Mike Siravo

You can hear me on a new CD called "Across the Waves" along with 4 other artists around the world! Just click this link to buy at PayPal:
Hey guys, it's Mike. By now most of you know that i was in a band called HAY-WyRE for a about a year as the lead singer. But i quit, and about a year later i was in a band called The Identities. That didn't work out too well either. So I thought I'd make a music myspace just to see what you guys thought of my stuff. I'm a guitarist, a singer, and a pianist. Most of the stuff I write is on the acoustic because it's easier, but I play the electric a lot more. I record my songs myself with my mixing board so it's not completely professional but i try. So I hope you enjoy listening to my music as much as i enjoy making it.
ATTENTION: You can purchase all of my tracks in my SNOCAP store for 89 cents...that's pretty cheap. You can hear me on a new CD called Across the Waves. The BUY NOW button is in a few places on this page. I'm working on a lot of projects at the same time, so just keep checking back for more updates. Thanks!I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
Original songs:
I'll Be By Your Side- This was the second song I wrote for my girlfriend, Carla. It was atually recorded the day after I wrote it. My voice was a lot higher (as you may have noticed). The 30 second clip you hear is the end of the second verse and the chorus. The song is completely acoustic, but there's something about the chord changes that I like.
Without You- It's been about 2 years since I wrote and recorded this song. This was the first song I ever wrote (besides for fooling around when I was younger). It was also written about Carla, but this was before we were going out. Without You was recorded several times, but the recording you hear in this music store was recorded with a tiny bit of effects on the guitar and backup vocals, which were not originally written into the song. The guitar part is simple, but along with the heartfelt vocal melody, it is meant to express the simultaneous happiness and distress that I was feeling at that time.
Everything is Perfect- In my opinion this is my best written acoustic song so far. It is also my favorite. Everything is Perfect expresses love and obviously states that "everything is perfect," referring to my relationship and love. It is the third song I wrote, and much like I'll Be By Your Side, it was recorded shortly after it was written. There is really something special about these chord changes, especially in the verse. It's ironic because the melody in the verse (along with the rest of the song) came to me very quickly. I find it amazing that there are times when I struggle to come up with a melody, and sometimes it never ends up being what I was looking for at all, and this melody came like it was nothing, and I find it perfect (also why the name of the song is "Everything is Perfect"). The clip you hear is the chorus.
Lullaby- Can it be!? A song with no guitar!? Actually, it's true. This lullaby was written for my girlfriend and is the fourth song I wrote. Every instrument you hear in this song such as piano, flute, harp, trumpet, synth strings, chimes, and so on was actually produced by my Yamaha DGX-500. The chord changes in this song are simple, but I like the major going into the minor and then back again. I also love the backup vocals because of the harmony. Although this song is very long, if you pay more attention to the music and every little thing going on in the song (there's actually more than you probably thing), I think you'll enjoy it.
Dr. Patwell (Flamin' Joe)- One night, I couldn't really sleep, so I decided to write some lyrics. At first I started writing a love song. (Actually these lyrics were written before the lullaby was written). Anyway, I couldn't really think of lyrics for a love song. So, I was thinking about what I could write about, and oddly, I decided to write about my Latin teacher.
Dr. Patwell is a brilliant, yet apathetic man. He teaches all different types of history and is very skilled in linguistics. His Latin class is a lot more interesting than you would expect, because most of the time we're actually only wasting time. There are of lot of memorable quotes that come out of his mouth, and you can hear some of them throughout this song.
The song is meant to have a Reggae and Hard Rock feel to it. I came up with the melody about two months before it was actually recorded. It was recorded all in one day and as expected, he loved the song and was laughing the entire time.
Dr. Patwell (Flamin' Joe) starts with me immitating Dr. Patwell talking to our Latin class. The immitation is basically what happens on a normal day in that class. All the voices you hear are me, immitating the other classmates. Slowly, I ease my way into the song, which starts with bongos and other odd drums and cymbals along with the Jem playing a Jamaican sounding riff through a clean tone and a wah pedal, making the notes more staccatto. Then, for the chorus, the song switches into hard rock, changing the attitude of the song and making it more interesting. Then the clips of Dr. Patwell's actual voice begin. These were actually recorded on a little stick recorder during an actual Dr. Patwell Latin class. A Jamaican guitar solo resets the Reggae mood, and then it switches back to rock and leads into a hard, fast, shreddy solo. It's kind of like a battle between Reggae and Hard Rock throughout the song.
In the beginning and the end, I actually used the guitar to talk and laugh. Maybe not everyone hears or understands what the guitar is supposed to be saying in some parts of the song, but it literally speaks to me.
I could never directly compare myself to either of these musicians, because they are obviously in a much higher league than me, but I'd like to say this song is quite Steve Vai-ish or Frank Zappa-ish because of the off the wall, yet interesting musical ideas.
This song is in no way meant to insult anyone. It is purely meant for comedy, the enjoyment of creating music, and the enjoyment and laughs of the listener. Hopefully even those who don't know Dr. Patwell can laugh at this, but if they don't, hopefully they'll enjoy the musical aspects of the song.
Hauntings: The Hauntings sequel was started pretty spontaneously. Over a little bit of time the idea grew from just one song to the sequel it is now.
Part 1 (Haunted Candles)- Haunted Candles was written before part 2. I was at my grandparents, and I was playing around on my grandfather's keyboard at like 1 in the morning. I spontaneously started playing this melody and I just liked it. I didn't want to forget the melody for when I got home so I grabbed my phone to record it. When I got home I expanded upon the melody I already had.
