Hey, Friend!

Happy August! Before we get to the meat of this newsletter, here’s a few fun facts for you about the month we currently inhabit…

• In the early Roman calendar, August was actually the sixth month of the year, and was named after Augustus Caesar. The month was originally 30 days in length, but an extra day was added so that it would equal the number of days in July, which was named after Julius Caesar. Egomaniacs, those emperors. Who’da thought?
• August 3rd is National Watermelon day, be sure to hit the grocery store early to avoid the rush of melon maniacs.
• On August 21st, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Gallery and not recovered for two years.

Feel smarter yet? No? Well, let’s see what we can accomplish with the rest of this newsletter…

I’m thrilled that just this morning, the second single by Hello Headrush (my multi-media science-fiction electro-rock hyphen-fest) was released! It’s called “Count Down To…”, and out of all the songs I’ve written so far for Hello Headrush, this one comes closest to hitting my targeted “Apocalypse Dance Party” feel. Mixing and mastering duties fell once again to Eric Bert Audio, and the final product absolutely SLAPS. Check it out on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music. If it’s not yet on your favorite digital platform, it probably will be soon!


The next big Ingenuity Cleveland event is on the horizon, and this one is the biggest of the big: IngenuityFest!  Much like the fundraising Bal for which I created a bunch of “dream beds”, the theme this year is Dreamscapes – which I’ve adapted into dream-like soundscapes for my highlight project! Building on the idea of a tranquil Zen garden and the Japanese traditions of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, I’m developing an entire footprint of modern-meets-ancient interactive artwork.  The centerpiece is a human-scale Zen rock garden (just like the one you probably had on your desk at some point), erected over a light-up floor.  As you rake through the sand, software created by my brother Dave will translate the areas of light intensity into notes from a Japanese pentatonic scale. The result? An ever-changing soundscape that reacts to real time interactions! To help fund this ambitious project (which already has a working demo and is about to start in earnest), I’ve been fortunate enough to secure up to $5000 in donation matching from the Cuyahoga Arts & Culture Foundation via a community-focused crowdfunding platform called IOBY.  The project is about 75% funded and is in its last days – if you’re interested in the project, want more information, and may be able to donate, please check out the page for more information!  All donations are matched dollar-for-dollar in real time!

It’s been a few months since I last took the Wizard World stage, but I’m so very excited to announce that at the end of this month I’ll be headed to Chicago for one of the biggest pop-culture geekfests on the planet! You’ll be able to catch me on stage (performance schedule should be coming soon!) and in Artist Alley for the whole 4-day con.  This will be my first opportunity to appear at the Chicago event, and I’m looking forward to reveling in the finest pageantry and nerditry the Midwest has to offer!

Here’s a rundown of the shows I’ve got scheduled for the remainder of August:

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend!

You’ll notice that this newsletter’s a little late this month – I promise there a good reason for that, and that good reason is that just last night Amanda & I returned from a whirlwind trip of Europe! The trip took us through 16 airports, train stations, and bus terminals, six countries, seven cities, and a lifetime of memories. We got to be in the stadium in Lyon, France, when the US Women’s National team won their World Cup semifinal match against England, and watched the final game against the Netherlands in Rotterdam! We stayed in hostels, Airbnbs, and architectural sleeping pods. We slept on buses, planes, and trains. We watched the sunrise over Notre Dame de Paris, got scolded at the Louvre, locked out of the Palace of Versailles, ate Dutch pancakes in Holland, saw breathtaking landscapes in the Scottish Highlands, and as the end neared were torn between wanting this incredible journey to continue and being SO READY to get back home.

Here are a few shots from the trip – tons more will be hitting my Social Media Accounts before long, so check those out if you’re interested in seeing more!

As amazing as the trip was, there’s really nothing like sleeping in your own bed after two weeks of non-stop travel.

Now that we’re back, it’s time to dive head-first into summer! Four shows are coming up this weekend, including one tomorrow in downtown Akron. Hello Headrush will be performing at the Buffalo Infringment Festival, and you can expect Count Down To…, the new Hello Headrush single, to drop before the end of the month (Eric’s mix for this song is KILLER!).


Here’s a rundown of the shows I’ve got scheduled for the remainder of July:

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend!

