guitar, Vocals, Music Production
In The Studio
Mike has composed, produced , and recorded on endless numbers of tracks. From music featured on Netflix's "Umbrella Academy" to composing and recording loops and samples for Drums On Demand: Band on Demand Song Construction Toolkit software; from viral, multi-million-view Youtube music videos in Metal, Country, Praise and Worship, and even a Star Wars Rap Battle...to minus tracks for broadway musicals used in community and school theaters across the U.S., Mike's musical fingerprint is all over the place.
Many of Mike's recordings are self-produced and engineered from his own project studio, but Mike has also collaborated with industry greats. While producing, Mike has worked with Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek & solo artist), Val McCallum (Jackson Browne), Greg Leisz (Jackson Browne), Mai Leisz (David Crosby), Joel Tepp (Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Garcia, Little Feat), Ryan Shupe (Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band), Iris Dement, Cliff Eberhardt and more.
As a session player, Mike's guitars have appeared on recordings alongside all of the above listed musicians and also notables such as Lindsey Stirling, Scot Alexander (Dishwalla), Joel Stevenett (Twisted Metal, Dance Revolution, etc.), Jay Lawrence (Cher, Sammy Davis Jr., etc) and many more. Mike has also recorded with notable Producers such as Nicolas Vernhes (The War on Drugs, Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors etc.), Cliff Maag (Barbara Streisand, Donnie and Marie Osmond, Chris LeDoux, etc), Dave Zimmerman (Gentri, etc) and more.
Touring
Highlights
Mike has toured the world performing at special events for myriad top-tier clients such as Nike, Mass Mutual, Bain Capital, Time Warner, Adobe, Microsoft, Canon, and many others. Mike has performed on stage with a parade of amazing musicians, trading licks with players like: Chris Slade (formerly ACDC), Gregg Bissonette (of Ringo Starr, David Lee Roth, etc), Andrew Tolman (formerly Imagine Dragons), Steve Augeri (formerly Journey), Bogie Bowles (of Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd) and many other giants known and unknown. Mike has also performed in opening acts for Imagine Dragons, Brad Paisley, Neon Trees, Tim McGraw, Harry Connick Jr., Dierks Bentley, The Beach Boys, One Republic, Goo Goo Dolls, David Archuleta, Colt Ford, Joe Diffie, Brian McKnight, Diamond Rio, Sawyer Brown, Scotty McCreery, Chris Cagle, Jo Dee Messina, Emerson Drive, Asleep at the Wheel, Black Hawk, Restless Heart, Little Texas, John Michael Montgomery, Ronnie Dunn, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Darius Rucker, Tracey Lawrence, Phil Vassar, America, Gretchen Wilson, Chevy Metal, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and others.
Teaching
Mike has over 19 years of experience as a Guitar Instructor and Music educator. Mike has taught hundreds and Hundreds of students, from pre-schoolers to retirees, in private lessons, school programs and masterclasses. Mike helps his students to know their guitars, learn to play their favorite songs, understand and apply music theory, improvise, create songs of their own, and use their guitar gear to make the sounds in their heads come to life!
Mike helps to instill a broad love and appreciation of music. Love of music blended with confidence from developed skill has led many of Mike's students toward self-directed action. Mike's students have performed at recitals and talent shows, auditioned into school ensembles, started their own bands, recorded, toured, graduated university with music degrees, founded recording studios, and become professional gigging guitarists and teachers themselves!
education
Student always
In addition to the music academia detailed below, Mike is now an MBA candidate at U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business, class of 2026.
Mike holds a Bachelor's Degree in Media Music with emphases in Songwriting, Music Production, and Guitar Performance from Brigham Young University. The program included intensive coursework in music production and recording techniques, songwriting craft, arranging for various instruments, record clone projects (deep analysis of classic recordings and use of all available tools and techniques to reproduce the tones and spirit of the original), projects using virtual instruments, sampling, multiple DAWS/MIDI editors and much more. As part of his coursework Mike completed a Music Production Internship with Ryan Staples (then at Gription Audio, later house engineer at famed East West Studios). Mike studied and was juried in both Jazz and Classical guitar performance under Lawrence Green. While studying at BYU, Mike was also employed by the university as a teacher in guitar courses for the general student body and for students pursuing a Minor in Music. Prior to college, Mike studied guitar with acclaimed World Fusion recording artist and educator James Robinson, and with Daniel Roest (then President of South Bay Guitar Society and CA classical guitar legend).