Michael Schoen

Michael Schoen Singer/SongwriterBorn in 1981 and raised on the summer beaches of Montauk, singer-songwriter Michael Schoen plays soulful acoustic chords that, mixed with his youthful voice, belie the searching uncertainties of his questioning lyrics. Influenced by and aspiring to the lush folk lyricism of musicians such as Jeff Buckley, Jack Johnson, and Damien Rice, Schoens reinterpretation of Buckleys lyrics has been described as astonishing by Grammy-nominated songwriter and Buckley collaborator Gary Lucas. Michael is now writing songs for his own debut album, following a busy year of performances in New York during which Schoen appeared in solo acts and accompanying Lucas band, Gods and Monsters, as a vocalist. Michael capped the year in the studio, where his voice redefines the new Gods and Monsters version of Buckleys classic Mojo Pin. Schoens performances, both with Gods and Monsters and during solo engagements, took him to many of New Yorks most influential venues, including the Living Room, Bowery Poetry Club, Tonic, Rockwood Music Hall, the Knitting Factory and Petes Candy Store, as well as to Philadelphias World Live Café and to the 2005 South by Southwest music festival in Austin. Late in 2005, looking out from the stage during a solo show in Barcelona, Schoen felt as his music reached the foreign audience across the barrier of language, and saw that his future would continue to be about sharing his sound. My songs are all love songs, he says. Theyre spoken and unspoken stories about growing up, and about evolving as a person. Theyre about my future, too, and as I play them I can see where I need to go.