A year ago, while mourning the loss of a beloved DIY music venue that had recently closed its doors, a couple of my musician friends and I decided to launch a venue of our own. My home became the staging area for monthly live music showcases under the name McFarland Manor, and since then we’ve hosted 13 shows featuring 6-8 acts each show.  Music at the Manor spans all genres and has given birth to an absolutely amazing community of performers, artists, and audience members! We’ve been so proud of all that has happened since our that first concert that we have decided to celebrate the anniversary of the Manor with a special two-day music and arts festival, aptly named ManorFest!

ManorFest boasts a full Friday night lineup for the original indoor stage, then will launch the new outdoor stage on Saturday morning with acoustic acts. We’ve also invited our fellow DIYers from the Beezy Douglas Carnivale to bring along some of their favorite acts and carnival games and Cleveland’s best music hostess-with-the-mostess Meganne Stepka for a one-hour open mic session before closing out the night with four headliners back on the inside stage. Artists working in a variety of media will be displaying installations and galleries throughout the weekend, fortune telling and an ice cream cart will be on site, and even camping overnight at the Manor is encouraged! Oh – and in true McFarland Manor tradition, all of this is FREE!  You can find all the details right here in the Facebook Event!

McFarland Manor’s New Years show also saw the debut of my newest musical endeavor, Hello Headrush. A few months ago I released my first single from this multimedia performance project about a future world in which androids and humans are deadly enemies; you can check out that single “Second Life” on Spotify.  Now, I’m working on my second single, “Count Down To…”, from Hello Headrush’s upcoming first EP entitled Humanity*.  As always, I have Eric Bert manning the helm for post-production mixing & mastering, so expect this track to be even more awesome than the last one! Your first look at the artwork is right here in this e-mail… stay tuned for the single release!

I’d like to apologize in advance, as my next music newsletter is likely to be a little delayed in July.  I’ll be spending the first couple weeks of the month traveling through Europe, a trip that will (hopefully) start with seeing the US Women’s Soccer team play in the World Cup semifinals in Lyon, France, before sending my partner and I to Italy and Scotland for a few days each!

The rest of my summer calendar has filled up quickly, too, with live shows almost every week. This upcoming weekend I’ll be playing five days straight across western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio!

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend,

A few days ago Justin Timberlake came out of his burrow in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, and saw his shadow, prognosticating the on-time arrival of May. So here we are! Everything’s turning green, and planning around unexpected torrential downpours can be a challenge… but enough about my mildew and plumbing issues! (You think I joke, but I just finished fixing my kitchen sink’s drain. On the downside, my soothing basement waterfall seems to have shut off. Pure coincidence, I expect.)

A few months back, I wrote about Brite Winter, a music and arts festival in Cleveland for which I had a hand in creating a number of the art installations. The art side of Brite is handled by Ingenuity Cleveland, and the next big Ingenuity event is coming up this Saturday! I’ve had the pleasure (and only a little bit of pain) of designing several large-scale pieces for The Dreamer’s Bal, and I’m thrilled for everyone to experience the results. This is a one-night-only event which harkens back to the Cleveland Kokoon Club’s infamous Bal Masque. It also serves as a preview of the DreamScapes theme for IngenuityFest 2019 this fall, for which I’ve already got a few large-scale installation projects percolating…

Giant dream catcher arches will lead you into a dreamscape full of fantastical beds (inspired by Sylvia Plath’s “The Bed Book”, a favorite goodnight story from my childhood), creepy nightmares (if you choose to crawl under the giant bed and find what lives beneath), a fairy forest, a pillow-dueling ring, roaming character actors, and an evening’s worth of phenomenal musical performances! I won’t be performing – after all the time spent building the art installations, I’ll get to relax and enjoy an evening of entertainment and perhaps a bit of revelry.

There’s an extensive Facebook gallery of photos by my partner Amanda of Fiercely Serene Studios, documenting the creation of the installations for the Bal – check it out here!

Last month’s Record Store Day release of the vinyl edition of House of Ghosts was a blast – there was a line all the way down the plaza for my morning performance at the Record Den in Mentor, and my evening show at the House of Blues was a great time as well! With the vinyl release, there have been some incredibly kind words people have been saying about the album:

“Talent, passion, and lyrics that come from the heart. That sums up the music on Michael McFarland’s latest album, “House Of Ghosts.” He knows how to tug at your emotions, yet, after you listen to the songs, you walk away feeling like you’ve got a kindred spirit in this thing called life.”
-Debbie Mazella, WMGQ Magic 98.3

“Big, bright & lovestruck slice of infectious anthemic indie-rock” 
-BarryGruff.com

If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out the record yet, you can stream it here, or order the vinyl here!

