We were lucky to catch up with Mike Ray recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mike, thanks for joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
It’s funny… The average person thinks I’m a pretty good guitarist..mostly because I have one hand and play guitar lol.
Any of my musician buddies that knows anything..including, and especially my 17 year old son, know that I’m pretty much a hack on guitar that relies really heavily on a capo and plays very basically.
I’ve sang in bands since I was 19 but only learned to play guitar when I was 35.
Regardless of all that, playing guitar was always an ultimate bucket list thing of mine and I get so much joy out of being able to perform live with a guitar in my hand.
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 always wanted to sing music for a living since I was young. I grew up in the mid 80’s early 90’s, where every singer was a tenor that could really hit all the high notes constantly. When my voice changed in my teens and I became a baritone, I figured all of my thoughts of singing in bands were probably over…then in 1992 I heard the Pearl Jam “Ten” album and Eddie Vedder changed my life forever. Not only was it a great album, but there was a guy in Eddie, with a lower register range, fronting one of the coolest bands in history. It was a GameChanger for me.
It gave me confidence.
I started my first band when I was in college at Auburn, and to my surprise, people really loved to hear me sing.
Probably my biggest regret at a young age is that I did not cultivate my songwriting with more voracity.
After I got frustrated with songwriting at a younger age, I kind of gave up on it for a long time and got sucked into being in nothing but cover bands for the foreseeable future.
The one thing that is really cool about that though has been my ability to emulate artists which is great exercise for your vocals.
I’m as comfortable sounding like George Jones and Keith Whitley as I am sounding like Maynard James Keenan or Dave Matthews.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Really, the biggest thing is making sure you have plenty of friends and followers personally and being consistent with getting your schedule and content out regularly. I also ask people at our venues to follow us from the mic.
I spend a lot of time on set breaks trying to create personal connections with people which causes them to follow on social media as well as come to more shows
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I realized in my early 20’s that I was probably going to starve to death as a musician. In the meantime, I finished my degree..worked many full time jobs from Investments to boat finance to be able support my family. However, in the midst of a full time job, I would play 90-100 shows a year.
It’s a grind, but I love it.
I always say that I work my full time job so I can be able to support what really makes me happy…playing music.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: 3handjam
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3handjam?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Other: Search “The Mike Ray Project” on Facebook
Image Credits
Summer Ray