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You’ve been handed the AUX cord. You are in control. You can choose to play the originals, but that’s not why you’re reading Switching Styles. You can choose one close to the original, like Philip Serino, or even Game Boy Jones. You want more, and weirder. That’s why you’re here, to weird out your family once and for all. It’s time for some confusingly weird tunes. Let’s get it out of the way. These are the weird of the obscure covers of well-known songs. These are the oddities of the oddities, the complexities of YouTube brought to you by Switching Styles. If you wanted something less odd, I would suggest Mike Masse , or Koto Covers , or Tarzan . Now that you’ve been warned, let’s begin with some of the oddest covers to weird out your family. "Candyman" by Primus, Originally by Sammy Davis The top of our list is “Candyman,” originally by Sammy Davis and covered by Primus. I would highly suggest listening to the original song as it’s been covered quite a few times since the 70’s, including The Sloppy Seconds (1989). It was made popular by the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ( 1971 ). Primus brings that classic into a whole new realm. At the start of the music, you aren’t quite sure if they are doing a cover of “Candyman”. Then come in the horror movie sound effects and the sound of cows mooing, and you’re even more confused. The vocals, if you’ve never heard a Primus song, are rather eerie. But if you take into account their style and the instrumental, it mixes in perfectly! With a music video that looks like something out of a Katy Perry acid trip directed by Tim Burton, the weird cover song is complete. "House of the Rising Sun" Cover by Asaf Avidan and the Mojos, Originally by The Animals Following the theme of weird music videos and creative acid-inspired creatures, here is Red Band with Asaf Avidan and the Mojos. Covering “House of the Rising Sun”, they provide an amazingly quirky cover. Together, they bring a whole new sound to The Animals’ classic. Red Band are the fluffy muppet rockstars that are taking Sesame Street style to the stage. Asaf Avidan is a singer-songwriter and a part of Asaf Avidan and the Mojos until they sadly disbanded in 2011. Back to the topic at hand, cover songs! What makes this cover unique is, funny enough, not the puppets but the vocals. Combining the deepset vocals of the Mojos’ backup vocalists and Red Band’s lead singer with Avidan’s amazing range and pitch, it’s intriguing. Red Band’s lead singer, Red, comments in the music video that “[Avidan’s] voice is penetrating my very soul”. That couldn’t be truer. "Thunderstruck" Cover by Steve’n’Seagulls, Originally by AC/DC Prepare to be ThunderStruck. Prepare for quite a few references. Steve’n’Seagulls. Yes, that is a nod to Steven Seagal, an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. Seagal is known for his action films in the 90’s and for playing the antagonist in the 2010  Machete  film. Dramatic, I know. Thunderstruck is a dramatic song before the addition of the anvil. The lead singer plays a mean anvil. And honestly, it fits right in with the overall style of the music and the musicians' aesthetic. If you aren’t sure about how much the anvil adds to the cover, listen to it again. Another listen-through means you’ll catch more of the banjo player shredding those notes! "I Got You Babe" by Tiny Tim, Originally by Sonny and Cher Remember Insidious? Remember Tiny Tim? Remember the terror of the song, “ Tiptoe through the Tulips “? It was creepy. We can all agree that it was a creepy song. This may be because the modern popularization of this song stemmed from Insidious (2010). Others argue that it was a creepy song from the moment Tiny Tim performed it. Well, Tiny Tim has a cover of “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher. The first note of the Ukulele is always allowed to get prepared. This is not the duet cover you expected, but it’s exactly what you’d expect of a cover performed by Tiny Tim. There is no sense of disappointment with this cover. Singing both parts for Sonny and Cher, he managed to sing the high and low parts while maintaining his signature vocal style and tone. "Clint Eastwood" by 8Bit Universe Originally by Gorillaz If you’re a fan of old-school video games, then this is the style for you. 8-bit games may have turned from retro to nostalgic to hip and back within the past several years. One thing remains true: it’s nostalgic as all heck. Bringing you back to the past is 8-Bit covers. Their covers sound as if they are straight out of a video game. Overall, this is fantastic. More specifically, this Gorillaz cover takes a chill song to a nostalgic place. “Clint Eastwood” started as a chill and rather mesmerizing song, only to be enhanced, thrusting the audience into a retro groove. Please do share your family’s reactions on Twitter @StyleSwitching!