My spring concert schedule’s filled out nicely, with dates scattered all over northern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. I hope to see you at one!

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend,

I’ve just returned from my annual visit to Cape May, New Jersey, for the Singer-Songwriter Conference that has become a traditional journey for me over the past seven years. Sharing the trip with my good friend and fellow singer-songwriter Kevin Conaway, we not only attended seminars and industry panels to keep moving our music careers forward, but we also had the opportunity to reconnect with many of our musical comrades-in-arms from across the United States! I played two showcase sets, enjoyed listening to many more, and came home with some exciting new ideas and goals towards which I can start working.

This coming weekend, I’m hitting the road again! This time I’m heading west instead, traveling to St Louis, Missouri, to be part of another Wizard World Comic Convention. As usual, I’ll be joining personalities like Kato Kaelin and Thomas Ian Nicholas onstage while I perform three sets throughout the weekend, and I’ll also be setting up a booth to sell my board games and my visual art, alongside a plethora of incredible artists including my friends Shawn Coss and Nate Michaels! This will be my fifth Wizard World experience, my fourth on the road, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of such a huge and engaging community.

Finally, with April comes one of my favorite holidays: Record Store Day! I celebrate every year with patronage to local indie music stores, and this year have the honor of playing my own music at two different locations here in Cleveland – but that’s not all! I’ve been waiting for months now to finally release my recent album, House of Ghosts, as my second vinyl offering, and I’m so proud to be able to inform you that my record will be available at several stores in the Greater Cleveland area! Preorders are already in the mail, if you reserved your copy early, and of course if you can’t make it to one of the stores, you can always order through my website. House of Ghosts is the culmination of over a decade of songwriting, and among my discography is definitely the album of which I am the most proud. I do hope you’ll give it a listen and love it as much as I do! And if vinyl’s not your thing, you can still stream it or get a copy on CD.

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend,

Not to sound like a broken record, but MAN is 2019 taking me for spin! This year has already been jam-packed with excitement, arising in some of the most unexpected places.

In January, I started working with a local creative collaborative called Ingenuity Cleveland, which hosts massive art, performance, and music festivals throughout the year. One of their early season projects is Brite Winter, a one-day, outdoor, five-stage music and art extravaganza bringing warmth and joy to the cold Cleveland winter in late February. A large team of artists, builders, musicians, performers, and everyday Clevelanders who wanted to make something beautiful joined together to fill three giant tents to the brim with giant art installations and interactive activities. I’m so proud to say that I not only helped on several major projects, but also designed an escape room style interactive game for one of the tents, which I then got to see played and completed by dozens of enthused families! It was so very rewarding to join this team and start creating larger-than-life experiences to share with my beloved city. Just as with my musical projects, I love creating experiences that are both literally and metaphorically multi-dimensional, and I’m looking very forward to continuing my involvement with Ingenuity for a long, long time.

Heading into spring, the hits just keep on coming: this weekend I’ll be playing the main entertainment stage at Cleveland’s Wizard World Comic Con! Though I’ve had the honor of playing at several other Wizard World events in other states, this will be my first time playing this event in the city I call home. Sharing the stage with celebrities like Kato Kaelin and Thomas Ian Nicholas is pretty cool, but I also get to share my visual art alongside my musical art as an Artist Alley vendor all weekend. And, of course, I get to check out all the wonderfully eccentric costumes that never fail to populate one of the largest comic conventions around!

At the end of the month, I’ll once again be making my way to New Jersey, for the annual Singer-Songwriter of Cape May conference. This will be my seventh year (I think?) in attendance, and I’m thrilled to once again be making the pilgrimage with my brother in musical arms, Kevin Conaway. Not only is the conference a great place for learning, networking, and building my skills, but I also get to play a showcase performance while I’m in town! It’s a very personally significant trip that has become a bit of a yearly ritual; I always leave the seaside town fired up and ready for what’s next.

Finally, I have a few things cooking for April already too! You may or may not know that National Record Store Day happens across the country, every year, and strives to celebrate indie music and record stores through patronage. This year it’ll be April 13, and I’ll be playing not one, but TWO live performances that day, the first at a locally run record shop – and I’ll be at each location with more than just my guitar’s groovy tunes to offer, if you catch my drift. Without officially announcing anything yet, like say, the release date for House of Ghosts in a beloved format, I’d say you’d be safe to mark your calendars and start…

THE VINYL COUNTDOWN!

