We were lucky to catch up with Mike Gowen Jr recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Mike thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been drawn to music and art. I started playing piano when I was 7yrs old and then progressed to the guitar when I was 16. I was constantly listening to music growing up and learned a lot about the relationship between music and film from watching skate/snow/and surf videos; but I didn’t really pursue music as a profession until the end of my time in college. I really wanted to play football professionally so my focus was on that. Unfortunately, I had a string of concussions playing in college that cut my career short. I was pretty devastated at the time but it turned out to be a blessing because it “forced” me to focus on music more seriously. Feeling lost and in a bad way, I turned to creating music to help fulfill the void that football no longer could. I started composing music for solo piano and began studying music composition my last year in college. It was an amazing feeling performing at recitals for the University and having folks enjoy the music I was creating. Around that same time I joined my first real band as a guitarist, which was equally as fulfilling as composing, but in a different way. It gave me a sense of working together as a team like how sports are so valuable for. It also was another creative outlet, being stylistically different from piano music. Those two things, in combination with my life experiences and it being the right time, inspired me to move to New York City to pursue a career in 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 background and context?
Sure thing. At the core, I’m a blues singer and guitarist, as well as, a classical pianist and composer. That, combined with my love of psych rock, southern rock, grunge, and atmospheric instrumental music, stylistically makes up my “musical DNA”. I’ve been playing music for 30yrs; and professionally for 16yrs.
My music career is somewhat split into two paths that happened, and are still happening, simultaneously – My career as a writer/ live performer and my career as a composer.
As a performer: I’ve played hundreds of shows and recorded albums with various bands/projects throughout my time in New York. I started as the guitarist for hard rock band, MoTHER. We recorded 2 albums and an EP, toured regionally in the northeast, and played many shows as an opening act for national acts that would come through town, including Rival Sons, Buckcherry, and Pop Evil. During that time I also joined the atmospheric rock band, Vagus Nerve, led by my buddy, Doc Coyle. We recorded an album and played shows in LA and NYC. I also had the pleasure of playing guitar with Militia Vox and Mach 22, and lastly, my first band as a bandleader and singer, the “psych-blues” outift, GSM Trio. Since moving to Nashville, I’ve been focused on performing and recording under my name as a solo artist, as well as, playing with our blues-based rock band “The Haulers”.
As a composer:
Since I was a teenager I’ve been composing music for solo piano. As mentioned previously, I didn’t really focus on making it a profession until I was finishing up my degree in college. After school I moved to New York City to pursue a music career, like most creatives that live in New York, I had to find side work to pay the bills so I started working as a Personal Trainer. Through personal training I was able to meet some really amazing people in all different professions. One of those people is, my now good friend, Scott Dadich – Co-CEO of Godfrey Dadich Partners. He gave me my first job composing for a short film for Conde Nast. Since Conde’ I’ve had the great fortune of collaborating with Scott on a number of music sync projects including work for WIRED magazine, C3AI, MillerKnoll, and Okta.
When people ask me what I do I tell them I’m a musician first and foremost. I’m a student of the craft and continuing to learn everyday. Whatever aspect of my musical being, be it as a film/sync composer, singer, guitarist, or pianist, I do it to my absolute fullest out of the sheer gratitude of being able to create music in general. My goal with any work of music is to convey a genuine feeling emotionally. I think that is my greatest strength, and the overall goal, as a composer and performer — to move the listener through the music I create. That is always what music has done for me, good times and bad, so I’m just trying to continue to provide that light for others in a genuine way. I feel really thankful to be able to do what I do. Music has saved my life so I’m just trying to give it back to the world and help others if possible. When folks tell me how much they enjoyed something, or were moved by music I created, that is what I’m most proud of.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Around the end of my time in New York I was starting to become uninspired musically. I was playing in all these different bands and it was going well. We had just opened for Rival Sons, who were at the time, and still are, one of my favorite bands – which was an awesome experience, but I just didn’t feel great about it. I was trying to understand why but it was hard to decipher. I took a step back, did a lot of self reflection, and realized that it was because I wasn’t doing what I really wanted to musically. I had always wanted to learn to sing and be a bandleader/frontman like all of my biggest influences – Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Gregg Allman, Paul Rodgers, B.B. King, Otis Rush, and Peter Green. I knew I’d never be that as long as I was in the band I was in, devoting all my creative energy to that project. So I did one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do and left the band I was in for 7yrs and devoted so much of my life to, to focus on myself and learning how to sing. It was pretty rough in the beginning and there were (and still are!) many times when I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I’m naturally introverted and pretty shy so it has been a major learning experience to step up to the mic and belt some blues music; but like most things in life, I just worked hard at improving, stopped thinking about it, and just went for it. I played my first shows as a bandleader my last few months in New York at the landmark, Bitter End and have continued the journey here in Nashville. I feel like it has opened me up to a new world creatively so it was worth the struggle.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think the best thing that folks can do to support artists and creatives, is to spread the word about them. Tell others, come to shows, share their content on social media, etc. If you feel inclined, purchase their product/art/music/merch direct from them. It doesn’t have to be much but if a wide audience buys an album or a piece art it starts to add up. If something is good and inspiring to you, share it with others to hopefully inspire them as well. You never know what can happen once art starts to circulate.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mikegowenjr.com
- Instagram: @mikegowenjr
- Linkedin: @mikegowenjr
- Youtube: @mikegowenjr
Image Credits
Deneka Peniston Photography, Michelle Knott Photography, Break The Glass Photography, KSayegh Photography