Below is an email interview with Mike Cliffe. All interviews are published unedited.

The live bands during the 80’s and 90’s were mostly performing cover songs – songs that the audience expected to hear
along with a few personal band member favorites, which often weren’t as well received 😉

The music I do now is all original, at least in the respect that they aren’t cover tunes. They are all
ideas that I’d like to see become complete songs and are highly influenced by what I like to listen to both past and present.

I still listen to hard rock, blues and progressive/jazz from the 70’s and some punk from the 80’s. I also listen to current rock/metal/jazz but over the last couple of years I’ve found mainstream, popular music was getting boring. So, I’ve been listening to lots of independent artists lately and have had my ears re-awakened to some incredible talent and exciting music from all genres rock/metal/country/classical/jazz/electro/hiphop etc.

Playing has always been a passion for me and now that I have some time I can devote to playing it seemed a logical step. I’m currently home studio based and since home studio gear has advanced and become more affordable it makes production much easier. I am collaborating with other artists and this seems to fit people’s schedules quite nicely. Playing live again is tempting as there is nothing like the energy from an audience.

So far, “In Equity”, I’ve received lots of positive feedback about this one and it turned out better than I had originally thought it would. I think it could use some vocals, but I think that about most of my songs. Vocals and extra percussion or accents always make songs more meaningful and complete to me.

I’m hoping for more artist collaboration and experimenting with other genres – even mixing up genres to create new sounds.

Visit their page