Now that the groans from that pun have dissipated, here’s a rundown of the shows I’ve got coming up over the rest of this month. I’d love to see your smiling, grinning, smirking, or even pouting faces at one of them!

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend,

We’re only one month into the new year and already so many musical things are happening! On New Year’s, my new multimedia electro-rock project Hello Headrush debuted in a small house show setting, but it’s already visiting larger venues thanks to Akron’s Empire Concert Club and my friends from The Scenic Route. Having the opportunity to bring my vision to a larger stage and broader audience was exhilarating, and the next batch of shows are already hitting my calendar. Of course, you don’t have to wait for a live show to hear Hello Headrush’s first single, which dropped at the end of January with the help of a Cleveland.com article by the wonderful Anne Nickoloff. Check out the article here, and listen the single “Second Life”, on any of your favorite streaming services: Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, it’s on all of’em!

Also picking up steam in 2019 is my old band, The Mess Makers – in case you’re not familiar, we play the same material from my solo records, but as a cranked-up 4-piece rock band instead of my usual one-man looping show. After a successful reunion last Halloween, we’ve begun playing more gigs AND, most excitingly, shot our first music video! Our performanced-based video for “The Last Sunset” was filmed on one of Cleveland’s most bone-chillingly cold days, which necessitated some flexibility amongst my bandmate and filming crew. Despite the single-digit temperatures, we were able to relocate the shoot from an old, empty warehouse that would have been absolutely frigid to a much warmer setting: my Victorian mini-mansion (Who you calling eccentric? I’m not eccentric, you’re eccentric! Boom! Roasted.) in Gordon Square.  Everyone brought their “A” game, including our director Brandon Radic from Lights & Sounds Media who turned our very cold lemons into a delicious lemonade slushie. He has a great eye for locations, angles, and all the little touches that make a video so special. We can’t wait to share it with you in a few weeks!

Amongst all these bigger band happenings, my solo performance schedule has stayed pretty well packed, with gigs all around Northern Ohio. Lately that’s been a bit of a challenge for me; I severely sprained my ankle during a co-ed recreational soccer match a couple weeks ago. You may not know, but I happen to be an avid fan of futbol, especially the EPL’s Arsenal, the Columbus Crew, and the United State’s own Women’s National Team; I’m also a casual player myself in several local leagues. Though the bruising looks horrible, there’s good news: while I may have sustained a heck of an injury, our opponents did NOT score on that play, and we came out with a 6-3 victory! I have been walking a little gingerly but the ankle is definitely healing, and the show will continue to go on!

And for everyone who pre-ordered my House of Ghosts vinyl when the album was released last October, I have great news! The crew at Gotta Groove Records has informed me that the manufacturing process is almost complete, and I’ll be able to pick up the records and start sending them out very soon. If you haven’t had a chance to place your order yet, you can still do so HERE!

I’ve got a nice batch of shows around the region over the next month: 

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend,

Happy New Year!

I’m aware that I’m a few weeks late in expressing that sentiment, but know that it’s heartfelt all the same. The first days of 2019 have been spent re-charging, setting creative goals for the year, and starting to turn those goals into actions! 

Halloween’s House of Ghosts album release was such an exciting event for me, and the good vibes have just kept coming. I’m thrilled to report that I’ve receive the vinyl test pressings for the album, and they sound fantastic! Thanks to local vinyl manufacturers Gotta Groove Records, my new album will be officially available shortly, and I’ll be sending pre-orders out hot off the presses – almost literally! If you haven’t reserved a copy yet, you can still put in your pre-order HERE. As my second offering on vinyl, I’m incredibly proud of how this album has translated to such a time-honored medium and can’t wait for it to be spinning on your turntable!

The album release party was also an opportunity to reunite my band The Mess Makers, and we’ve been back in action ever since. Not only are we booking more shows around northeast Ohio, but we’re also shooting our very first music video this coming Sunday! We’ll be doing a performance video to my House of Ghosts single “The Last Sunset” and filming at Cleveland’s amazing Hamilton Collaborative, home to Ingenuity Fest, Skidmark Garage, and dozens of other art, music, performance, and innovation projects and events. It’s an exciting space full of creative energy that, combined with the videography & direction of Brandon Radic of Lights & Sounds Media should make for one excellent music video!

