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Bio/Tour:
Michael is an Australian singer/songwriter. His music has been described as a fusion of folk, Americana and rock with strong influences of artists such as The Beatles, Wilco, Eagles and Dawes. From intimate solo shows to full band performances, his songs are deceptively simple about complex things: love, family, home, and trust.
Michael’s new single, Brand New Heartache really is about “3 friends getting together initially to have some Whiskey and put a bit of pressure on ourselves to turn up each week with new songs to share for feedback. After a while we started listening to some records and talking about life”.
Theres always instruments lying around the space so we would take turns jumping onto the drums, keys and guitars and started jamming out ideas.
Ive known Lior Attar and Simon Starr from our days as teenagers at youth movements. They both have very respected music careers in Australia and we all share similar influences.
As the conversations got more personal, there were some cool themes that arose and we chased them into a song. We recorded these songs under the loose project name of Broken Arrows and worked with Ben Edgar ( Gotye , Passenger ) who engineered / mixed and played electric guitar on the songs at his home studio in the mountains of Melbourne.
The beauty of this kind of project is that nobody felt precious about their contribution or need to be lead vocalist. We all wanted the other to sing lead as were all fans of each others style.
Brand New Heartache was the first song we recorded and I took the lead vocal spot. I really loved the way this song sounded from the beginning writing sessions and it was such a beautiful and natural experience writing them that the tracking and mixing happened seamlessly.
Michael’s 2019 debut album Turn this Love Around spawned 3 highly successful singles. All received solid radio play in the U.S. and Australia. In Australia all 3 songs also received strong play on the country formats. Turn This Love Around and Brightest Star each rose the Billboard AC charts to the mid-20s; each also garnering two Grammy considerations. Michael’s music has also appeared on NPR’s WLRN ( Folk & Acoustic Music Show) , Voice Of America (measured weekly audience of more than 275.2 million people around the world), and the nationally syndicated Acoustic Cafe.
The EP was recorded at Nashville’s legendary Ocean Way Studios and produced by multi-Grammy-award winning and Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter Frank Myers ( All 4 One, Lonestar, Alabama) and renowned musical director Jimmy Nichols ( Faith Hill, Reba McEntire). The songs were recorded and mixed by Steve Marcantonio (John Lennon, J. Geils, George Strait, Alabama and recently Thomas Rhett, Taylor Swift and Steven Tyler)
This past winter and spring, Michael released the single Please Don’t Cry ( featuring Neil Finn) which had been recorded in New Zealand at Roundhead Studios a few years prior, as part of an experience offered by Medicine Mondiale.
Michael notes, When Neil sang harmonies on my song, I was ready to die right there in that NZ studio chair. Neil also worked with Michael on Hinges both of which also feature Neil’s vocals on the track. They were never released as Michael went to the U.S. soon after to record his debut EP. |
