Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael James Scavio. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Michael James, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I wanted to make good money to pursue my music career. To make this happen, I signed up for and attended underwater commercial diving school in Florida. It was a 6 month course, where I went through intense training and almost got killed; another student’s project floated towards me nearly pinning me under a 4 ton barrel.

After graduating I worked for a few different companies in the United States, where I found myself in more high risk situations and had a handful of close calls. A few years in this environment made me realize I didn’t want to die doing something I didn’t love. I then turned my focus on music.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I picked up a pair of drum sticks when I was 12 years old, and taught myself how to play by listening to other musicians while playing along. The artists I listened to the most were Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, and various other indie musicians. When I was in high school I would record videos of myself drumming along with Nine Inch Nails tracks and put them up on YouTube. These gained a surprising amount of views!

I fell in love with the recording arts. Before my stint in commercial diving I went to school to learn professional Recording and Production, getting my degree as a Sound Recording Specialist. It was during this time I wrote, performed and recorded a lot of the tracks for Moonlit Mushroom’s first album (titled “When The Sky Turns Green”).

After my go as a commercial diver, I returned to Minneapolis, MN and focused my energy on live performances for Moonlit Mushroom, and working on the second album (titled “Dreaming Lucid”).

One of my proudest moments was building my professional recording studio. It was featured in Sweetwater Magazine.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me is being able to play in front of a live audience and show them my work. Seeing people enjoy and dance to the music I wrote is an awesome feeling.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

There needs to be more space for independent artists to perform and showcase their work. So many venues will only allow you to play if you have X amount of followers on social media – how do you build a following if you can’t perform? Lots of new artists struggle with this hurdle, and it is getting harder to overcome as social media gets bigger. Kindof a vicious cycle…

I guess I would say, look out for local smaller venues and go check out those bands you’ve never heard of before! Give them an audience to play for.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlitmushroomband/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoonlitMushroom
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6shSyXs8uHGg8dfgtcOL99?si=VSxd8C_yT5K8_t4q4um9QA

Image Credits
Nick Throldahl (DJ) Sean Tseplaev (Synth) Sarah Frederickson (Manager)