331Erock is the name of a YouTube guitarist with fantastic fingering skills. In addition to just over one million subscribers, this musician has collected more than 136 million views. That’s impressive. And then you listen to his music and it becomes even more impressive. Behind the youtube channel, is Eric Calderone, a metal guitarist. He describes himself as a “Tattoo gettin’ comic book readin’ guitar strummin’ point and clickin’ tv watchin’ movie buffin’ wifey lovin’ average guy.” Most of his music contains metal guitar covers of anything you could want. With the titles “… Meets Metal”, he combines nostalgia, film, fantasy, and video games with the metal genre. The majority of his covers are metal covers of gaming soundtracks. These gaming soundtracks like Castlevania, Silent Hill, Battlefield, Duke Nukem, God Of War, Assassin's Creed, Undertale, Super Mario Bro, Overwatch, and Halo. This list is full of amazing nostalgic content perfect for any kind of nerd there is. Each of these music videos takes anywhere between 35 to 40 hours each week. One of his fantastic playlists is “Memes Meet Metal” . It’s exactly what you think it is. Metal covers of meme music. This playlist includes The Trololol Song, Careless Whisper, The Nyan Cat Theme And Never Gonna Give You Up (everybody loves a good rickroll eh?). Collaborating with other fantastic artists such as Jonathan Young in a “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher” Cover. Calderone told Live Wire in an interview that it wasn’t his first video, Pirates of the Caribbean, that got him started as a YouTube musician. Instead, it was his cover of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” – his 12th video. “And then my brother mentioned, “Hey man, this chick  Lady Gaga is kind of big right now. Maybe give her a listen? Maybe you can do one of her songs.” I was like, “Yeah. okay,” Calderone explains. Before his cover of Lady Gaga, he would get excited about the 80 subscribers. After he uploaded the video, his views were beyond triple digits. “I woke up the next morning, and my inbox was something stupid, like 1100 messages in it. I was like, “What the hell?” I went through the inbox and it was all the YouTube stuff. I was like, “What’s going on with this?” I went on and it had 125,000 views and I was like, “Oh my god! This is awesome!” That’s kind of the one that started it,” he continues. The YouTube channel provides a range of songs with a metal twist, thanks to Calderone’s guitar strumming. Check them out! Let us know what you think in the comments below!!

Oneboredjeu is a talented mashup artist starting in 2012. This name happened by happenstance because the username, “One Bored Jew” was taken. “My user/channel name is pronounced “one bored jew”. I would’ve been oneboredjew but Tumblr wouldn’t let me pick that as my username back in 2012. That’s when I changed the “w” to a “u” to bypass that. If I had known my mashups would take off, I would not have called myself this lol,” she explained in her FAQ. Using Audacity, she brings together different songs, sounds, beats, and music to create her own mashups. Mashups where an artist takes multiple sources of audio and combining them into one gorgeous song. Here’s an example of their work Oneboredjeu’s mashup of “The Lone Slim Shady” By Oneboredjeu Mashup. That’s not her only amazing mashup. She’s been creating since 2012 with songs coming out regularly. Unfortunately, at this time, the only place to listen to her mashups are on Youtube. As she use mostly official instrumentals but not have any rights to redistribute, she’s not only on Youtube. Below are several of her most popular mashups for your listening pleasure. “Barbie Girl” by Aqua and “Rain On Me” by Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande combine into something sweet but sour. “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran with the lyrics of “Down With The Sickness” by Disturbed is a superbly chill mashup. Making a high energy mashup is “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa and “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz. “ Gravity Falls Main Title Theme” by Brad Breeck with the vocals of “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers bring nostalgia to a whole new level. What are your favourites?! Let us know on Twitter @StyleSwitching!!

Would you go to a concert for your favourite musician? What about during a pandemic? Covid-19 is a pandemic that has impacted nearly every aspect of Canadians’ lives. This is especially true for in-person events such as live music. In the case of live music, most audience members are hesitant to return to their music-loving during the pandemic even as the limitations are being lifted.  One in five Canadians has had a live music event postponed while another 20% have had events cancelled due to the pandemic.  Teaming up with Audacity Data , Music Canada sent out a survey to citizens across Canada to gauge their reactions to live music during a pandemic. The data showed that most people even those that love live music performances are still wary of meeting in large groups despite their love for music and live performances. For  “live music lovers” (those who regularly attend live music concerts or events pre-pandemic), the percentages are even higher. Over a third of events that music lovers planned to attend had been postponed (39%) or cancelled (43%). Half of all Canadians don’t know if they’d ever be comfortable going to a live performance in the states while 32% say it will take at least six months to be comfortable again.   Even the most avid music lovers are reluctant to return quickly even after physical distancing guidelines are lifted. Less than 40% would feel comfortable in a few months or less. Many more 43% would feel comfortable in six months or more. Among self-described live music lovers 49% say it will take six months or more, or they may never feel comfortable at large venues. 48% feel the same way about going to a music festival. 68% say it will take six months or more, or they may never feel comfortable again going to a concert in the United States. 