We were lucky to catch up with Michael Logan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Michael , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

You know actually I’ve thought about that question a lot. As a matter of fact, I love being a creative and artist, especially to be able to do it for a living. I feel blessed and lucky. Up to the beginning of this year I had a regular job at the same company for almost five years and I left that job a day before my birthday, which is the 10th of February, so the ninth was my last day at that job. I think about the clip of Prince I believe on the Arsenio Hall show where he said that he looked through the yellow pages and couldn’t find one thing that he was interested in doing or could do and so he pushed as hard as he could to become an artist. Although it is my passion I’ve always wanted to kind of just be a “regular person,” and have the nine to five and family life. I’ve been to the grandest stage with Boz Scaggs on a world tour, done my own shows as the front guy and just playing at the local clubs in the city. Now that I’m older, I’ve put things in perspective and realized what’s important, to me at least. We’ll see what the future holds. I have some interesting ideas and projects I’m working on and can’t wait for people to be able to share in the experience of it all.

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?

Well, I got into the music industry via my dad, Michael Logan, Sr., a renown keyboard and Producer. He would take me to gigs l, rehearsals and of course play music while we were hanging out at home and I fell in love with music and playing drums. I would always watch the Drummer, the late great Khari Parker in particular. So my dad poured into that craft. He bought me drums and eventually I was able to play a full professional gig. Thanks to the late Sue Conway, a singer from Chicago. There is at a place on the south side called ETA where they would do something called “Music Mondays.” A few years down the line I got my first major gig with Terisa Griffin. I think I auditioned at “The Touch of the Past in Bellwood, and that gig really kind of made me become the drummer I needed to become. I was pretty much on my way there eventually ending up touring with Boz Scaggs and Will Downing.

So all the while I was developing my skill set as an engineer, Producer and Singer-Songwriter, which, of course Terisa would influence that aspect as well and prepare that for me and make me believe I could do it. I used to go to CRC recording studio in downtown Chicago where I would be mentored by Ramsey Lewis’ son Frayne Lewis. That’s where I kind of got my feet wet with writing and producing tracks. I learned a lot from Frayne, he’s like family, an uncle, and actually my dad played keyboard with his father, the great Ramsey Lewis, for 10 years from 1989 to 1999. So this thing is all kind of connected you know.

I guess my point in reminiscing all of this is that life is a journey and everything works together for the result in the end and all you have to do is keep going and not give up. I am most proud of who I have been able to become as a person having parents like my mother and father and been able to work with some of the greatest humans like Terisa Griffin, Will Downing, Boz Scaggs, etc. Now I can use my art not only as a way to give people joy and spread a message of love but to earn a living from it. Most importantly to keep a kind spirit, be humble and do the good work. I believe that’s why I have been blessed with my gifts. I think I am able to bring the best out of others I work with because I’m so passionate about what I do, you know.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Well, there’s two answers to that. One goal being to eventually sustain and abundantly take care of my family fully with my art; which is not easy to do. The other being to show people the love and dedication I’ve had to the craft all these years. I’ve worked hard and put in the time to be able to do it at the level I’m at.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think sometimes people forget that even though we are artists, it’s still a job and while yes we are lucky to be able to do what we love as the job, it is still a job nonetheless. The traveling, the long days/nights, the behind the scenes; there’s a lot that goes into it. Perfect execution night after night, practice, mixing records, remixing records; it’s expensive making record. And after you make the record, hoping that you can recoup and get some royalties for your work, so sometimes you know that’s kind of forgotten. It’s a job.