Michael A. Sheahan is a 17-yr. old artist from New York who has a unique and powerful sound with great potential to succeed. Though his rich voice and sound leans CHR/Pop, Sheahaan writes and performs in musical genres that cross format in ways that many, more stereotypiclly pop musicians do not.
In a recent interview, Sheahan describes the day that he was discovered at the recent Worldwide Radio Summit in Hollywood, CA, his desire to be innovative, and how lucky and grateful he is for the opportunities that have started coming his way following the instant and overwhelmingly positive response he received from the leading radio programmers and audience members who listened to his music at the Summit.
With a sound that encompasses a style including pop, jazz, funk, soul, R&B, rock, and ska, Sheahan’s music presents a strong and inspiring voice.
Describe the day that you played your song ‘Summer’ at the World Radio Summit.
I woke up that day and went to a few panels. The Summit was interesting. Then, I went to this panel where they had disc jockeys from all the top radio stations and a statistics person, a professor. They would play sixty seconds of a song through the speakers and all the radio people would give their opinion on it as to whether it would be a hit song or not. Then the statistics person had already done work on the songs to see whether it would be a hit or not. If it was above a certain percent then it is almost a guaranty to be a hit. If it were between another percentage and the top percent, it would be still be ok, but if it was under that percentage then it is probably not a hit.
All the songs played were pre-done. They did that for the majority of the panel. After that, out of about twenty to twenty-five artists in the room, they chose two from the audience to play their song for the panel. I was one of the two artists picked. None of the previous songs pre-selected and played had any brilliant reviews. Before me were two girls, Jocelyn and Lisa from Canada, and they had a very good song that was really liked by the radio people. Then they picked me. They played sixty seconds of my song, ‘Summer.’ Immediately after it was over, the audience reacted positively to it. I was very surprised. The panelists really seemed to like it a lot as well. I got an interesting reaction that was counter to everything that they had played before. It was incredible considering how much music they must listen to on a regular basis. I got very lucky. I am so lucky that that particular DJ chose me to play my song. I am grateful to my family who helped me to get this opportunity.
Describe the process for the three songs that you have studio recorded right now.
I’m still writing and I’m about to go in the studio again to finish a full album. I just recorded these three a few weeks ago. I’ve been writing for a long time, but these three were written fairly recently. They were just better than many of the other ones. I’m going to try to continue to write new stuff. I write in a variety of genres. I just let myself write whatever comes to me. The recording was very brilliant. I had top studio musicians playing on the tracks. I just let them do their thing on it. They did what they felt would be artistically the best that it could be. They are the musicians and they know what they are doing. Melody comes first for me in the songwriting process, but it all has to happen together at the exact same time. It’s very hard to describe my process of writing because I don’t even know exactly how it works. Most of the time, I’ll think of a melody and the lyrics will come. They lyrics are no problem, but the melody is the big thing that I focus on when I’m writing a song.
What are your influences for these songs?
For ‘Wrote a Song With Her,’ I had listened to some songs that had male and female vocal parts interchanging. I thought that it would be very cool to do that. I thought, why don’t I write a song about writing a song with a girl.
Like meta-songwriting? Yeah, it’s a song within a song within a song.
Where did your idea for the big hit, ‘Summer,’ come from?
In New York, the winter was very, very, long. I felt that I should write about summer. I was so tired of winter. I hope that if you listen to this song that it will make you feel warm.
Where are you from? Where do you want to work?
I was born in Yonkers, New York and then moved to Long Island, New York. I’ve traveled all over the place. I’m based in New York, but I’m moving out to Los Angeles in September. In New York, I’m an hour outside of the city, the suburbs. I haven’t really gotten in to the scene out there. I think that the weather is so much better in Los Angeles. In addition, there are so many opportunities to perform live and connections in Los Angeles. Just being in Los Angeles at the World Radio Summit and the Musexpo has provided incredible connections. It’s crazy. Other musicians from throughout the world have told me that people in Sweden, Russia, England, Ireland, throughout Europe and Asia would love my music. I love Europe and I’m sure working throughout the world will inspire new music.
Your music is good. I get the sense that you have the potential to blow up in the industry quick. What was your first experience with music that gave you the desire to do this professionally?
Thank you. The first real rock song that I ever heard was ‘Bad to the Bone’ by George Thorogood. I heard it on the radio when I was two or three years old and I couldn’t get over it. It gave me a feeling. That’s what I want to give to the audience, a feeling. That’s exactly why I play music and how I write music. If I’m writing a song and I don’t get that feeling from the song then it goes in the garbage.
You would probably do a very interesting cover of 'Bad to the Bone.'
I, honestly, have never even thought of it before this interview, but now I’m going to cover that song. It is a good idea.
Who are your major influences as a performer, singer-songwriter?
