We were lucky to catch up with Mike Anderson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mike, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
13 years old.
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?
Thank you very much for the opportunity to share some of my story. My name is Mike Anderson, and I am a former singer but always a songwriter and musician. I started fairly early in my music career. I was 13 years old when one of my friends came over to my parents’ house, brought his guitar and started playing. It wasn’t until he said, “let me show you a song that I wrote” and I said “wait a minute! You wrote a song?” Though I had no musical ability, at that time, I knew from that moment on, I wanted music as my profession. My parents had this old Sears acoustic guitar sitting in the corner, so I went out to the local music store and bought a chord chart and started to teach myself guitar. I remember that so well and remembered that the guitar, the strings were so far from the fret board, but I was so determined to learn and play, it came with many with blisters, bloody fingers and calluses, but I learned. My friend and I got decent enough to start a band though I was still in the learning stages on guitar and still wasn’t very good. In fact, the times we performed with others and in front of others, I would often turn my back so no one could see me struggling with the chords. It was a relief that we had so many guitarists to play with, yet no one played bass and my lack of experience on guitar led me to play bass. I was able to borrow a bass at that time and once again, I went to the local music store and bought a bass chord chart and taught myself, but after almost a year of searching I found the bass of my dreams which was a Hofner (Beatle bass) which I still have to this day. So, bands came and went and all who could play an instrument started bands, but unlike the other bands, my friend and I never performed cover songs as we wrote our own songs as is still the case. Our first real break came when I was 15 years old, where we had an opportunity to audition for a radio talent show called Exposure Time through KNAC. We not only passed the audition, but we were featured on the first show with an original song we wrote called “Your Love Shines”. It was also the first time we got to record at a professional recording studio which was called SRD Recording Studios in Costa Mesa. Not only was this my first recording experience, I was also asked to play bass on the show’s opening theme song. So, we did our recordings, which was, on a school night, my Dad and Mom were not too impressed with me coming home at 2:00am which I was promptly grounded for 2 weeks but it was well worth it. Not only was Your Love Shines selected as the top song out of 200 songs, but we also found out, a few weeks later, that legendary record producer and manager of Little Richard heard us. Robert “Bumps” Blackwell was not only Little Richard’s manager but produced songs such as “You Send Me” by Sam Cooke along with some of Richard’s material. Bumps was very instrumental in grooming the careers of so many, Quincy Jones, Herb Alpert, Lou Rawls, Redbone, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Sly and the Family Stone and many others. Bumps was so impressed with us that at 17 years old, that he offered us a management contract as our manager and producer. I stayed with Bumps until his passing in 1985 but learned so much from him about songwriting, producing, A&R and the music industry as a whole. I was also fortunate to learn from Little Richard, Lou Rawls, Bessie Griffin, James Booker, Earl Palmer, Preston Epps and so many others.
In 1998, I joined “former teen idol singer” Donnie Brooks singer of the 1960 hit record “Mission Bell” and the singer of such 1960’s cartoon theme songs; Super Chicken, George of the Jungle and Tom Slick, in promoting and working with a roster of rock- n-roll legends, 50 years of Rock-n-Roll, through concert venues, public appearances and social media. I had the opportunity to work with such artist as: including; Freddy Fender, The Association, Rosie and the Originals, The Coasters, The Penguins, Al Wilson, Jewel Akens, Tommy Sands, The Olympics, Brenton Wood, The Crew Cuts, Guitar Shorty, Kathy Young, Martha Reeves and many more.
In 2003, I helped co-found the music program, R.Y.T.M.O. (Reaching Youth through Music Opportunities) a 501(c) 3 nonprofit program based in Anaheim; working with low-income and disfranchised youth ages 14-24 in a music technology/music business program. Currently as President of the Board and Executive Director, I oversee, maintain and develop relationships with community organizations, media and city agencies essential for the growth and development of RYTMO. To date, RYTMO has had over 5,000 youth come through our program and we were selected as Anaheim’s non-profit of the year in 2009. I was also responsible for developing a collaborative relationships for RYTMO with such prestigious organizations as NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) and Berklee College of Music’s City Music Network. In 2021, I helped create a new RYTMO curriculum where today, over 55,000 socio-economically youth internationally (US, Mexico, Canada and Latin America) have direct access at no cost through the Berklee City Music Network site, as it is also shared, at no cost, with the youth and other low-income non-profits through Music Across Borders and their sites in Vietnam, The Philippines and India .
For a short time in 2006, I joined “Celebration” a nonprofit musical theatre program for high school youth, as a consultant for marketing and promotions.
Late 2006, I joined The Orange County Symphony’s Board of Directors, 501(c) 3 and was elected in 2009 as its President and Chairman of the Board. Under my direction, OCS created an outreach program, to provide under-served youth and low-income families, Symphony access, that otherwise would not be affordable for those and in 2013, the Symphony also formed a new music education and instrument program in partnership with the Anaheim City School Elementary District targeting all 24 elementary schools where today thousands of students have access to music instruction at no cost.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
As for a 501(c) 3 non-profit in music, funding is very limited. There needs to be more funding for programs like RYTMO. We work with mostly young people that are low-income or disenfranchised, that are very creative and want or better yet need that outlet for a music education and quite possibly a career. No youth who wants a music education should have to pay for it if they can’t afford it. The therapeutic value in music or the arts alone is irreplaceable. We are now also working with adults who have special needs or are surviving cancer, to see the passion and to help those with lyrics or melody, you see what all can achieve, music is very powerful. There is always a place for music and the arts.
As a past performer, we also need more places for live music and the support for those musicians that perform. There is nothing else quite like performing live. It would be the same for those that read poetry, spoken word, dance, writers, etc. more opportunities need to be open for live performances or shows. We need to stop hiding all this great talent and start showcasing it.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I’ve been very fortunate in my music career and have done so many things that many dream about doing. I have been blessed to be able to play, write songs and sing. At a very young age, I was able to play my music in most of the clubs in Hollywood, I have performed in stadiums in front of thousands playing my music and have heard some of my songs on the radio. The chance to learn from so many of the artists I grew up listening to and becoming friends and to take what I have learned from so many of them and to pass down to the youth today is priceless. I also took advantage of not only limiting myself to pop music, but also was involved with symphony, theater, blues and jazz.
But with all that, with all my experiences and accomplishments and taking all that in consideration, RYTMO would be the most rewarding of all. You can never put a price on music education and the opportunities that come with that, especially if it means a career. There is always someone less fortunate or maybe can’t afford a music education, who should have that opportunity to learn and grow in music or the arts and we should be able to provide that help, which is what RYTMO does. And, if we go through life and didn’t help one person, we didn’t live life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rytmo.org