Revenge is an exceptionally highly effective human emotion. It has began wars, has been the principle plot level of numerous horror slashers and has served because the driving pressure behind some intense music, together with Mike’s Lifeless’s most up-to-date EP. “The title monitor, ‘REVENGE,’ marks a big change in my life,” Mike says. “I used to be very amped after getting back from my first headlining tour, however I got here again to loads of points with now previous pals. I had a fallout with a ton of people that had been near me and whenever you hearken to the title monitor, you hear it in there. I obtained stabbed within the again and that was my mindset after I was scripting this EP.”
Though Mike launched his aforementioned EP in mid-September 2021, he started engaged on it in early 2020. It was a interval of transition, not only for his private life, but in addition for his music as Mike was set on taking his sound to the subsequent stage. “I needed to push what we had been doing,” he says. “I feel I solely had one tune out that integrated any screaming, whereas 4 of the six songs on the EP function screaming. We took all the things I used to be doing and put it on steroids. It’s the place I’ve all the time needed to take my sound and we lastly began to do it.”
Pictures by Troy Conrad
Remodeling one’s musical type is a large enterprise, however Mike was capable of reap the benefits of his time sequestered at dwelling in the course of the pandemic to write down music each single day. This gave him the chance to flex his creativity and convey a spread to his work that has shocked even his most hardcore followers. “You get all elements of what I carry to the desk,” he says. “For instance, ‘BEES,’ the final single I rolled out, is extra industrial rap. ‘DEAD’ is extra hip-hop with a rock crossover. Then you might have ‘SICK,’ which is extra of a metallic monitor and ‘NIGHTMARES’ is all singing. All of those songs incorporate singing, screaming and rapping—which actually exhibits my versatility.”
Whereas Mike is the face, pipes and total mastermind of “REVENGE,” he wasn’t alone in creating this EP. He teamed up along with his shut buddy Taylor Wilzbach, who acted as co-producer, early on and this partnership saved the undertaking cohesive regardless of the various genres Mike experimented with. Moreover, he introduced on a number of options to boost a few of the singles, notably Ash Costello, lead vocalist of the alt rock band New Years Day. This endorsement helps Mike to be appreciated, not simply as a hip-hop artist, however as a bona fide rockstar.
“After I first began, [my music] was nonetheless hip-hop and darkish,” Mike explains. “We’ve actually ramped up the manufacturing to be much more in your face and leaning extra towards the rock facet of issues. That is one thing I’ve needed to do for a extremely very long time and bridge the hole into being rap-rock. I’ve been ready to do that by creating this sort of manufacturing, utilizing this sort of vocal tone and studying the way to scream correctly.”
Pictures by Troy Conrad
“REVENGE” is the simply newest chapter in Mike’s Lifeless’s persevering with evolution, a narrative that started round two years in the past. In that point, Mike has not solely grown up as a musician, he has constructed up a powerful assortment of juxtaposing tattoos. “My tattoos are all real looking items, however they’re all in heavy black, which exhibits my persona,” Mike says. “I’ve a large Beretta with a silencer tattooed down my leg. Then actually proper subsequent to it, there’s a fucking Howdy Kitty tattoo. My proper arm has tremendous darkish and heavy imagery with snarling Dobermans and a fucking AK-47 blasted throughout my forearm. However I even have Pikachu on my leg and doodles on my thigh.”
So far, Mike has but to mark his physique with an homage to his music, however that may change some day as he’s put aside his chest to start out off a bigger torso piece along with his emblem. A lot of his diehard followers have beat him to the punch with Mike’s Lifeless tattoos of their very own. “I feel it’s loopy and I adore it,” Mike says. “Seeing that individuals have checked out me within the sense of, ‘Rattling, this child’s music has actually formed my life,’ is a big reward to me. To me, the social media stuff doesn’t matter, numbers don’t matter—none of that stuff issues. But when I see one thing tangible like a tattoo, it provides me a lot extra serotonin.”
With the help from his followers, a game-changing EP accessible on each main streaming service and many extra on the way in which, this solely marks the start of Mike’s Lifeless’s saga. It’s clear to see the one factor lifeless about his profession is his moniker, and we’re fairly certain he’d elevate some critical hell within the afterlife. In any case, isn’t that what rockstars stay to die for?
Pictures by Troy Conrad