58% say that the cancellation of live music events has made them feel worse about the pandemic which is 34% higher than the average person. Abacus data in conjunction with Music Canada will revisit the same survey, later on, to see if the anxiety surrounding the quarantine will lessen. Keep an eye out for the survey here . Comment below to discuss your thoughts on live performances during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Flakron has created quite an audience on YouTube with over 3 million views on his beats and nearly 25 thousand subscribers to his channel. You’ve heard his music here before on the “ Snake Jazz ” article. YouTube has provided a great platform for sharing his beats and music with his audience. The internet has given a huge opportunity for him to not only share his music but learn new things about creating music itself. His music career began in 2012, but his passion for music began much earlier. He started making beats when he was only 10 years old with inspirations of 90s and early 2000s old school rap. Listening to the beats from other musicians, he knew that’s something he wanted to do. Here’s an interview between Dylanna Fisher of Switching Styles and Flakron Rexha. How did you get started in music? I was about ten years old when I started making beats. I heard some music and thought “I want to do that too”. How long have you been a musician? For about 13-14 years What was the music genre that inspired you? Hip-hop/rap music. What does music mean to you? Everything. It’s therapy. It’s a universal language. How would you describe your sound? It’s very varied. I don’t have a human voice over my music which must be compensated for. Therefore, the beat can’t be a simple loop. Instead, I try to make a “journey”. Who are your musical influences? Primarily my musical influence comes from the 90s and early 00′ old school rap, like Rakim, Big L, Cormega, Gang Starr, Masta Ace, DMX, Eminem. My producer influences are Scott Storch, Dr. Dre and Apollo Brown. I also listen to a lot to 80s music like Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Sting, George Michael, Kool and the Gang, etc. Why did you start on YouTube? I wanted to share the music with my friends and at that time (10 years ago), there wasn’t any other available platform. What’s been the response from your audience? Mostly positive. I don’t check my comments as often as I did, because one bad comment can ruin 1000 positive. How do you think YouTube functions as a platform for musicians? I think it’s a good platform to spread the music. But they make their rules stricter every year and I think that many musicians that aren’t already famous will change platforms. How do other platforms for music compare to YouTube? I’m not so active on other platforms except for YouTube, but I’ve heard that SoundCloud is supposed to be good for musicians. How do you feel about the internet in the music business? In this day and age it’s never been easier to make and spread music. When I started out, you could barely find any tutorial on how to make music. Not to mention that you had to have CDs because YouTube didn’t exist. So, in conclusion, it has made it easier. How has the internet affected your music career? I don’t think it has affected it very much, but I haven’t focused so much to build up a brand. I just want to have fun and put out my music. Whether it gets 1 view or 1 million isn’t so important. What are your thoughts on copyright? It’s both good and bad that it exists. For example, my YouTube channel doesn’t make any money. Just because I have used something in some video that isn’t mine, they decided to shut down all revenue. I get that, but in the meantime why not just stop the revenue for that specific video? It’s good that it exists because it protects the original owners. But they have made it very strict. If that continues, I wouldn’t be able to do this interview just because it wouldn’t be possible for me to upload Snake Jazz which is sampled. What suggestions would you make to YouTube to make it easier for musicians? It’s a tough question… But maybe change their rules on copyright. For example, instead of shutting down revenue for the whole channel, they can shut it down for one specific video that uses copyright material. Why do remixes in particular? I don’t do remixes only, but I think it’s a fun thing to do. It also becomes competitive: “Who can do the best remix?”. How do they tend to compare to the originals? I try to make them as different as possible. But original is original, it’s always better. What is the typical process of creating a remix? I always chop it up and just play around on my keyboard until I find something that I like. That lays the ground for my beat. What do you think about collaboration? I don’t have any experience with it, but it is always cool to see some people come together and create something. What are some of your fondest memories throughout your music career? When I got my keyboard for my birthday. Then I knew that I had to invest myself. Another memory is when some local artists wrote to me, and they thought my beats were good. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I don’t see myself in the music business or making a living through music. Just doing what I am doing today – putting music out for fun. What advice would you give to musicians just starting out on YouTube? Be consistent. If you have a goal with your music, pursue it.

Quaaludes Beats is a German music producer and creator of amazingly energetic beats. Taking his stage name from a drug within Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), he continues to provide the same trippy effects. Introducing Quaaludes Beats In an interview with Switching Styles, he explains, “Quaalude is the brand name of methaqualone, a sleeping pill from the 60s-70s. The funny thing is when you take it and resist sleeping for 10 minutes after it acts, you get a really hard trip. In the 80s, they stopped producing these pills because of the abuse”. That’s the basis for the name and his beats. His music is quite in-depth, with many different genres intermixed. He draws inspiration from Linkin Park, Rammstein, and Slipknot, as well as rap and electronica genres. His music is similar as he brings the influence of deep and dark vibes and smooth jazz styles to an overall dynamic sound. “When I look back, I would say that I always loved the ‘in your face’ sound but also respected quieter stuff like classic, jazz or pop. So my most influence is my love to music,” he said. The Music Of Quaaludes Beats His music is very versatile. Below are a few of Switching Styles’s favourite beats from Quaaludes Beats. “Sunshine Avenue” Starting with an upbeat and sunshine tune, this beat is sweet and uplifting. It’s almost impossible not to feel this melody move through you. “Graveyard” The graveyard is true to its name: dark and foreboding. It combines the energetic nature of the other beats produced by Quaaludes Beats but with a sinister undertone. “Unfavorable” This one is an intriguing song. It’s subtle, almost hesitant, but smooth enough to transition from beat to beat. The listener holds on to every beat throughout the song, from start to finish. “Distance” Distance by Quaaludes’ beats are high energy with a hip-hop and electronic feel. This is without a down a beat to dance to! “Soul” Soul sounds precisely as the title would suggest. It’s smooth and subtle with a steady beat, allowing the music to flow through you sweetly and easily.

