Mike Paradine

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Mike is the drummer for the American metal band ArcticFlame and the author of the horror/poetry book "King of Toys". Mike Paradine was born and raised in the industrial city of Bayonne, New Jersey on March 6th, 1962. Almost immediately, he was greeted to the sounds of rock n roll as he parents spun the 45 rpm records on the home stereo. At the age of 3 he was introduced to the pop songs of The Beatles by his Uncle Ronnie and continued to be a fan of the band for several years to come. It was at the same time that his beloved Uncle started to show him the artistry of comic books particular that of Batman. This was love at first sight. Mike began to observe and then mimic his Uncle’s drawings until he had a basic understanding of comic book drawing. At the age of 6 his sketches would rival that of children twice his age. He than began to look past the artist’s renderings and started to read the adjacent stories. In particular, he found the Spiderman stories more ”believable”. Peter Parker had the problems of a real teenager and Mike began to get interested in the human aspect of the characters. Sinking into the world of imagination and fantasy, his interests soon spread out to the macabre. His cousin, Edward, showed him the doorway to the entrance of monster movies. Horror magazines soon found there way between the DC and Marvel comic books. Aurora monster models were soon being built. Trips to the local drive in with his parents to view the current horror movies became routine. Mike began producing his own comic books with drawing of his favorite movie monsters. Living in a world of super heros and movie monsters, Mike couldn’t imagine anything else better. That was until horror met rock and roll in the form of Alice Cooper. Here were two things Mike was very interested in, music and horror, rolled into one. Alice is one of many things Mike still holds close to his heart that initiated from his childhood. America’s favorite pastime, baseball, soon became a big part of his childhood. Age 9 saw him struggling to learn the fundamentals of the game. It became apparent that Mike was a quick study. After a year of countless fly balls and swinging an over weight bat with his father, his next years saw him as an integral part of his Little League baseball teams. Mike describes his years playing Little League baseball as “ the best time of my life”. During this time he also began his interests in learning to play the drums. But, as the saying goes, “all good things must come to an end”. While getting out of a shower one evening, Mike had noticed a lump over his left knee. After seeing a few local physicians, it was clear that the diagnosis was cancer, bone cancer. He was referred to Sloan-Kettering Memorial hospital in New York City where he received his bi-weekly doses of chemotherapy. Despite the attempts to save his leg, it soon became apparent that amputation was the only recourse to save his life. Needless to say, this put a halt to the continuation of his love of playing baseball. Though there were people that pushed him to continue playing, Mike knew that if he couldn’t play the way he could before, The feeling wouldn’t be the same. Mike’s appetite to hear the roar of crowd though would not be diminished. He immediately turned his thoughts to another avenue of performing. Rock n Roll seemed to be the perfect platform for him to begin a new conquest. Mike’s thinking was that rock n roll, especially hard rock, was a place where misfits, freaks and other non-conformist were easily accepted, in fact embraced. He threw on his Alice Cooper albums even louder and imitated their drummer Neil Smith, to the “T”. Soon a new band arose that wrapped everything Mike enjoyed and believed in......KISS. KISS rolled horror, comics and loud rock n roll into one package. They also drove in the message that you could go anything you put your mind to. KISS easily became Mike’s favorite band and continues to be a part of him to this day. Mike’s first band, at age 16, was a three piece band, aptly named Cerberus, the three headed dog that guarded the gates of hell in Greek mythology. Playing local bars, they covered songs by bands such as Van Halen, Judas Priest as well as the Kinks and the Rolling Stones. It was during this period that Mike began to write lyrics for his own songs. He started to write songs that had a story to them after reading the lyrics to some of The Kinks albums that his Uncle Billy gave him. He also discovered the writings of Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. The personal descriptions of family and belief struck Mike as being honest and open, something he hadn’t really noticed in most bands. Mike considers Ray Davies, Alice Cooper and Phil Lynott as one of his main influences in the realm of lyric writing. Mike married Susan Reinhold on August 25th, 1984 at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Bayonne, New Jersey, where each of them attended grammar school. It wasn’t until the later years in high school that they eventually hung out and later on dated each other. Their first son, Michael, was born on January 18th, 1985. For the next 13 years, Mike was member of BALISTIK KICK, an original heavy metal band stationed in Bayonne, NJ. They produced 3 CD’s and had opened for W.A.S.P., Manowar, Savatage, Quiet Riot and may others. Mike viewed the last few years in that band as “horrible”. Laziness and constant negativity by one member of the band drove Mike to leave. During his stay in BALISTIK KICK, Sue gave birth to Erik Michael on June 6th, 1988 and to Daniel Michael on October 18th, 1994. ARCTICFLAME is the new band that Mike immediately formed upon leaving his former band. He continues to play the music that he grew up on and refuses to compromise on that style. Their first show was opening for favorite band of his, Thin Lizzy. They constantly play out, doing their own shows or opening for national acts. Mike still lives in Bayonne, New Jersey with his wife and three sons along with the family dog, a siberian husky, named Skye.