Photo Credit: Breonny Lee
BY Taylor Adams Cogan
It’s easy to take the sounds of Deep Ellum for granted when you’re walking its streets so often. Sure, we may follow the musician on Instagram after stumbling onto them on an Elm Street stage, or tip the bartender extra for being so fast and kind with a too-excited crowd. But it takes more than that – including people who clean the restroom you rush in and out of, or sweep the street outside you may hardly notice. It also takes someone to run the creative direction.
That space is why so many people in the neighborhood, and Dallas, know Gavin Mulloy.
More recently, you may have seen his work reflected in the artists who were booked for the first Deep Ellum Block Party in 2024. But let’s go back a decade, when Mulloy was stepping away from his role as creative director at the legendary Granada Theater to be the marketing and creative director at both Trees and the brand-new Bomb Factory and Canton Hall.
We know these now as the Factory in Deep Ellum and the Studio at the Factory, but before that, they were made into destinations by the talent and vision of people like Mulloy.
“The neighborhood was coming back, and it was really fun – the big part of the strategy was selling people on Deep Ellum,” Mulloy says of the work in 2014. “I needed them to feel comfortable going to the shows there and realize there are other places: I also wanted them to grab a drink, grab something to eat because we have great restaurants. I tried to focus on that and spread it out.”
You wouldn’t find one kind of audience at the Bomb Factory because Mulloy was booking various types of music, as well as programming beyond music. The open space was ready for events like boxing matches. “We were an independent venue, so we got to pull out all the stops,” he says.
Part of what makes Mulloy successful is that he knows the neighborhood. He’s a resident of 10 consecutive years, but he also lived in the neighborhood in the 2000s, a time that feels like a different era for Deep Ellum.
Growing up in Southlake, Mulloy got the gift of going to the district in 1993 as a high-schooler – an experience that hooked him for life.
“We came down to see a concert and ended up going to a different concert and saw the Toadies, Tripping Daisy, and I’ve been coming back ever since then,” he says. “If there wasn’t a weekend that something wasn’t going on, we’d go down to Deep Ellum to see who’s playing.”
That experience was one he worked to hold on to, and was able to do it by booking both the Bomb Factory and Trees. Thankfully, he’s still at it with neighborhood-wide events, occasionally booking at Three Links or Trees. You’ll even see him at neighborhood public safety meetings. Because he’s not the only one with a story like this:
“This is more of a general memory, the nights where I don’t really have a specific venue: I want to see a show and I just wander around and stumble into something and find something I like, it happens all the time,” he says. “I really like just walking by to see who’s at Three Links. I don’t ever feel like if I walked out on a Friday or Saturday night, I would struggle.”
That is, as long as people keep supporting the venues that keep that musical pulse going in the neighborhood.
“The uniqueness of the neighborhood is the music scene, and when we don’t uphold that, the other things fall as well,” he says.
“I really like the community part: I like when we get together and do things together, whether it’s the art fair or the Invasion Car Show. I think one thing this neighborhood does is when it comes together well, it really can do that. People come to Deep Ellum to get away from whatever they’re a part of. They’re not coming here to be negative. By and large, they’re coming here for escapism and to have a good time and go to a show.”
And these days, much of the motive behind Mulloy’s work is that: Reminding people it’s safe and easy to have fun in Deep Ellum, and if you don’t, you’re missing something special.
“Mainly, I’m just a fan of the neighborhood. I’ve lived here and worked here, I appreciate what it is, and I know it’s a special place.”