Mike Massé is a classic rock cover musician known around the world for his musical talents with passionate reviews by his audience and artists alike. Toto , Rush , Sarah McLachlan , Asia , and Toad the Wet Sprocket have all expressed their love of his cover songs and sound in general. Here’s an interview with the Mike Massé and Dylanna Fisher of Switching Styles . How Did You Get Started in Music? Mike Massé: I learned we had a piano in my house when I was a kid. My older sisters were all taking lessons. I was too young, but I was more interested in the piano than they were. I used to sit at it and pick out songs by ear, and my mom quickly realized that I was probably the one who should be taking lessons. My sisters all kind of grew out of it and never really pursued it, but we still have the piano in my house. It was my mom’s. I think it used to belong to her mom. It was in the family. I started taking piano lessons when I was a kid. Then when I was a little bit older, I got my first electric guitar probably when I was around, I don’t know, 10 or 12 or something. It was just a cheap thing from the Sear’s catalogue or something. I got a cheap amp, and used to figure out power chords, how to strum along to some of the songs I liked. It didn’t really click for me ‘til I was more like in high school, actually junior high, I should say. We moved from Florida to Boulder, Colorado when I was in eighth grade. When I moved to Colorado, I met two of my lifelong best friends. I auditioned for their band actually, and one of them was a bass player and the other was a guitarist, my friends Scott and Ken. They both make appearances on my YouTube channel actually. Scott and Ken and I were in a band together with a friend of ours named Larry who played guitar. I was actually the keyboard player in the band. That was in junior high, and my dad bought me my first synthesizer. It was a Yamaha DX7. It was on backorder when it came out, but it was the best synthesizer of all time. We had it on pre-order and the store actually let me borrow theirs. I bought one, and they didn’t have one for me. We played, and our first gig was a ninth grade going away party. We picked a bunch of songs. It was like in the gym, the acoustics were horrible, but we did stuff like Rush and U2. A couple of the guys had been in choir, but I had never really sung in my life, and all of us divvied up songs. For some reason, I ended up with the hardest ones and I sang them all. I sang them all in falsetto and sounded pretty horrible, but it was kind of my first gig. From there, we were a band through high school and started writing some originals and such. Eventually, I got my first acoustic guitar when I was in high school. I was in another band, and I borrowed that guitarist’s 12-string and that was actually my first acoustic. I borrowed his 12-string for a while, and then that inspired me to get my own 6-string. Then I taught myself how to play it a lot from just listening to the Beatles’ songs. I had a couple of Beatles’ songbooks and taught myself things like “Blackbird” and “Yesterday” to learn how to single pick. I strummed the other ones, still learning Beatles songs on piano. Then in high school, I went on to be in some choirs. I was still in the band, and, played guitar a little more and started coming up with some of my own arrangements of things. When I got to college, I started collecting songs I had learned and arranged, and I auditioned at my first restaurant, got that gig and then that blossomed into me meeting Sterling Cottam in college in choir. We had a little acoustic duo where I taught him a couple songs that I had learned. Then we learned some more together, and we used to sing as a duo. I met a bass player in college, Jeff Hall, and then it became a trio. Then met a drummer and it became a full band called Twice Daily, and it was just basically a cover band. It was like acoustic because for a while we didn’t have a lead guitarist or an electric guitarist. We just did acoustic stuff. But we were still a full band. We found a friend from Canada, named Jared Spice, who was a music major and joined us on lead guitar and that was the last one. We got some gigs on campus. Then we played at the Spring Fling, and in front of a few thousand people that were just there, playing the stuff that was popular at the time and now its classic rock. I still do a lot of the same songs that we learned in college because it’s still the stuff I love, and what grabs you over time. I tried to document as many of those as I could for my YouTube channel. A lot of them are sort of unchanged since the way I originally learned them in college including the same style. She’s coming to my gig in New York on Friday with Sterling and Jeff and Scott Fleisher. A lot of my old friends are going to be there for a few shows and stuff. I mean, it’s cool that I’m still playing with the friends I made in college. No, It’s All Good. That’s Perfect. You Made a Lot of Friends Through Music, And Quite A Few Of Them Are Still Kind of Present in Your Life. How Do You Think That Is Important, For You Personally and For Your Music Career? Mike Massé: It was always important for me for it to be a joyful experience to play music. I wouldn’t be comfortable doing it with people that I didn’t enjoy being around or working with. It’s interesting because I recently put together a band. I’m not just looking for future bandmates; I’m looking for future friends hopefully, and like, the personalities have to gel. Sometimes it can be intense, and you need to be around people who are pretty mellow, who can ride through things without making it all about them or freaking out. I’m going to focus on Jeff Hall for a second. When I found Jeff, I was really lucky because he was really laid back and super talented, and he plays many instruments. He doesn’t just play bass, but he also plays keyboards really well, and he can play some drums. Everything you see about him in the videos in terms of how laid back he is, is just a fraction of how laid back he would be. He’s Mr. No Drama and it has always been good to work with him. I don’t remember a single time in my life in which we’ve ever raised our voices at each other. I don’t have that with a lot of people, but I have that with him. That made it easy, and he was always willing to go along with whatever ideas I had or songs to cover. I’ve actually