Minneapolis crooner Tim Mahoney has a new motto: If at first you don’t succeed — go back to the studio.

Mahoney came up with the slogan while working on his recent live recording, aptly titled “Tim Mahoney Live.”

“We tried recording at three different shows, and none of them really captured what we wanted,” Mahoney said. “We decided we really needed some isolation.”

So Mahoney and his band — the Meenies — came up with the idea to make a live record in a studio.

“We gave away 200 tickets to people on our mailing list, and we basically just threw a big party in a recording studio,” Mahoney said.

The idea proved revolutionary as the recording turned out better than Mahoney ever dreamed it would.

“I didn’t know how it was going to sound, but it turned out unbelievably well because of that isolation,” Mahoney said.

Mahoney first conceived the idea of a live record a year ago.

“I wanted to do something for the existing fans, kind of a token thing. It was not something we wanted to spend a lot of money on,” he said.

Which explains why the record’s success (it has sold over 5,000 copies in just two months, the fastest-selling Mahoney record ever) has come as such a surprise to its creators.

“It’s strange how this industry works,” Mahoney said. “I would have never guessed that it would be the live record that would get things going for us.”

“Live” is Mahoney’s third record since the artist broke away from his college band, The Blue Meanies.

Much of the credit is not only due to the recording, but to the many years Mahoney has spent perfecting his live act. The 25-year-old musician has established himself and his band as a sort of Hootie and the Blowfish of the Midwest.

Amazing cover versions of such classics as Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” and Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” as well as his own clever material, have made Mahoney concerts a subject of much praise.

“‘In Your Eyes’ and ‘Sexual Healing’ were two of the main reasons I wanted to do this record,” Mahoney said. “We’ve been doing them for a really long time, and I really wanted to capture them on record.”

But recording the covers, along with a Paul Westerberg tune and a few Blue Meanies originals, has had a downside to it.

“It’s good and bad,” Mahoney explained. “It’s nice for the fans, but it sucks because they are semi-new again, and we have to keep playing them even more so than before.”

Mahoney has stumbled upon the same situation with “Talk To Me,” the breakthrough single off his debut self-titled album.

Minneapolis radio, along with a handful of other stations in the country, began spinning the live version of the song when “Live” was released in December.

“You get kind of tired of playing it, but I don’t want to change the song,” Mahoney said. “I think your fans get used to hearing it one way, and it’s not a good idea to start playing it different.”

Mahoney has a “funny story” of how his theory proved true with “Sexual Healing.” The first time he played the song live, he only knew the chord progression and played it as a joke.

“But I kept it pretty similar and fans got used to how it is,” he said.

Mahoney’s version of “In Your Eyes” is also quite different than the original. “I have video from Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Tour and the version I do is from that,” he said.

“It’s a feel-good song. Anytime I am playing somewhere new, I know if I play that song it’s going to get people goin’.”

Mahoney played his first live show at a local coffee house when he was in 10th grade.

“My dad made these big posters from the pictures I had of it,” he said. “They’re pretty fun to look at.”

Since then, Mahoney has developed a number of on-stage personalities to coincide with his real life experiences.

“I have a lot of different personalities,” Mahoney said. “Some nights you are more emotional and some you are just on autopilot. But you learn how to take it to that level every night. You gotta learn how to do that.”

Mahoney and the Meenies will be playing at People’s Bar and Grill Saturday night at 9:30.