We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michael thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My most meaningful project has been my first album I released as a solo artist with my one man death metal band, Utter Scorn. The album is called “Paroxysmal Endemia”, and it released last year in August of 2021. I came up with the idea for this band in 2011, but for several years it existed only as a dream. I would tell people all about my death metal band, but I only ever had a bunch of rough recordings of unfinished songs. It wasn’t until 2018 that I decided to get serious about making and releasing a proper album. From that time it took me 3 years of what became hands down the most difficult work I’d ever done in my entire life. I wrote all the music and lyrics, programmed the drums, recorded guitars, bass, and vocals for all 10 songs, and mixed them, all by myself. It took me learning a lot of new skills and applying them right away, which was a very intense and stressful process. So many obstacles, so many 2-steps-forward 4-steps-back type of incidents along the way that made it and absolutely painstaking uphill battle to overcome. I’m sure many other artists can relate. Nevertheless, the album is complete now and serves as the culmination of all that hard work. It is a resolute representation of the darker side of my mind, heart, and soul, and I couldn’t be more proud of it.

Michael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m from California, I’m 31 years old and I’ve been playing guitar since I was 10. I’ve been playing in bands off and on for about that long as well. My dad played guitar so watching him and watching the rock bands of the 90’s on TV is what inspired me to pick up the instrument.

With my band Utter Scorn I’ve created my own unique style of over the top, gut wrenching, sickeningly brutal death metal. However what sets me apart the most from other death metal bands is my prominent use of guitar solos. I do not hear anyone else in this genre soloing, at least not to the extent that I am, especially in any other one man bands. That’s not to say that I am just showing off in my songs, it’s all for the sake of writing the best song I can, but it is something I feel is unique my music.

I am proud of the progress I’ve made and the reception my music has gotten so far, it feels great to finally be executing my vision that I’ve had for so long. I want my followers and those who may be curious about my art to know that I’m on a mission with this band, and I’m excited to share what I have in store with whoever wants to be a part of the mission.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to write and record as much music as I can, so that in my later years I have a bunch of songs that I can look back on proudly and have as a reminder of where I was and how I was feeling when the songs were created. Also, making music is something I just need to do. I need to express myself in this way, I’m not good at expressing myself in any other way so I need to do it through my music. And admittedly, one of my motives is spite. There have been a lot of people who have doubted me and treated me like I was negligible over the years. I want to prove them wrong and prove that I deserve to be taken seriously as an artist.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Having as many visuals as you can and running ads is key. Social media is a visual game, so the more visuals you can create involving your art the better. I make lots of guitar videos and lyric videos and cut them into clips so I can have something to post consistently. I make different colored versions of my logo and album art in photoshop and make it into videos with one of my songs playing in the background or just use them as a picture for an announcement, or just write some sort of relevant caption under it. I also made a music video for one my songs and cut that into clips as well. There are many ways you can create visuals, and using hashtags on your posts and paying for ads will get your art out to a lot of people. If you do it right, you’ll find yourself making friends with other similar artists and that will lead to more opportunities and inevitably will grow your audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: utterscorn.com
• Instagram: @utterscorn
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/utterscorn
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo5XzvnItN8gw9xVKcKcMDg

Image Credits
Niuvis Martin Santiago Francisco Jaramillo