ended up exposing him to a lot of music. I made him a Grateful Dead fan. He had never really heard the Dead and I got him into that and even the Beatles to a certain extent. I broadened his familiarity with the Beatles catalogue. My friends Scott and Ken since junior high, and we get along great too. Sterling and I get along really well too, and our voices blend well. We could fool people into thinking, if we looked anything alike, that we’re brothers by just the way we sound. He does a really good job of complementing anything that I attempt to do. He’s such a hard worker about it too. I really appreciate that about him. It’s fun to do gigs with him where he travels with me as a bass player now, and sometimes he plays guitar too. The big thing that we’ve done together is Simon and Garfunkel, that’s kind of our staple. It’s always fun to explore new things with him. I consider all of these guys my friends. When I made the leap to doing music full-time, they were also very generous with their time, in terms of making it economically possible for them to join me and not demanding huge paydays for gigs where they knew that I was. I was trying to get this small business off the ground, as a solo musician when I quit the day job. It’s been great doing that with them and travelling with them. For them, it’s a nice little break. They have day jobs. Once in a while, they get to go for a weekend or maybe longer and just play Rockstar for a little while and play in front of crowds of people who know who they are and who adore them. I think that’s probably really cool for them. I love that part of the job too. For them, it’s just something that’s a nice break from their routine. When You Go and Do Concerts, How Does It Make You Feel? Mike Massé: Let me start by saying this, I get really nice messages from people, from time to time, about how, how my music helped them or even how I inspired them to pick up the guitar again. I think that really gave a lot of people inspiration that, they could do the same, or like, “What’s stopping you?” I think because especially at the Pie, we’re playing at this super humble place, and we look like, we’re sometimes, we’re wearing shorts, or we’re wearing t-shirts and, at times, neither of us were in great shape. There was very little to look at in our early videos, but that wasn’t the point, and I think that showed people that, “Don’t let silly things like your appearance stop you. If you, if you have a sound to make, make it.” I had told people before “I sing because I love it. The fact that other people enjoy hearing it, that’s my side benefit, but that’s not why I do it. I just sing, I just do it.” And I think that helps. I know that it has helped people because they’ve told me. There’s the other side of it. We sang at this little fairy tale, romantic comedy ending scene wedding in the countryside in the UK which was beautiful. Beautiful setting, beautiful people, everything. It looked like a movie. We sang at this wedding a couple of years ago in the UK, because on their first date they both listened to “Africa” together. We’re a part of people like life stories, and they sent us this picture not long ago of their son. They’re like, “We wanted to name him Toto, but we didn’t.” You hear these stories. I’m a part of people’s lives and I don’t even realize it half the time. I try to do a little meet and greets after every show where I go around and take pictures with folks or sign things or whatever and shake their hands. There’s always like a little parade of those devotees who stick around and, and they get to talk to me in person. It’s heartwarming. I wish I had more time to talk to them individually. I had a guy come up to me in Australia who said that I saved his life. Because he was thinking about ending it, and he found my channel, and something changed him. It’s amazing! That Is Really Amazing. This Is Why I Do What I Do Because I Like Hearing All These Heartwarming Stories. Doing pop-up shows for me is a pain because I have to promote them. They don’t promote themselves. Usually, I choose cities where I think I fill a venue of my choice. The challenge is always getting the word out and just making people aware that it’s happening, and that’s something that we’re still dealing with. It’s just trying to get the word out for gigs. It’s worth it because that is the only time that I’m really greeted by full crowds of people who are there for me, and they love it. I give them my all every time, and I try to give them the show that I think that they would want. Sometimes I give them the show that they don’t realize that they want. I throw some surprises in there. The nice thing about doing classic rock is that it might be a new song to me but it’s not to them. They still know it. It’s like, oh they’ve never heard me do that before but, “Oh cool, he threw something new in there.” It’s like I love sprinkling the setlists with surprises and it is fun for me to keep it fresh. I’ll throw in a few for my channel that is maybe not quite the popular ones, but some people love them, and then maybe a couple that I want to do. There’s nothing like a public gig to get that kind of reaction. When I do corporate events, sometimes the person who booked me is a fan, but it doesn’t mean that everyone in the room is. I try to win them over, but it’s just a different vibe. I’m not there necessarily to be the centre of attention. I’m just kind of like, the ambient mood, but I still give it my all, but it’s just a different reaction. What Is the Process That You Go Through for Creating a Cover? Mike Massé: I hear it on the radio, or I hear it somewhere, and I’m like, “Oh, maybe I should try that. I think I could do that.” Or somebody will suggest it, and that was the case with “Hello”, a fan suggested it. I get suggestions all of the time, and I have to confess that about 80% of them I have never heard. The fact that I haven’t heard of it means it’s really, really unlikely that I’m going to cover it. There is music that I grew up with that I love that I want to get through, that I don’t spend time processing like, “Oh here’s a new song, do I want to cover that?” The other thing is basically anything if it’s in the 21st century, it is probably too new for me. There’s maybe a couple of exceptions from the early 2000’s that are songs that I like that I would consider covering. For the most