Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with DownTown Mystic

DownTown Mystic - Mystic Highway

The sound of DownTown Mystic is “vintage yet modern”, continuing in the legacy of rockers like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. The music is rooted in all the great traditions of American Rock’n’roll, blending storytelling songs with vintage guitars and analog recording into a unique style that somehow manages to sound as contemporary as anything currently available. For influences think Buffalo Springfield meets Rockpile.

DownTown Mystic is the alter ego of American Rocker, Robert Allen, whose passion for “old school” recording borders on obsession. Robert adds, “I grew up listening to all these great records and their sound and style stayed with me”. Robert is joined by a stellar cast of musicians, including drummer extraordinaire Steve Holley (Paul McCartney/Wings/Elton John/Ian Hunter) & Paul Page (Dion/Ian Hunter) on bass, as well as one of the great rhythm sections in the history of American Rock’nRoll–Max Weinberg & Garry Tallent of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

Interview with DownTown Mystic

(•)> What inspired you to create DownTown Mystic as a project focused on bringing Rock’n’Roll into the 21st century?

I was in London in the late 90s and I was downstairs at the original Hard Rock Café and it was like being in the RnR Hall of Fame, with all the incredible memorabilia on the walls. I was leaning against a case and when I turned around it had the suit that John Lennon wore when The Beatles received their MBEs. I was blown away! It got me thinking about the legends that were walking the streets of London in the 1960s, all hanging out.

It took me back to listening to all the music that was being made at that time. That music inspired me to want to write songs and become a musician. When I got back home, I started to look at putting a project together that would be RnR oriented.

(•)> How do you define the “vintage yet modern” sound that characterizes your music?

I’m always being compared to classic rockers from the 60s, 70s and 80s. I’m definitely retro sounding, which is considered to be “classic”, but if you were to play my music with records from those time periods, I don’t fit. The only time my music would exist is right now. I’m vintage sounding but modern because this is the only time it fits.

(•)> You’ve worked with some incredible musicians, what was it like collaborating with legends like Max Weinberg, Garry Tallent, and Steve Holley?

I’ve recently been in the studio remixing the songs I recorded with Max & Garry for a project called On E Street Remix, which I’ll be releasing in 2026. The first single Hard Enough (Remix) is coming out in January. I hadn’t heard the individual tracks in years, and it was very cool hearing them again. It brought me back to the sessions and how the two of them were so in sync playing together. I wanted to bring that out in these new mixes. I think Max & Garry form one of the all-time great rhythm sections in RnR history. I didn’t know it at the time but besides The Boss, I’m one of only a handful of artists that they’ve recorded with together. I didn’t really have to do anything except play my part and watch them because they were so locked in.

I’ve said it many times, but I think Steve Holley is probably the best musician I’ve ever worked with. There are a lot of jokes about drummers (most of them true lol) but Steve is more than a drummer. He’s a complete musician and collaborating with him is one of the great joys of my life and career. He’s also one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you could hope to meet. Early on we had a few tugs of wars in the studio, regarding how an arrangement or a particular part to a song should go. I had certain ideas and he’d say, “you’re probably going to hate this but” and proceed to give me his thoughts. The cool thing is, it’s never about ego between with us, only about the best idea. Sometimes I held my ground, and he’d say later “good call. Sometimes we tried his idea, and it was obvious that was the way to go. I feel like one of my great achievements has been earning his respect as an artist. When I get a call from Steve and he tells me how much he loves a song he’s going to be working on, makes it all worthwhile. Steve is all about trying to make the best track possible and I can trust anything he says or brings to the studio. As a drummer, he’s amazing. My tracks are as good as they are because he knows exactly what to play and when to play it. The track is done when Steve says he got it. That’s priceless.

(•)> Your music has been featured in over 250 TV shows and films. How has sync licensing influenced the reach and evolution of your sound?

It hasn’t been an influence on my sound. I create what I want and release it as an artist. Then once the release is done I make the music available for sync opportunities. The thing about sync-licensing is when a song gets placed on a TV show, it takes on another life on all the streaming platforms, which is great. Also, the shows are aired around the world. I never know when something has been placed until about six months later when the royalty statements come in. A typical statement will show the music on shows in 20 countries, so the reach of the music is worldwide.

(•)> Can you share a memorable moment or story from one of those sync placements that really stood out to you?