I have so many and I’ve gone through so many different stages of this thing. From opposite genres to opposite artists, but if I listed them all, it would take all day. Black Keys, Weezer, Jack White, Lettuce (a funk band from Boston), Cake are all huge influences for me. I love funk and soul. I think that because of my variety of influences that I won’t be pigeonholed as the stereotypical male-pop singer. I look for a variety in my audience that has as much variety as my influences.
How did you start writing and performing?
I always sang. My very first instrument was a violin that my Dad bought me. I never played it. I don’t know how to play that. I think I broke the violin. Then I got a guitar. I started playing that a little bit and was on and off with that. I took piano lessons for a year, but have since forgotten everything. Recently, I started taking lessons again. I’m terrible, but I like messing around with it. I found most of melodies coming from the guitar. I’d like to try to write more on the piano because I think I’ll get quite a few interesting ideas from that. In elementary school, I started playing the trumpet and in high school, I started playing the drums. I love horns and the sound of horns on a track. I’m a big fan of electronic music, certain artists, and dubstep. I would love to add more of it into my music if I could in a place where it fits and still sounds tasteful. I think that it might be hard to do, but I really want to do it like an AlunaGeorge kind of thing. I really love that sound. A song could be popular and then remixed for a completely different genre. It could keep the song popular for a long time.
As far as when I started performing, occasionally when I was little, I would do a song with my dad when he was performing. I’d go up to the stage and perform, ‘You’re my Sunshine,’ or something like that. It would be occasional like that for a while until middle school where I started getting into bands with my friends. We started practicing, but I don’t think we ever got any shows. Now in high school I got together with a band, did some covers, and we’ve done shows at the school. I’ve done some open mic stuff like singer-songwriter locations and I’ve had good responses.
Whom are you listening to right now?
The most recent thing on my iPod is a band called Foxygen. They kind of have a super-old, 60s, Kinks feeling. I like very weird music, things that sound completely unexpected but are still good.
It’s commendable to have that variety of ear. Have you thought about doing cover songs?
I enjoy doing covers and making them my own thing. I like to do songs that I don’t know others really to do. I recently covered, ‘If I ain’t Got You,’ by Alicia Keys. I was thinking the other day that I’d like to do, ‘Shining Star,’ by Earth, Wind, and Fire.
How do you set yourself apart from other artists like yourself?
I have a different way of thinking. I can’t exactly put my finger on it. It could be my huge variety of influences. I don’t want to be the same as everybody else. As much as I can be, I want to be somebody that’s known as me and nothing else. I’m really influenced by Ska music. Ska influences and underlies many artists music that you already know, but would not know that that was part of their thing.
How is the development of a fan base going for you?
I haven’t really started social networking, but my fan base has been mostly family and friends. Surprisingly, it has come fairly easy. I’ve had no problem gaining the fans that I do have even without pushing anything, which I think, is very interesting. I think that the future of the music business is going to go more with the Internet, social media, and downloading. It is for the better. I think that the people who can figure where it is going to be in the future are going to be successful. Like whoever thinks of something that hasn’t been thought of yet will be the most successful. People don’t buy as many CDs anymore or even on the Internet with piracy, people don’t buy as much anymore. We need a new idea for someone to think of and I think it’s going to be somebody young. It could be from someone who has been in the business for a long time too, I guess, but I don’t really know. It takes the younger artists to reinvent the business because they’re a direct link to the future.
What would your music look like visually if you were to make a video?
I’m still trying to think of that. I would like to do something very innovative with video, something that people have not done before, and different.
What else have you been doing creatively? I’ve been co-writing with other people, which is something that I love doing. Also, I’ve been taking audio engineering classes. Mixing and producing is something that I’d like to get into more.
What are your plans for the future?
I really want to finish writing the best songs that I can write and get into a studio and finish my album. That’s my immediate goal for the rest of the year. I would definitely love to tour Europe. I would love to play with more obscure bands on tour like Foxygen or Lettuce. If I were to go on tour, I would have a huge variety of different genre and acts. It wouldn’t be all the same thing. I’d bring in so many different audiences. I wouldn’t want just one specific group.
Since your breakout experience at the World Radio Summit, what has happened?
I think people started taking me more seriously because people heard what I am able to do. It reached a multitude of people at once and it was almost like someone testing a song on a small audience to see how a larger audience would react. It was like that, but by chance. Seeing how the audience reacted, it might signify how other people will react. The connections and everyone who has wanted to meet me after that has opened up the possibility for so many more possibilities. It was such a great opportunity. I am so grateful. There are so many ways to make it in the industry now. There are infinite routes that people can take to reach success, but we only think of a select few. The people who can really think of those infinite routes are the ones who are going to be the most successful. Being around the industry has reinforced many of the ideas that I have already had. Music has a feeling. If the sound that you hear gives you that feeling then it is music.
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