part, give me a classic and by my definition. If somebody suggests a classic rock song that I already know and that I like, they’re on the right path of me actually selecting it. And with “Hello”, that was always a song that I loved. Admittedly, it’s a little bit cheesy with the orchestration and everything. Maybe an acoustic would sound even better in some ways to some people. There would be some people who didn’t really appreciate Lionel’s original version would like the acoustic version and be like, “Oh that sounds like it could be anybody.” but at the same time, the people who love Lionel Richie’s version, I want them to love my version too. It basically has to please both audiences basically. The first thing I did was sat down with my guitar with the song. I’m like, “Is this something that I can play? Are there chords on the guitar that can do what he’s doing on the piano? And the simple way that I can play this and not have to be stressed out like about the guitar part is too hard.” It took me about five minutes to figure out, “I can do this, and this is kind of cool.” From there, it was just learning the song and practising it and bringing in my other bandmates, asking Bryce to learn the bass part and send me a recording of that. Then Brock came over, and he recorded the guitar part, and then we went and filmed it. It’s kind of funny. “Hello” is the first video that I recorded, since I’ve been in Colorado at least. I never recorded a song there, I recorded them at home, it just looks like we’re recording in the studio but it’s just a set. It’s just a video set but it has a cool vibe, and it feels. If anybody reads the liner notes, I reveal that we didn’t record it here. I literally say that, but I know I’m going to get comments that say, “Wow, I’m glad you went to a studio. It sounds much better!” just by the visual suggestion, they’re going to think. But anyway, I should wait for that comment, but it wouldn’t surprise me. That whole process, which was probably a few weeks. I’ve got a list on my phone, a playlist on my iTunes called ‘A List to Learn’. That is the list that I always listen to when I’m in my car. It’s just all the songs that I want to record next or that I want to do with my band or that I want to do live or whatever, or all of the above. I’m constantly like burning new songs into my brain just by repetition. That is a part when you talk about my process. That is a huge part of my process is listening. I listen over and over and over again, and every little phrase that is in the vocals. Not necessarily all the lyrics. Sometimes that takes a little longer to stick but every little vocal phrase, how he sings or how she sings. I want to know what they did before I make any changes. I feel like I have to earn that. If you change something because you didn’t know what they did, that’s lazy. That’s not changing it, that’s you substituting something else. I always want to know how they did it and what they did. Then if I make a choice to change it then it has to be a choice that I’ve earned. Because I’m choosing songs that I think are great, they’re relatively perfect and that’s why they don’t need to be changed. I get many people who tell me like, “Thank you for treating it respectively or like, thank you for like not ruining this song.” If the world lost power permanently, and we lost all recorded music, I could still be a resource for people to like, “Hey remember this song?” It would still sound the same. You could send me out into outer space, and I could be a record of music in space. No, I’m just kidding. But no, I’m sort of archiving this for a new generation in some ways because I have a lot of fans who are younger than ever heard the original. All The Gigs You’ve Done, Do You Have a Favourite? Mike Massé: I love them all, but I don’t want to like to make anybody feel bad because I don’t mention them in these cities. The first time I played in London was pretty unforgettable. We sold it out and we played the biggest crowd I’ve had for one of my public gigs. We had like 500 people come and it was sold out, and it was our first gig in Europe. It was me and Jeff, and people came from all over Europe because they had never had a chance to see me before. We had people coming from Austria and all the corners of Europe would come to London, it was amazing. They sang along and it was great. It still gives me chills, the beginning phase when you hear the crowd respond when you come out, it’s really cool. They were singing along to this and that. The other city where I’ve gotten a similar reaction is Detroit. There are some nice guys that have a podcast called the Detroit Cast that sort of picked up and supported me early on. They talk about me on the show. First show and they turned a lot of their listeners into fans. Every time I come down to Detroit, it is sold out and there is a group of people waiting on the outside who couldn’t get in. Detroit has also been an unexpected blind spot for me in terms of the crowds. I go to the Netherlands and have a disproportionate fan base in the Netherlands. When my son was sick with cancer, a video site based in the Netherlands posted my cover of “La Da Dee” that I put out as a fundraiser. My cover of Africa had been featured on their site like a month before and it had gone kind of viral in the Netherlands. I had all these new fans in the Netherlands who were very supportive of my son and his illness and our efforts to help him. But when I go to the Netherlands, they are a little more reserved in terms, if you will. Respectful, if you want to put a positive spin on it. During the music where they’re quiet but then, then they erupt after the song is over. It’s just great; It’s a great feeling. It’s been fun to travel the world. I don’t know what it is about classic rock, but especially maybe just the covers, but it just attracts just the nicest people. They’re all mellow and kind and giving I’ve had very few instances of any trouble or anything like that. I rarely need any kind of security or anything. People all get along and they’re all there for the same reason, and it’s just like they all sing along and have a good time. Originally Being a Public Defender and Becoming a Full-Time Musician, How Was That Transition? Mike Massé: It was something that we considered. My wife and I considered overtime where we kind of viewed it as a possibility. What ended