Mike Viola is a singer-songwriter, producer, musician - and in my humble opinion THE unsung artist of our time.
With his newest album "Paul McCarthy" he again proves his craft for writing exceptionally good songs and melodies.
He recently worked with Panic! at the Disco, also with Andrew Bird, Ryan Adams, Jenny Lewis and Mandy Moore.
With his former band Candy Butchers and as a solo artists he released a tremendous number of records - within almost 30 years!
His music has been featured on soundtracks for movies such as That Thing You Do!, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Get Him to the Greek.
Paul McCarthy was recorded over the summer of 2022 on 1/2” tape at Viola’s "Barebones" studio in Los Angeles. Joined by his friends Brendon Urie (aka Panic! At The Disco) on drums, Jake Sinclair (Weezer & Fall Out Boy producer) on bass and Rachel White (L.A. Exes, Panic! At The Disco).
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Mike says, “I set out to make a sonic monster using the legs of James Gang Rides Again, the heart of Black Sabbath Paranoid, with my kid brain inside my greying middle aged head on top. I’ve hit a point in my life where instinct has taken the reins fully, logic now waits in the wings to sweep up the stage and pay the taxi fare home. This album is the result of committing to this path fully and laughing all the way.”
“I started so young. By 13 I was playing sold out shows in Boston and it was drilled into me that I would be a star. That never happened but the 1980s version of what it was to be a rock star kind of never left my psyche. I used to be ashamed of it, like… let it go man! But, at some point i found a way to draw from it, like a well, there was more there than a sense of failure or success, there was the simple fact that it was me down there, I’m the same person now as I was then.”
