EmCee
Mike went to Agoura high school
Graduated w/ a Degree in Illustration (studied graphic design too) from Art Center College in Pasadena
Got a job in graphic design outside of college
Mike is half Japanese
Middle Name : Kenji
Mike wears contacts
Mike has a Girlfriend named ANNA...they are "supposedly" engaged
Responsible for Soldier Art ;o)
Line Art Sketches and Drawing on the cd cover and merch
Mike did the artwork/logo for Styles of Beyond's 2000 FOLD CD
Mike took classical piano lessons for 10 years
Mike was inspired to become a musician after his first concert experience. It was a Killer B's show which was Anthrax and Public Enemy
____________________________________________________
Mike Quotes
"I remember getting in trouble in third grade for trading Garbage Pail Kids in class, and we weren't supposed to do that until recess or lunch. But the teacher didn't actually find my stash of cards, so she couldn't take them away."
"We just got out of Dallas, the biggest and most confusing airport in the world. It's so big and so ridiculously complex. They don't need to make it as difficult as it is. It's got too many driveways and all these ramps. You need to go on at least five ramps per street. Let's put it this way, I'm not used to it and it confused the hell out of me!"
"I am not driving. I'm in the back of the RV being car sick. Yeah, I'm totally car sick right now. I was laying sideways or something. You know how when you read and you're driving, do you ever get that?"
"I'm not a wrestler. I'm a manager. Our wrestling partners are our other singer, Chester, and our DJ, Mr. Hahn... they're the Sugar Brothers."
"I'm half Japanese. I like Japan. "
"I'm half Japanese and half hick. That Japanese audience... those are my brothers and my sisters. Those are my peeps." (laughter)
"Three shows ago I thought I was going to throw up all over myself. I'm not about to skip any shows especially for some stupid sickness. That was probably the hardest show for me to play yet. "
"This is a good story though. We were playing in Des Moines, Iowa at Hairy Mary's. There was no air conditioning and it was during the middle of the day. The club is tiny. We showed up at noon and everyone who was going to be watching the show was already there drunk and wasted. We got there, set up our stuff, and got ready to play. People had been there for a while and it smelled bad. It was humid and horrible. We played a full set and two songs before the end I couldn't breathe. I was running around like a madman and got nausea and threw up. I didn't want to throw up on anybody so I kept it in my mouth and swallowed it. And then I drank a fat glass of water to wash it away and continued with the set. Brad almost passed out. At the end of the show Brad was resting on his Marshall cabinet or he was going to pass out it was so hot. It was a very difficult show for us."
You can tell by the way we practice and hang out now - music is not a means to another end. "Music is the end."
"If you were sitting in your living room watching tv, having a pop tart and a soda, and some drunken idiot walked into your home wanting to use your bathroom. You'd friggin' call the cops!"
"When I was in highschool, if certain people started liking my bands, i felt like i couldn't like that band anymore; it was like, the idiots were ruining it for me. I don't want to alienate our real fans, you know? I don't want the kids who were down with us from the early days to feel like there isn't room for them anymore."
"I don't like porno. I like graphics"
"I'm going to sprout wings out of my ass one day and fly around the world."
"That's craptacular!"
"Oh baby, you know it."
MIKE: Chester and I met at a male strip club.
CHESTER: We were both trying to get jobs there as dancers.
MIKE: And it just didn't work out....because my butt wasn't big enough.
CHESTER: Yeah and I've got what they call the crispy cream which is a little fat area around my belly button which is kinda like a donut.
MIKE: Its from eating too many donuts.
"We can't have any new songs.............our record label won't pay people to write us new songs until we get the dance moves to our Clairol commercial right."
MIKE: My walls are about 3 inches thick and my neighbours must have thought people were dying in my house! The whole neighbourhood could hear it!
CHESTER: And you'd hear someone go, "You fucking SUCK! Shut up!"
MIKE: I think we were subliminally influenced for the bridge on 'One Step Closer' by my neighbours; "SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!"
CHESTER: At 10 o'clock every night, we'd hear (bangs his fist against the wall) and that was our alarm, so we almost ended up naming the band 'Ten PM Stocker', cuz we recorded on Stocker Street every night and at 10 PM, we had to stop.