up happening was basically in 2014 when my Africa cover had a little viral spurt because it got featured on some Facebook post by a DJ and suddenly like a bunch of people found me that hadn’t found me yet. When that happened, I got some interest from an actual manager from Nashville who was semi-retired but had taken an interest in me. And he ended up helping me put together some musicians. I made a CD in Nashville, recorded it through a [friend’s] studio and that was super fun. It was a CD of covers but with a full band, like with a few musicians. It was really cool but that guy, Richard showed me that the industry is a good fit for me at this point. Maybe there is enough interest and maybe I can make this work. My YouTube channel was taking off to the point where I was getting enough gig offers that I felt like it was something I could sustain. Probably, if I put full-time into it, I could hopefully reach a place where I could turn an income. That was sort of the plan. At the same time, we were interested in moving. We had been through this cancer scare with my youngest son, Noah, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour at 11 months old. He wasn’t supposed to make it. We had a year-long cancer battle with him. We were actually concerned about staying in Utah for a couple of reasons. One was the air quality, just really a lot of bad air days when they just, they’re in a valley and, they have these inversions where the pollution will just hover there for days until a snowstorm comes and blows it out. We decided to move, and eventually, we ended up in Colorado. Our first option seemed to be Seattle. A couple of years earlier, we talked about moving to Seattle because my brother lived there. After the cancer scare, we wanted to live near family. We tried to pick somewhere where I had a sibling, basically. My brother was in Seattle, and then my sister was in Denver. My mom was in Dallas, and my dad’s in Florida. I have another sister in Vegas, between those locations. It was either between Seattle or Denver that we were interested in. I was applying for jobs. I actually became a member of the Washington State Bar. Then I was looking for lawyer jobs because I was going to become a lawyer there. Then my brother took a job in LA, and he moved, I was like, “Oh, I guess we’re not going to Seattle!” We ended up ending that search for employment in Seattle when he moved, and then we were like, “Ok we’ll see about Denver again.” That’s where I wanted to go, but my wife was initially not pleased about it but then she fell in love with it. We ended up moving here and it corresponded with the uptick in the activity on my YouTube channel, we took that opportunity to just kind of quit the day job. I kept my law since I applied in Colorado and did reciprocity that I didn’t have to take the Bar again or anything like that. I got sworn in as an attorney in Colorado. But I immediately went to inactive status hoping that I would never have to be a lawyer again. But I can still tell people that I’m a lawyer. I’m just not active. Anyways, another long story, but that was sort of what made me make the leap was thinking that there was enough interest where it was financially viable. It was something that I thought would be better maybe in some ways at least, less stressful. Obviously being in business for yourself is stressful and being self-employed can be stressful for financial reasons, and the actual day to day of, getting to release and work on more music. I’ve put out two videos a month every month except for the past one, but every month since I moved here. A Lawyer and A Musician Are Very Different Jobs. How Do They Compare? Mike Massé: I actually know a lot of lawyers who are musicians. I don’t know what the correlation would be, but they tend to attract the same people sometimes. A lot of people are probably like me, where it was sort of, I became a lawyer for practical reasons. But I also felt like it was something that I could handle. I have always had a sort of innate sense of justice, or maybe injustice. I don’t know how you want to say it, but where if I see something that just doesn’t seem fair to me or right. Sometimes I speak up even when I shouldn’t. I always had this inherent skill of advocacy, and I became a public defender because I really wanted to do criminal law. And to me, I didn’t even really care which side of it was on. Being a public defender appealed to me way more than being a private defence attorney, because you don’t treat your clients and because you’re on a salary. You have a different relationship with the system, I guess you could say. With the public, I hope, because you’re perceived to be doing the work that nobody else wants to do, in a way. You’re working with the people that society has kind of shunned or forgotten in some ways. You’re getting them at their lowest point, and they need a friendly face. I mean, they need help. And a lot of time, it’s about damage control. You’re trying to make sure that they’re treated fairly by the system, and they don’t get a sentence or punishment that’s disproportionate or that’s not in line with what other people are getting for the same crime. It’s not about proving them innocent it’s just about damage control. It’s trying to help give them, help them get their life back together. If this was like an anomaly in an otherwise lawful life, and you’re trying to like to help them pack stuff and get them back on their feet or if this is them crashing because they’ve been on the wrong path for a long time. Then there’re other kinds of situations, other kinds of solutions where people are going to treatment, and a lot of times you can’t keep them out of jail. You try to keep them out of prison, but you can’t keep them out of jail. And, By the Way, There Is a Difference Between Jail and Prison, Most People Don’t Realize. It’s Not the Same Thing. Oh Really? Mike Massé: When people use them interchangeably, it frustrates me. But it is like, jail is for, usually for misdemeanours for a year or less or sometimes for probation violations. Prison is for felonies, and for a year or more, parole violations or you can go back to prison. You can go to prison for probation violations too. But anyway, you’re trying to keep people out of prison, but sometimes that means they’re going to jail instead. I did that for thirteen years. It was fun. I felt