..
Music is the soundtrack to our lives. I've always known and felt that. I can listen to a song and remember how I felt when I was listening to that song. I remember how it gave me comfort when I felt like the pain was more than I could deal with. Hearing those words, it was like whoever wrote it, knew at that moment how I felt. They could put it into words.
That's my challenge as an artist and a song writer. I know what my heart is feeling, but
don't always know how to express it. When I sit down and start laying down those tracks, its like my feelings, my emotions bleed out and when I finish that song, it gives me some completion. It gives me some closure of what has troubled me or what was dying to get out.I don't need to justify my music or package it and say I fit into this category, or
I'm like this or that band. My music is my own, and that's all that matters to me.
I'm happy for those who enjoy it of course, but it makes me happy. It was always a way for me to express who I am and what I feel inside. Its brought me here, and for that
I'm grateful for the gift that God as given me to create something I can be proud of and help me along my way.It's been almost 10 years since I bought my first guitar. Since then, I've been trying to figure out what the heck I'm suppose to sound like. I realized one day
it really didn't matter what I sounded like. The only thing that matters is that I say what I mean, I mean what I say, and that I be the best I can at it. I've kept that with me ever since
then...
I grew up in Fillmore, which is a small
town in southern California (right near magic mountain). I did a lot of writing
when I was in my early teens. Like a lot of teenagers, I got depressed a lot and
I needed a way to express myself. Poetry was a good way to vent. By the time I
was in high school I started hanging out with the punk crowd, and by the time I
was 15 I started playing guitar. Most kids around that age who pick up a guitar
stop playing a few months or years later, but when I was 16 my brother in-law
introduced me to the exciting world of home recording and I was hooked! I was
enthralled with the idea of being able to produce my own songs! I played in a
couple bands that played shows occasionally and played mostly cover songs. That
never really went anywhere.
When I got out of high school I took a break from my music for a while to pursue
some church related things for a couple years. During that time I did a lot of
reading and studying about music. Strangely enough I can't site read to save my
life (ha-ha). I also did a lot of work on my voice. For most people it would be
modest for them to say that they didn't used to be very good singers, but
honesty I sucked lol. I worked on it though, and I got better. In 2003 I jumped
back into making and recording music with more enthusiasm and more know-how and
started to really take my music seriously.
I don't think there's a feeling in the world quite like making music. The
feelings you get from the hard work in trying to put it all together and the
amazing feeling to finally feel finished with it. It becomes your baby, and
there's nothing else like it...
Thanks for listening!
-Mike
