Our interview with YouTube cover artist extraordinaire Mike Massé!
In this episode:
- Mike’s musical origins,
- his bass player Jeff Hall,
- influences include The Beatles, U2, Radiohead, Rush,
- none of us are exposed to new music,
- how did we find Mike on the web?,
- Mike’s ever expanding vocal range,
- putting an emphasis on the original style of each song,
- sound recording techniques,
- a wedding gig request in Amsterdam,
- the 3-man vocal arrangement of 80s band Toto,
- Mike’s unique T-shirts,
- musical aspirations,
- American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and X Factor,
- original songs,
- the Pie Pizzeria in Utah,
- rock and roll in the future,
- future cover artists,
- is rock music dead?,
- opinions on Tron Legacy (2010) starring Jeff Bridges,
- first person shooters on the PC,
- and more great cover songs (clips) from Mike, Jeff, and friends.
Don’t forget to go to Mike’s website and donate to his Tip Jar if you can!
Download this episode:
50 minute MP3 file – 22.9 MB (right-click to save)
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Great show! Wow, how does America not know about this guy!?! His youtube channel is unreal!! Glad you guys found him!!!
Hi Randall, I agree! Mike Masse and co. are really great and I hope more people watch his videos.
Current music is horrible and unlistenable… and that’s not just my crotchety old man opinion. If you buy a current CD, rip it to your computer, and look at the waveforms in an audio editor, you’ll see there’s almost no dynamic range. The recording and mastering engineers have gone overboard with brickwall-limiting and overprocessing, to the point where today’s music is literally unlistenable. Plus, today’s songwriters don’t use altered chords, sophisticated chord progressions, or layered syncopation, so their music lacks tension and excitement. Everything is oversimplified and overprocessed. I’m glad Mike is keeping old, good music alive.
Let me just add that Mike is one of the most humble people we’ve met (over the web at least), and a trooper. We had some technical difficulties, and he hung in there. I was of course surprised when I first found Mike’s performances on YouTube. I am also surprised I guess that nobody else has interviewed/reported on him!
Thanks for posting this interview. I’ve been a loyal fan of Mike and Jeff’s since I stumbled on them on YouTube about a year ago and spent many, many hours listening to them. They are truly fantastic and deserve so much more recognition than they get.
And…Happy Birthday, Mike!
mike masse’s version of ‘africa’ – utter genius! totally upside-down, yet faithful.