"I have a toothbrush... my toothbrush is sexy."
Chester: I totally disagree. I think i'm the most important person...ever.
Mike: I think Chester is full of himself and I think thats really hot!
Chester: Yeah, sometimes at night, your full of me too.
On LP's uplifting ora..."We're not syaing that everything has to be like the Partridge Family but if things are going to shit, you want to stay optimistic. That doesn't mean you have to have a good time when things are going poorly; just look at the big picture."
"You know what? Our guiarist is a huge Britney Spears fan. We are all very embarrassed of him. He's not here right now so I can talk as much trash about him as I want. Out of everybody, he's pretty much the only one that will listen to the really poppy stuff. Which is cool because we need some of that in the group I guess because we're listening to everything else. Can't have the Aphex Twins and the Spineshank without the Britney Spears! And the Roots, and the Boyz to Men, and Radiohead... I could name all the things we listen to. "
"I chipped a tooth on a mic once. I hurt my back in the pit. Chester got spit on. We got human fesces thrown on us. We got a sign one time when we were playing with Union Underground a couple of months ago that said, "Go Back To The Suburbs". Chester held it up and said, "We love fan mail." In the beginning they were talking some trash but by the end they were signing up for our street team. Chester kissed both of them on the face. The kids standing around were rolling on the floor laughing. I'm trying to think because I know there have been way more casualties. We've been hit and broken things. Brad's guitar has hit me in the head before. I actually threw up in my mouth in Des Moines."
"When it comes to the lyrics, we totally work on them together. In general, we try and come up with something that's honest and emotional without being like, over-descriptive. I don't want to like hit you over the head with some story and lay it all out word for word. We just want to give you a starting point and let you take what you can from that, relate your own experience to that, and find the emotion that way. We try and write something that's cohesive -- we've got two vocalists, but we don't want to have two points of view. We want to keep it simple. "
"the thing we're focusing on is putting together these different emotions. Our album cover kind of sums that up. We have a soldier with these dragonfly wings -- delicate, beautiful wings on this rugged spray paint, stenciled soldier. So in our case I guess the hybrid would be the heavy music and the really emotional and introspective stuff put together. "
Brad: I love Britney Spears. Mike: She's a big influence on his guitar playing, especially. Brad: She drives me crazy.
On brad's headphones...
Brad: Brad cannot reveal his inspiration.
Mike: When Brad's being mysterious he speaks in the third person.
Mike: When Mike speaks in the third person he makes himself crazy.
Brad: Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich.
on difficuty recording the album
Mike: Sitting in the same room with Brad for two months. But then we got on tour and it just got worse.
Brad: I didn't shower a lot then.
Mike: He showers less now.
Brad: Well, I'm not that tall - I actually wear a size 11 [shoe] - and we're actually getting stuff for free now. I just got a pair of Converse, so in terms of filling shoes I don't have any complaints.
Mike: Filling shoes? Wouldn't that mean that those bands are gone? I don't think any of those bands have left the scene. We're all playing music together at this point.
Brad: That was a very adept answer.
Mike: Thank you, Brad. Brad's so kind. He's here for my moral support. Without Brad I think I'd be pretty bummed out on tour, because he's the only one who gives me any moral support. Everyone else makes fun of me - especially Mr. Hahn.
Chester: and at the venue after soundcheck, we did four photo shoots, one after another
Mike: It was like a photo shoot buffet!
"mike is so hot....oops, i mean joe."
"I want to give you all a little insight into why we think our fans are so amazing: we spent VERY little money promoting to video and radio, relative to what other artists do. specifically, we made it absolutely clear to our label that we did not want ANY promotion to top 40 and mainstream programming, because we felt that it was our fans' call: if you guys wanted to hear it on your radio station, you'd call them up and tell them so. many artists and labels spend MILLIONS trying to get their song played, and we spent NONE. our fans made their presence felt in the most natural way, and determined where they wanted to hear the song or see the video."
Chester: "Thank you all for supporting, for supporting the fight against breast cancer.
Because i know i'm a big fan of boobies myself!"
Mike: "Here here!"
Chester: "So i think its a good thing when so many people come together to save as many boobies as we can."
~~Other Members Bios~~
~~Group Bio~~
~~HOME~~
