A metal outfit by the name of Mike’s Dead is going full-force right now, consisting of the totally brutal art of self-expression.
The music rockets you into an emotional abyss made up of equal parts strength, joy, and utter pain.
Represented by Hopeless Records (a label fitting the artist’s subject matter), Top Shelf Music got to have a chat with the Mike’s Dead lads after throwing it down for the second time at Welcome To Rockville Festival 2024.
How was being onstage in front of over 200,000 people? Any band favorites at the festival?
- MD: Rockville was great! It was our second time playing this fest and it’s always fun. Florida goes hard. We were able to catch a few bands — Slaughter to Prevail, Kublai Khan, and a little bit of In This Moment before we had to get back on the road.
Did your band get to take a nice walk on Daytona Beach while you were in Florida? Or hit the sites?
- Unfortunately, we had crazy routing surrounding this festival. We’ve been on the road with In This Moment for the last month and played in Myrtle Beach the night before. We don’t have a driver, so we had to drive overnight on no sleep, play the festival, and then drive all the way back up to Charlotte for another show the following day [laughs].
With such a mix of genres, what what inspires you to create such an interesting audio canvas?
- I think genres are old news. Every band nowadays is pulling from so many different genres that I think everything’s sort of blurred together. I grew up on boom bap hip hop, nu metal, and experimental electronic music, like Gorillaz, so I’ve always pulled from a weird variation of influences. I think that’s why my industrial hip hop/metal sound works really well, since it pulls from numerous worlds.
Tell us about The God Mode Tour with Kim Dracula, In This Moment, and I See Stars…
- It’s been a great time. All of these bands really have their own dynamic sounds/ performances and I think it makes the bill really interesting. No one’s playing the same type of music. I think more and more bands are looking for this type of bill so the night doesn’t get stale and fans get a lil bit of everything.
Tell us about your latest single “Bestrafe Mich (Punish Me)” the process of writing it…
- At the time, my engineer and fellow co-producer on this song was learning German. A few weeks went by and I was in my car and came up with the song idea for “Punish Me” and thought, ‘what the hell does this mean in German? This could be sick…’ and wrote it down in my notes. A few weeks later, we were writing the song and I was like ‘WAIT — I’ve got a sick idea for a hook’, and the song just flowed out. I wrote that catchy pre-chorus part in maybe five minutes. Just came out naturally.
Your music is dark, intense, and insanely addictive, causing quite a stir in the music industry. Did you anticipate your career to be such a wild trip?
- Firstly, thank you. When I started, I honestly thought it would be a lot easier than it has been. I started this project in 2018; started producing music in maybe 2015, waaaay before social media and TikTok were the craze. Now, the industry is so saturated with terrible music; it kinda clouds up all the good stuff. Only a few really outstanding bands are able to break through and that’s after years of releases and hard work.
- [I’m] really happy to be where I’m at, but know how much more work I need to put in to get where I want to be. Mike’s Dead was always designed to be a headlining band and we need to keep pushing to get to the size rooms we want to headline in.
What are your plans for the rest of the year and for 2025?
- [The] rest of the year is going to be very tour-heavy, as we continue to roll out the second EP with Hopeless Records. We’re two singles in and I think it will be a six-song project. We’re going out with Upon A Burning Body in June and have a super heavy single dropping right before that run. We’ve got big festivals later this year and are still building out our fall schedule, but looks like we’ll have one to two more tours in the fall and winter before the year is over! 2025 will be full-on album mode.
We can’t wait! Any final thoughts you want to share?
- I am very sleepy and miss my bed [laughs]. Tour takes it out of you. Thank you guys for having me!
Photography provided by Hopeless Records
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