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Way down in Louisiana ,close to New Orleans.... Michael grew up heavily immersed in the sounds birthed from the Mississippi, nurtured and cultivated by it's rich heritage and the people of its land. "Growing up in Louisiana definately had a tremendous impact on my approach to music. It's relevance not so much defined by the obvious genres for which it's recognized ,but it's sensuous heart and intangible soul", says Michael. Upon entering adulthood ,he moved to Texas, where he was exposed to the tremendous guitar talents of legends such as Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Johnson."I cut my teeth on players like Eddie Van Halen, Vai and Satriani. Being exposed to Texas guitar players helped me to conceptualize ferocious guitar playing with a Texas twist." Soon after arriving in Texas ,Michael joined Enigma recording artist"Tyton",sharing guitar responsibilities along side 'snake' currently of "Skinlab" . Vacating the position after six months ,he began writing and composing. Soon after, he joined the rock band Bent,along side the infamous Bulgarian singer Zeph Kerry, better known in Bulgaria as Zvesdomire Kerimechieve, former singer of the group "Axat". While in Bent ,he also performed on numerous occassions with Houston folk artist "Dennis Welch", along side the virtuous playing of "SamTaylor" (pianist- producer "KingX", "ZZ top"), Grammy nominated "Ray Dilliard" (Professor of percussion San Jancinto University),celloist " Max Dyer" (Houston symphony), and Jazz columnist Blaine Fallis (Bass) . Bent recorded and began shopping a six song song CD which ended up in the hands of Legendary producer "Al Nalli" ("Brownsville station" and "Blackfoot") and" Rickey Medlocke"( former "Blackfoot" frontman and current "Lynyrd Skynyrd" Guitarist). After a promising declaration from Medlocke, "Nalli we got one!", Bent showcased for Nalli/Medlocke with LA Guns.(Traci Guns ,co-founder of Guns&Roses). Due to directional differences, the Bent project never got off the ground. But Nalli and Medlocke still expressed interest in some type of project involving Michael. "Rickey would fly in to jam and call from the road saying he thought he and I would sound great together. We talked about touring during Skynyrd's downtime" ,says Michael. Michael was also recommended as a top consideration for replacing Michael Schenker should he depart UFO in the late 90's, a recommendation from Nalli/Medlocke. In hopes of writing and touring with Medlocke Michael moved to Florida. But again ,due to scheduling conflicts, the project remained dormant."I had waited for a couple of years for this and when I realized it wasn't going to happen it was tough." Michael threw his resume' out on the internet and was offered a songwriting contract in West Palm Beach. This project was somewhat lucrative finanically, but through a variety of untruths and incompetence ,could go nowhere. Fortunately though, in this ordeal he met Engineer Chuck Heman of Magnetic Air studios, Bassist ,Triston Hunt and Singer-Songwriter,West Palm Beach's Rick Nelson. He performed with Rick in a duo capacity playing venues such as the Four Seasons hotel, the Ritz Carlton and private engagements at Donald Trumps Mar-A-Lago. Michael moved in late 2003 to Austin Texas where he is poising for SWSX. |
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