Influenced by everything from Classic Rock to Classical, Indian Tabla Drumming to Electronic Techno, Mykl brings a very rhythmic and percussive element to the acoustic guitar never before seen like this.

10 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Power-folk, ROCK: Acoustic



Details:
I play guitar, sing, and write music and lyrics. I play cover songs too but what I really like to play is my own music. I like things that challenge my intellect. Much of the music that I write/play is cerebrally challenging. A lot of the music I play is simple but I prefer the more intense, difficult, unique things that I create. I do a lot of things on the guitar that no one has ever seen/heard before they saw me do it. I have invented a few techniques for playing that are unique only to me. When I do play covers, I like to take songs that are normally loud, brash, electric songs and transpose them over into the acoustic world. Often they are songs that you would never expect in a million years to hear an acoustic solo performer play. Often enough though, I do play many songs that you would expect to hear an acoustic performer play.

I describe my music as speed folk. Itâs generally pretty energetic, or enthusiastic as Iâve been told, especially live. I really gather inspiration from the exchange of energy with the audience. Recording in the studio was fine enough in its own way, but I prefer live shows so much more.

I began playing the guitar at the age of 15 and was immediately addicted! I would stay up all night long and figure out Beatles songs during the years that I was supposed to be studying English, Math, Science, etc⦠Throughout high school and for a few years thereafter, I played in various bands but since about 1987, I have been primarily a solo performer doing the singer/songwriter kind of thing with the occasional side project hooking up with another musician to do a show as a duo or slapping together a band in a week to play 1 show. My all time favorite projects being âMichael Perkins and the Super Band Waistbandâ, âStone Crystalâ and âNovember Rainâ. âMichael Perkins and The Super Band Waistbandâ, dubbed so by our friend Paul Ross, another local Cleveland musical performer, was primarily a Neil Young/Eric Clapton cover band formed to play a few benefit shows in Cleveland in 89, 90 and 91. âStone Crystalâ was a duo with my singer/songwriter friend Heather Gmucs. We were named by the 7-11 clerk where Heather and I stopped in to buy cigarettes before a gig. We just asked him what he thought we should call ourselves and that was his answer. âNovember Rainâ was a band that some of my friends and I slapped together for a special show at the âHometown Bandâ stage in our hometown of Lakewood, Ohio on the Fourth of July, 1987. We were to be the first rock band in over 20 years to play the band stage. We practiced like mad for a week beforehand and played that 1 show. All of us had played together in various forms before so we already had some good chemistry. It was a good time.

I started singing around the age of 20. At that point I was a one man project going out and playing local bars and coffee houses around Cleveland till I was 22 when I moved to Boulder, Colorado in August of 1989 (the first time) and started playing the street corners of the Pearl Street Mall, an outdoor pedestrian mall. This is where I really learned how to sing. You really have to project your voice loud enough to be heard over the busses and the drunks. After about 5 months I moved back to Cleveland, I was homesick. It was during this time after I came back that I was in âMichael Perkins and the Super Band Waistbandâ and âStone Crystalâ.

It was also during that time I met the friend who would eventually become my first wife Kathleen. We moved out to Boulder together in April 1992. (We were actually heading to Flagstaff Arizona but stopped in Boulder to visit some friends of mine and never left) Kathleen and I are not together anymore but we are still good friends.

I played every once in a while here and there through out those first few years but it was never really enough. During this time too, Kathleen and I started a bakery where we would bake cookies in a licensed kitchen in Boulder and travel to large festivals across the country selling those cookies. I was involved with the bakery from mid 1994 through mid 1996, when I quite the business. I really wasnât happy doing it, it consumed too much time and I never got to play music or see many of my friends anymore. After about a year of doing the business, we had brought in another partner so when I quit, I left it in the very capable hands of the remaining 2 partners (who kept it going for many years afterward) and got my old job back at the ski shop/outdoor store where I had worked previously. Subsequently, Kathleen and I split up shortly thereafter. Long story short, our lives were headed in dramatically different directions. After Kathleen and I split in June of 1996 I started playing a whole lot more around the Boulder/Denver/Greeley/Ft. Collins areas of Colorado.

In 1998, I ran for the Colorado State House of Representatives as the Libertarian Party Candidate. I came in third in a three party race (which is what we all expected) but I did amazingly well. I got 4.2 of the vote (996 votes). Not bad when the other minor party candidates were getting 1 and 2. The local weekly paper gave the Democrat the endorsement, but they started off his two paragraph endorsement with the first paragraph saying âIf Libertarian candidate Michael Perkins were running against any other candidate, he would probably get our vote. Refreshingly unencumbered by political speak, Perkins thinks and talks like a real human.â They went on to commend me for being willing to talk about controversial subjects. Unfortunately for me though, the second paragraph started out with âUnfortunately Perkins is running against two term incumbent Todd Salomon who has proven himselfâ¦â Oh well. After that that I decided to focus heavily on music and I started playing out a whole lot more. This time period from about early 1997 to just before recording the CD in the spring of 2000 saw some of the most epic musical experiences of my life, including playing some shows with The Troubadours Of Devine Bliss, Cathryn Beeks, Heather Gmucs, Running With Sally, Astra Kelley, Danny Shaffer, Peter Stokes, Wendy Woo, Chantel Mead, and other musical friends traveling through Colorado.

In March, 2000 I went into the studio to record âWelcome To My Worldâ and finished in early April. I picked up the CDs on May 19th and hit the road to travel the country and play music and promote my CD. In May I traveled from Boulder, Colorado to Rye and New York City, New York; on to Burlington and Richmond, VT; back to Rye; on to Boston, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland; then back to Boulder. June was spent going from Boulder to Iowa City, IA; Muncie, IN; Cleveland, OH; Portland, ME; Portsmouth, Manchester and Concord, NH; Burlington, Richmond and Montpelier, VT; back to Portland, ME; back to Boston, then back to Rye, NY. I then headed to Cleveland. July and August was been spent playing music around the Cleveland area and looking up old friends. The tour didnât pan out as I had hoped or planned but it was an adventure nonetheless and I had some pretty crazy times that canât be mentioned here in the effort to protect the innocent. I then headed back to Boulder in late August to play a show with Running With Sally. What a life!

Shortly after returning to Boulder I became better acquainted with the girl that I would eventually marry, Amy, and her son Jake. We knew each other from the neighborhood but got to know each other better over Christmas 2000. We married in June 2001 and now have Jake and his little brother Simon. We have since moved to Springfield, Missouri in late July of 2003 to raise our kids close to their family. Amy is originally from this area. I now have so much more opportunity to provide me with the greatest challenges of my life and to create even greater epic adventures with a whole new group of people.

I havenât been playing as much as I used to but I know that I am doing what I need to do for now and a time will come that will see me playing often again. My first priority was just to get myself established here for my family. Now that we are established, I have been playing around Springfield a little here and there.

That is a (not so) short story of my history. I welcome your comments and ideas. If you know of a cool venue that I should play or a cool town I should come to, let me know.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know a little more about me and my music. Check out my website and continue to check in now and then as I will be updating every once in a while, including a photos page, site updates and posting live shows.

PEACE, LOVE AND ETERNAL BLISS!
Mykl