Mike Moore's musical career began in Inkster Michigan around the age of 8 when his uncle and his uncle's friend would come over with their guitar and bass respectively and play in the basement while his father Rexie sang the blues.
His older brother Don, somewhat of a musical prodigy on trumpet, was a studio musician during the late sixties when a lot of soul music was coming out of Detroit. Mike and his sister Lori would follow their older brother to the recording studio, and to several live performances of the labels artists. All while in elementary school.
Actually Mike started out on the drums during his elementary school years and his father bought him a small three piece drum set which he practiced on religiously. After becoming pretty proficient on the drums he hooked up with Fred Williams Jr. (Guitar) and Robert Taylor (Drums) and they would practice James Brown songs.
Mike then discovered that another friend from his class had a guitar so he started to come around, but he really didn't play the guitar very well. Actually he played drums better so he played Mike's drums and Mike picked up the guitar.
The turning point came when the jazz band from the junior high school came to the elementary school and performed the song "Windy" by Wes Montgomery. After hearing the performance and knowing he would soon be going to junior high he was determined to be the guy playing those Wes Montgomery licks with the Jazz Band once he got there.
At that point he went to the town guitar prodigy by the name of Michael Dozier (who just happened to live down the street) and began to study under him. These study sessions were daily and sometimes went on for hours and hours.
Once he got to junior high, Band Director Frank Harrington was putting together the jazz band and someone yelled out to him "hey Mike plays guitar!" Mr. Harrington then took Mike off the drums and handed him some Duke Ellington piano charts and said here, play this. Mike sight read the piano charts and Mr. Harrington told him he had the job.
Armed with a mail order guitar from Spiegels purchased by his mother Nellene, and a brand new Fender Bandmaster Reverb amp purchased by his dad Mike was solidified as a guitarist.
Mike continued to play guitar in various bands throughout junior high and high school while learning rhythm licks from listening to Al McKay of Earth Wind & Fire and gaining solo chops from Terry Kath of Chicago; however athletics and girls soon took priority.
After High School Mike joined the band Soundproof with fellow schoolmates from Inkster High and played local clubs and events throughout the metro Detroit area.
In the early mid eighties he took an interest in the production aspect of the music business and went to the Recording Institute of Detroit and studied to be a recording engineer.
He then started to apprentice at United Sound Systems under Mike Iacopelli and Rufus Harris.
Mike stayed at United for fourteen years where he developed into a first call engineer working with way too many artists to name here. While at United (and later on Sound Suite Studios) he learned production techniques from some of the top engineers and producers in the country, and played guitar on countless recording sessions.
Mike often worked with studio owner/producer Don Davis and many of his in-house artists and songwriters, and also established a long time songwriting/production relationship with Garon (Newz) Smith who was a vocalist in the band Soundproof.
Mike and Newz formed Moore/Newz Productions and started writing songs for Don Davis' publishing company Groovesville. One song "Theres No Other" was recorded by Deniece Williams and released on her album entitled "As Good As It Gets."
Mike and Newz became "studio rats" along with vocalist Roxanne Jordan (Dawson) and Sax man Lenny Price for the next few years at United Sound. Mike ultimately designed and built Smoke Eater Studios resulting in Moore/Newz making the dream move to their own private recording facility.
A serious wrist injury would require Moore/Newz to add a third member to handle keyboard chores, so they enlisted the help of Timothy Williams who Mike has known since kindergarten to round out the team.
Long time friend and bassist Russell Bailey introduced Mike to guitarist John E. Lawrence and they instantly hit it off. John renewed Mikes interest in guitar, so they made an agreement that Mike would train John in midi and engineering, and John would give Mike guitar lessons.
Mike soon began to sub for John on several guitar jobs including dates with the group "First Rate" featuring vocalists Nikki Pearse and Ray Ward. When John decided he didn't want to play in a group situation anymore Mike was there to step right in. His stint with First Rate lasted four and a half years where they performed mainly at various Andiamo restaurants throughout the metro Detroit area.
Mike made the difficult decision to leave First Rate at the end of March of 2006 to pursue a solo career and can now be seen performing at several locations in the area.
Currently Mike and Newz are in the studio working on Roxanne Dawson's debut CD which will be released in the late Spring of 2009.