I think one of the most memorable moments was a couple of years ago. I was getting ready to release the AmeriKarma album and a couple of months before the release I got word that the last track on the album, No Exceptions, had been placed on the Fox TV show 9-1-1: Lonestar. Not only that but I had the date and time of the show it would air, which rarely happens. This allowed me to tell family and friends when to watch it. That never happens! So the day comes and I’m watching the show, and about halfway through, the show’s star Rob Lowe pulls up to a bar on his motorcycle and my song starts. As Lowe walks into the bar, the song is playing on the jukebox. Not only that, but it plays for like a minute and a half, which is a long time for a placement. It was perfect! The extra bonus was hearing from everyone who saw the show and how impressed they were with my music.

(•)> What draws you to analog recording, and how do you balance that “old school” process with modern production techniques?

I would love to tell you I’m into analog recording, but those days are over. It’s all digital with Pro Tools. Tape had its day and it was great. Look at all the great studios that are gone. Technology has changed everything. Everything I’ve recorded on tape has been transferred to hard drives. Having said that, I am “old school” and the studios I’ve worked in are “old school” thanks to the engineers who run them. For the past few years I’ve been working at Shorefire Studios here in NJ with owner/engineer Joe DeMaio, who’s about as “old school” as you can get. I first worked there 40 years ago when Garry Tallent was a co-owner. Joe bought the studio in the mid-90s and purchased one of the last Helios consoles made. This was the board used in recording those great Stones and Zeppelin albums, among others, at Olympic Studios in London. Add to that all the vintage gear at Shorefire and it’s like recording in a RnR museum. LOL

With my vintage guitars and Joe’s vintage amps, I get the best of “old school” and modern technology. I hold myself to a bar that was set before me by all those classic records I bought. I try to live up to that sound when I’m recording and Joe’s a master at helping me get it. Then add musicians like Steve Holley and Paul Page, who understand what I’m going for because they’ve worked with the guys who made the records I bought. I couldn’t ask for anything better.

(•)> Who were your biggest musical influences growing up, and how do they continue to shape your songwriting today?

Like most, The Beatles are my biggest influence. I learned to write songs by listening to their records. I learned the basics in songwriting from them…this is a verse, this is a chorus, this is a bridge. As I got older, I discovered new artists that had different styles to offer. That happened when I heard Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills and Neil Young. They had songs that blew me away. It was a different style of RnR from what The Beatles or The Stones were doing. It was inventive and showed me that things could go in another direction.

Another big influence would come after college, and I had a band. We started playing CBGBs in NYC in 1975 as the whole punk thing was starting to happen. We were very different from most of the bands because we had vocal harmonies, not heard much at the punk palace. The great thing about CBs was all the bands playing and hanging out. Most were not punk bands and that was what made the scene great. There’s Debbie Harry of Blondie checking us out with The Ramones.hanging out at the bar. I would run into their drummer Tommy who was always there. One night he came up to me and said he really dug what we were doing with the vocals. It was such a cool place and it was the energy that was there that seeped into my music. When New Wave started happening at the end of the 70s, that energy was in the music I was writing and playing. I remember seeing Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe in Asbury Park at a club we played and being blown away. I remember walking out and thinking “that’s the kind of band I want”.

(•)> How do you approach storytelling in your songs, do you start with a narrative or let the music lead the direction?

I always start with the music and go from there. I play around and try to figure out a verse or a chorus. Then I try to create a melody. Once I have a melody I try singing words. It’s usually nonsense syllables and such, but sooner or later an idea starts to form. If I get a cool title, it helps me to focus on what I’m going to write about. It’s like being a detective looking for clues. lol

(•)> What do you think is the biggest challenge for authentic Rock’n’Roll artists in today’s digital-driven music landscape?

It’s all about being authentic. I think authenticity is the key for any artist. The audience will find you. RnR is a vibe you can’t fake.

(•)> What’s next for DownTown Mystic, are there upcoming releases, collaborations, or live performances we can look forward to?

I’ve been concentrating on bringing RnR into the 21st Century with every release and I’m not stopping anytime soon. I have the On E Street Remix project planned for release to start 2026. What’s more RnR than playing with the E Street Band rhythm section, right? After that I have the songs that were recorded in the same sessions as Somebody’s Always Doin’ Something 2 Somebody. There’s a killer track that George Marinelli (Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby) plays on. It’s some of my best work. I can’t wait for people to hear it!

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out DownTown Mystic on the Pigeon Spins Playlist