This may sound weird, but when I played this song, I pictured a scene from the Haunted Mansion ride in Disney World from when I was younger. There's one part to the ride where your carriage turns and you see a floating candle in a dark hallway. This is how the song got its name; I literally pictured a "haunted" candle.
The song begins with the keyboard making an organ sound. An unharmonious chord is played as the bass chord, and each individual note of the chord is played with the right hand. When this ends, I used the whammy wheel on the keyboard to create a kind of musical chaos. It's really a pattern with a few odd twists of the whammy wheel. Finally the key changes and the song begins. The eerie sounds in the background were also made with the keyboard and the whammy wheel. The guitar comes in for a final chord and triumphant note. The song is not very long, and there's not much guitar, so I came up with an idea: why not make a part two which focuses on the guitar? So I got to work...
Part 2 (Entrance to the Exit)- For this song, I wrote the rhythm guitar part first. Once I recorded it, I started playing around with a few melodies.
The song starts with the end of Haunted Candles played backwards. A crash cymbal in reverse raises the sound into the actual song. The very first melody played by the lead guitar is made up of the same notes I played for the main theme melody of 'Haunted Candles'. There is a lot of reverb on this song and I like the melody and held out notes at the end of each phrase. Once the song goes into the cleaner part, the chromatic trills are the hauntings. The song goes back into the more distorted part with a few squealing harmonics, as if something is screaming and escaped from the hauntings. This song is also not very long. The reason it is called Entrance to the Exit is to go along with the theme of the first song. This song is like the 'beginning of the end'. To put it into the visual perspective, it's like on the Haunted Mansion right after you start getting away from the hallway with the candle and to the end of the 'ride'..lol. This song is the rest of the ride. Close your eyes and try to picture it. Enjoy!:)
Wilderness of Consternation: This song means a lot to me on a personal level. It started with the lyrics. I didn’t write the lyrics like I would normally write song lyrics. Instead they just came together on their own. I sat at the computer trying to write a poem for the Lit. magazine at school and I kind of had writer’s block. So I decided to try some stream of consciousness writing. At first none of what I was writing made sense, obviously because I wasn’t thinking about what I was writing. But then these lyrics just started flowing out. I wasn’t thinking about them, they just came out. It was like they were always meant to be real in the world. So once I had have the lyrics done I realized that they actually flowed nicely and made sense and decided to turn it into a song instead of a poem. Out came the rest of the lyrics…
Next I had to put it to music. As I read the lyrics back to myself I immediately was able to sing them to a certain melody, just like I was immediately able to write the lyrics. The song just seemed like it was meant to be. I stuck with it and quickly translated the chords I was hearing to the guitar to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Once I wrote the chords, I recorded just the clean guitar, which is played throughout the whole song as a backing instrument. Then I put some leads in where I thought they were necessary. Next I added some bell like sounds, then some angelic choral-like chords, some violin to give the song more body, and finally the vocals. The drums were all thought out in my head, but I didn’t know how I wanted to record them. I was thinking of using midi drums or some other type of drum programming. Instead I asked my friend and the drummer of my other band “Siravo”, Paul Buondonno, to do them. He took the song, worked with it for a few days, showed me what he thought fit, and recorded them. I spent some time editing the drums, moving them around and what not, and finally the song was finished!
Now for the play by play: The song starts with an eerie wind sound leading into the first lead. To write this lead, just as I did with the rest of the instruments, I just listened and imagined what I wanted the song to sound like, and translated it to the guitar. Then the song dives into the vocals. From there, a more aggressive lead is played, and it goes back into some more vocals. After the second chorus, the song goes through a change over. A more unconventional but uplifting chord progression is played. The vocal melody here was tough to write just what I wanted with the backup vocals, but I slowly built it. Then it goes into the main guitar solo. This guitar solo was very premeditated. I spent a lot of time listening to what I wanted the solo to sound like and then putting it down on paper actually. Then once I was done I learned it on the guitar. I gave myself a full two weeks to make sure I didn’t want to change anything before recording it finally. Then there’s a cool sliding riff with harmonics in the background. This was also premeditated, because I usually don’t write riffs like this and I wanted to make it just right, so I couldn’t really improvise it easily. Then back into the vocals. After one verse, it sounds like just background voices were recorded. You’ll have to listen to figure it out for yourself, but I’ll just say, with the exception of the deep voice at the end of that section saying “Eternal life”, the talking is backwards talking. In order to figure out what is being said, you have to reverse the track. Back into the song, the last chorus summarizes everything that was said in the two previous choruses. The song ends with a powerful line “We all hold the truth the Divine answer”. Finally some more wind effects fade out with the song.
This song, as I said is very important to me. It’s another way I have been connected with God. I feel like this song was not written by me, but through me rather. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that’s why when I listen to it, it is so unbelievably powerful to me. I just hope you can understand the message this song leaves. Listen to the lyrics and the meaningful melodies. Every note in this song was carefully placed and premeditated. I hope you can get out of this song what I get out of it. Please enjoy this one especially.
All music, instruments, and lyrics were written and recorded by Mike Siravo (except for little comments made by Dr. Patwell in Dr. Patwell (Flamin' Joe). My brother Zac also played the slap bass parts in Hauntings part 2 (Entrance to the Exit)) and my friend Paul played drums on Wilderness of Consternation.