Of course, the new album isn’t the only big happening from this past year. Just after midnight on New Years, I debuted Hello Headrush, a new multimedia performance project which tells the story of a race of androids and their conflict with humanity. From the beginning, I wanted to make sure the live experience was unique and immersive: the “band” is comprised not only of myself playing & singing live, but two additional characters – portrayed by me – rocking out on life-size screens on stage along with me (insert “I’m beside myself” joke here), my microphone stand has a 3D-printed robot hand holding the mic, I’m playing a badass space guitar that was painted using fluid acrylics by Fiercely Serene, and I’m wearing a facial prosthetic to round out the visuals. The music is a combination of electro-pop & hard rock with a plethora of other styles blended in (even a bit of disco!), and I’ll be releasing the first single, entitled “Second Life”, from the debut EP Humanity* on January 28, followed by a live show at The Empire in Akron on February 2.

Photo by No.Numbers – I’ll be performing at his Proxy photography show!

My regular solo performances and those with the Mess Makers will continue alongside the Hello Headrush project, and I’m looking forward to another truly awesome year of music. I’ve already confirmed appearances at both the Cleveland and St. Louis Wizard World Comic Cons, along with dozens of other shows, all of which can be found on my website. Here’s a quick list of upcoming gigs – hope to see you in person soon!

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Lastly, if you’ve ever wondered what music I personally listen to, here’s a little window into that; I put together a Spotify playlist that reflects how my 2018 sounded. Some of these are songs that were personally significant for me, some I found musically inspirational, and others are just bangers. I hope you enjoy – and if there’s any music you think I’d enjoy, please send it my way!

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. Let’s make 2019 a great one!

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend,

This morning, long before dawn, I was already en route to Madison, Wisconsin, to participate in another Wizard World Comic Con as a musical guest and vendor.  Seven hours in the car proved perfect for ruminating on the past year, the goals and intentions I set for myself in January, and the journey I have taken since the beginning of 2018.

It has become a tradition of mine to outline a series of personal and professional goals each year, to keep myself moving forward and to constantly strive for new ambitions.  Some of this year’s goals have been absolutely crushed – especially the release of my sixth album, House of Ghosts, which came out on Halloween!  Thank you to each and every one of you who has supported that endeavor by attending release parties, streaming the album, and buying a copy of your very own!  I cannot celebrate successes like this one without all of YOU making it possible.

On a related note, House of Ghosts vinyl pre-orderers will be pleased to know that the manufacturing process is moving forward splendidly!  One of the major steps along the journey from studio to turntable is the lacquer test cuts, which have been created and sound fantastic.  We’ll be entering final production as soon as the final master is approved, and House of Ghosts will be in the queue for pressing shortly.  If you haven’t reserved a copy yet, there’s still plenty of time!  Drop by the website to order yours here!

Touring was a big goal for 2018, as I have always loved hitting the road with my guitar and meeting new fans, bands, and communities across the country.  A surprising opportunity arose in the spring to help make some interesting travel shows possible: I joined the Wizard World entertainment lineup!  From local Ohio cons, as far south as Austin, Texas, and west right now to Madison, Wisconsin, I’ve been able to experience incredible venues, share the stage with not only other amazing musicians but also various celebrities, and even start a NEW venture in visual art!

Creating visual art isn’t exactly new to me, as I went to school for visual communication design, which included studies in illustration and other forms of visual art, but it has been quite a while since I was so immersed in the creation of my own works. This was due to a challenging physical condition that makes it difficult and painful for me to work with small utensils while hunched over a drawing desk.  Being a part of the diverse and extremely creative Wizard World community has reinvigorated my passion, though, and thanks to modern digital drawing technology, I was able to tackle the Inktober Drawing-A-Day challenge to jumpstart my portfolio as a visual artist.  Now, I have the opportunity to show my work alongside the very artists who inspired me! You can check out all my work on my Instagram Art account.

Finally, creating and building the McFarland Manor music venue has been one of the most surprising and exciting accomplishments of the year.  It is always a risk to open your home to parties and events, but I have found nothing but overwhelming positivity, talent, and generosity via this venture.  Cleveland’s music and arts community is constantly raising the bar for excellence and always defies expectations.  It has been nothing short of an honor to host acts of all genres, including visual artists and dancers, along with so very many guests who not only wholeheartedly support our musicians and artists, but also give generously to local charities at each show.  The energy created every month has added a new dimension of warmth and love to my home, and I am looking so very forward to continuing what has become one of my favorite monthly traditions.

