music Society and Math for America.
Here are excerpts from my interview with him.
Q: Can you tell me about your initial connection to music? When did you first start playing the piano or other instruments? And when did that passion develop into songwriting?
A: I took classical piano lessons for five years. I got competent, but I got bored. I think I started at 10 years old. Then I quit and I don’t think I’d still be playing music to this day if I didn’t find a wonderful jazz piano teacher in Denville, New Jersey, named James Amodeo, who taught me how to improvise. Turned me on to John Coltrane and once I realized that music was a way to express what was going on inside you, I didn’t stop.
Songwriting didn’t come till later; I mostly played piano and I didn’t sing and it was a breakup that led me to start writing songs. Once I did that, I realized I really loved it — I loved the creativity. The few songs weren’t that good, but I kept working on it and getting better.
The cover of Pete Muller’s album, “One Last Dance.”
Q: Did you play music when you attended Princeton University?
A: I did play music at Princeton … I had a jazz band named The Smith Brothers that I’d practice and play out with occasionally.
Q: Did you come from a musical family?
A: They weren’t musical at all, but my dad really did appreciate classical music.
Q: Can you tell me about some of your early influences, musically or more broadly. Who guides you now?
A: I was raised in New Jersey and I love Bruce Springsteen. Early on before she emerged as a success, I fell in love with Shawn Colvin. I saw her live in NYC in front of 50 people. I love her lyrics; I loved her feel and full emotions. She’s still one of my favorite artists. There are so many singer-songwriters I love. I can mention a few. Paul Simon, I’m a big fan of Bob Dylan … Brandi Carlile … all great influences.
Q: Can you tell me about the creation of your latest album One Last Dance?
A: I had a week where I needed to be in England and it turned out that Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studio was available. I took the band there to basically workshop our songs to see if we could get closer to an album and we ran into a wonderful engineer name Katie May who became co-producer on the album and we had an amazing time there and laid 10 songs down that we were excited about. Later Allison Russell came in and made one of those songs into a duet — that’s the title cut. And Rob Mathes laid down some great string and horn arrangements. We did some recording in New York City. But the bones happened there. It was such an amazing, amazing experience.
Q: I understand that you appreciate the philosophy that “less is more.” This is something I try to embrace every day. How does this concept apply to your life and to the songs on One Last Dance?
A: It is true as I go on in life — and I’ve done lots of wonderful things — I realize the things that turn me on the most are small, little moments. An unexpected flower, an unexpected smile, a brilliant sunrise — all things that are just available if you are paying attention and looking as opposed to focusing on what more can I get.
MIM ADKINS
LIVINGSTON TAYLOR
Q: What should we expect to hear at the Montclair concert? How did you meet Livingston Taylor?
A: The person who introduced me to Livingston Taylor was my friend Susan Werner, who I met more than 20 years ago when I was first thinking about getting more serious about music. She was shocked that someone with my background would really dive in and want to become a touring musician, and coincidentally I opened for her at City Winery in St. Louis and we reconnected and reestablished our friendship. We’ve done a number of gigs together. And she told me I needed to meet Livingston Taylor, who was a good friend of hers, and we talked and really got along and he agreed to mentor me. I’ve opened for him a bunch of times and we’ve had a lot of fun and he’s been incredibly encouraging and positive and helped push me to be the best I could be.
Q: Let’s discuss a few of the songs on your latest album. I love your cinematic song “New York in the Rain” (watch video below). Tell me what inspired this delicate tune. You sing that it’s “always changing.” What are you referring to?
A: For many years I played in a quartet and we went through a very challenging breakup and “New York in the Rain,” which is a co-write with my friend Nate Walker, is a song about that breakup, disguised as a relationship breakup. When you go through a breakup, whatever breakup it is, you are kind of numb because you are emotionally overwhelmed. Even if you know something is the right thing, it’s still poignant and still hurts.
Q: I understand that “Fire Child” is about your daughter. It’s very beautiful and I appreciate your reference to her magic green eyes. The accompanying video (watch below) is intriguing. Tell me about this song.
A: My daughter came out of the womb knowing exactly who she was, and she still does. She’s incredibly smart, charming and beautiful and can run a room and she has a bit of a mischievous side, too. I imagine that she was actually on an alien planet where they lived forever and she did something bad and they sentenced her to live a mortal life on Earth before coming back. That’s the idea behind the song. I was actually very nervous playing it for her, but she really liked it.
PETE MULLER
Q: “Dream Small” is a catchy, hypnotic tune. Does it embody the notion of “less is more” or something different?
A: You got that exactly right. It does embody the less is more thing. I’ve had a lot of more in my life and … a desire to focus on the smaller things. But I didn’t want to write it in the first person so I had to make up a character: an actress who was incredibly ambitious and wanted to do more and more and more and realized that’s not what it’s about.
Q: You strike me as someone trying to balance your success in finance with philanthropic endeavors via your nonprofit Live Music Society.
A: I wouldn’t phrase it that way. I think if you’re successful in life and you manage to build things … I should mention when people think of finance they think of stereotypes. I work with a bunch of smart, nerdy science types and I’m one of them that have tried to look at the puzzle of financial markets and achieved success there. We’ve had a lot of fun doing it and because we’ve been able to make a very nice living, I think people that make a bunch of money are obligated to give back and that’s what the Live Music Society is all about.
Q: How does your passion for music fulfill you in a way that’s different from quantitative finance?
A: I have a math brain and a musical brain and I love both of them and I would not do well focusing on only one. They are both very creative and have characteristics that are very different. They both require deep honesty. In the case of quantitative finance, it requires you to be truthful to mathematics. Music requires you to be truthful to your emotions.
Q: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work or in the studio?
A: I love to surf. I love to snowboard. I love to spend time outside. I love to hang out with my two kids, who are teenagers and are getting closer and closer to going away to college.
Q: Where do you feel most comfortable?
A: I love being in the ocean and I love being in the mountains.
Q: What’s next for you, in addition to your concert in New York with Rita Wilson? How about an evening at the Café Carlyle? I could see you in that setting.
A: A brilliant suggestion. I have wanted to play there for the longest time and I think I’m getting to the point where that’s the next thing. I would love to be playing my songs and telling my stories at Café Carlyle. And I hope that happens sometime in the near future.
Pete Muller will open for Livingston Taylor at The Outpost in the Burbs at The First Congregational Church in Montclair, May 16 at 8 p.m. (visit outpostintheburbs.org). He also will open for Rita Wilson at City Winery in New York, June 13 at 8 p.m. (visit citywinery.com).
For more about him, visit petemuller.com.
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