Overall, 2018 has been an incredible year – and it’s not even over yet!  There’s still plenty of time to come catch a live show, as my December calendar is full of performances all across Northern Ohio and Pennsylvania.

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. Let’s take a new road together, and follow it home.

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend,

Welcome to the House of Ghosts!

I feel like I’ve been talking about House of Ghosts for years now, which may not be inaccurate. I recorded the first demos for the record in a makeshift closet studio when I was temporarily homeless-ish during my move from North Carolina to Ohio. Over the past several years I’ve had the chance to road test these songs, written new ones and re-written old, and it’s finally out in the wild.

You can now find the new album on your preferred digital streaming or download service! It would mean the world to me if you were to take a listen, and if you like what you hear, to share it.

Here are the various ways you can get your hands on it:

• Spotify
• iTunes/Apple Music
• Google Play/Youtube
• Amazon
• Tidal
• Physical Copy on CD
• Pre-Order on Vinyl (Includes digital download!)
• Digital Download (includes artwork & lyrics)

And, of course, If you catch one of my shows, you can always pick up a CD in person!

And speaking of live shows, I’ve got a nice batch of those this month, all around North East Ohio & beyond:

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. Let’s take a new road together, and follow it home.

Cheers,
Michael

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Hey, Friend,

Fall is finally upon us!

As the days grow shorter and the nights grow colder, it’s the perfect time to pull out your favorite blankets and curl up to some groovy tunes. If that sounds like your cup of pumpkin spice, have I got some great news for you!

In a stroke of fortuitous timing, I just so happen to be releasing my sixth album this month, a full-length record brimming with new music. Titled House of Ghosts, I’ll be (very fittingly) releasing the album on Halloween, my favorite holiday! To celebrate the launch, I’ll be hosting not one but TWO release parties in late October. You can catch an intimate, private show on Saturday, October 27, at a very special venue in Cleveland’s Gordon Square Arts District: McFarland Manor. Why is it special? Well, for one, I live there. But more than that, it’s a DIY house show venue project I helped found, and the Halloween event will be its sixth show. Yes, my sixth album will be released at McFarland Manor’s sixth show, being held in the Sixth City….

If you can’t make it to the first show, I’ll also be playing in Akron on Sunday, October 28. The Oddmall Outpost, an “emporium of the weird” featuring wares from some of the area’s most unusual, creative, and unique vendors, will be hosting a plethora of events for Halloween, and yours truly will be playing the entire House of Ghosts album live in the Assembly of Odd Sunday afternoon.

Regardless of whether you can make either of my live events, the album itself is already available for pre-order on my website. Though the vinyl pre-order was launched last month, I’m so very happy to tell you that CD format ordering is now open. Head over to reserve your copy and score free shipping with your pre-order!

So, I’ve done CDs, and I’ve done vinyl, and for We Are the Architects I even did LEGOs, but now I think it’s time for something a little different. House of Ghosts will feature an exclusive 3-D PRINTABLE digital album option! From what I can tell, this special release is the first of its kind, so allow me to expound on the idea: you’ll purchase the 3-D printable file just like you would order the album on CD or vinyl (through the website). The 3D data in that file will be split into four piece, each representing a quarter of the final item. Once you’ve printed the pieces, you’ll assemble the item, which will form a scale 3-D model of McFarland Manor – which is featured on the album cover as my own personal house of ghosts. On the bottom of the model, you’ll scan the digital music code and voila! I’m serenading you with my latest hits. You’re welcome!

Whichever way you choose to experience it, I hope you’ll find, as I do, that House of Ghosts is my most compelling album yet. Over the years I’ve learned that no matter whatever city we may move to or wherever we may roam, we carry the phantoms of our past with us. The songs reflect my realization that the memories and heartbreaks of life and relationships create inside each one of us our own house of ghosts.

Album release aside, I still have plenty of upcoming tour dates for you to catch me live! In fact, just after clicking “send” on this month’s letter, I hopped in the car for a trip down to North Carolina (how do I know this? There are time paradoxes involved, best not to get into it), where I’ll be playing a Friday show at Olde Mecklenburg Brewing in Charlotte before heading over to Cary to catch the US Women’s Soccer squad take on their next opponent in the World Cup qualifiers. If you’re in the area, be sure to bring your smiling face over to say hello!

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me!

Cheers,
Michael

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