like I really enjoyed the community service aspect of it where you felt like you were helping people, and these were people that I wouldn’t run into daily. I wouldn’t, we didn’t run in the same circles, and I wouldn’t see them on the street, but I would sometimes see them in court. But also, people have to realize that a lot of the time, your client one day could be the victim of your next client the next day, is what I mean. You see people in different situations. It was a stressful job, and I felt like I had kind of had it, my share of it. The longer you’re there, the more intense and serious the crimes and the cases become because you’re a more senior attorney. You’re given more responsibility. I was getting to the part where I was working some of the uglier cases that you could imagine of all crimes. If it’s ugly, I had it. It was to the point where I was like, “Do I want to become a death penalty certified?” You have to become certified to handle death penalty cases, and I was like, “Is that really the route I want to go to keep doing this?” It just didn’t feel like it was a good fit for me at the point. I felt like I needed something different. Music was sort of the complete opposite of that. Where it was like me, it became about me, hopefully not only bringing joy to other people and doing it remotely and doing it forever. I’m doing something that lasts forever, way beyond my lifetime. That’s the plan for it to last that long. It felt like it was a different calling and a different mission if you will, but to me, it was equally important and equally rewarding. When You First Started Making Music and Posting to YouTube, Did You Think That It Would Become Everything That It Is Now? Mike Massé: I guess it was a hope of mine that it would catch on in a way that there would be a sort of wider exposure. For me, the reason I thought like, “Why would anyone care about my music?” My first thought was that I thought that my arrangements would be useful to some other musicians, and that’s definitely been the case. I’ve had lots of musicians say, “Hey I steal from your arrangements, or I steal from your setlists,” or borrow or whatever, and that’s awesome. I just love the idea. People send me video clips of them and their buddy doing Africa because they know how because I showed them the way. The thing about me is, as a musician, as a guitarist, I’m a rhythm guitarist, which is a kind way of saying that I have limited ability as a guitarist. If you point me and say, “Hey Mike, take a solo,” I’d say, “No!” Because of the limitations, I deal with as a player, my arrangements are within my ability. That’s appealing to a lot of other average guitar players if you will because it is accessible. It’s not like, “Oh, someday I’ll be able to play that.” It’s like, “No, this isn’t that hard.” I try to do things well and I try to do it in a way that it’s not mysterious what I’m doing. It’s obvious, if you’re a guitar player, what I’m doing because it’s like familiar no real secrets. I mean, I have occasionally gone into odd tunings like I did “I don’t care anymore” by Phil Collins. That’s an example where I created this unique tuning that just fit the song, and this higher level. But if you look at the description of the video, I tell you what the tuning is that people can figure it out themselves. I’m not trying to keep any secrets or like it’s not proprietary, it’s just a little trickier. That was my initial thought, that it might appeal to fellow musicians who like the arrangements. Then the other side, I thought people might appreciate sort of the energy and emotion I bring to it with my vocals, and my way of trying to, suggest the original singer’s vocal choices and tone without necessarily sounding like I’m doing an impersonation. I don’t want it to sound like I’m imitating somebody necessarily, but I want it to sound like if somebody likes the original song. I’m not going to give them any reasons not to like my version. That’s not always the case obviously some people just don’t get it or don’t like it. For whatever reason, they just don’t get me and that’s fine. I’m never going to reach everybody. I try to stay out of the way of a good song. And I try not to change it in any major way where it’s going to detract. I don’t have the kind of ego to think that “Hey here’s this classic song that we know these people love. I’m going to make it better.” What I mean? It’s like, really? No probably the first thing you change, you’ve already destroyed it or not destroyed it but weakened it in some way. I try not to do too many changes, but at the same time, I don’t want to feel like I’m just like robotically reproducing it either. It’s finding that kind of balance where I feel like I’m bringing something to the song that’s worth bringing. Even if people don’t hear my arrangement or my version as some sort of revelation of something new, at least it’s going to be familiar and comfortable and be like, “Oh that’s a cool acoustic version.” That has always sort of been my philosophy. From Here, Where Do You See Your Music Career Going in The Future? Mike Massé: I would like to be able to play more public gigs and not be concerned about having to work hard about getting the word out. I would like to just have a bigger audience that there are more people to draw from. I would like it to be worldwide. My biggest audience on my YouTube channel is the Philippines by like a mile. It has like outpaced the US and everywhere else. It’s all because they love my cover of “Leader of the Band” by Dan Fogelberg, and that video is by far the most popular video on my channel right now. Africa was always number one, and now Leader of the Band is like whoa. I might eventually go play in the Philippines if that continues. I would like to see the audience grow. Additionally, I would like to see opportunities to have music placed in TV shows or in films where it’s getting kind of a broader exposure. Where people are going, “Ooh wow, who was that?” And they check it out and find out it was me and I make some new fans. I have a lot of future fans out there that are just waiting to find me. That is my mission right now, is to help them find me. I get comments on YouTube all of the time just like, “Aw I just found you, where have I been?” And that kind of thing. I know there are still people out there that are finding me all of the time. They are grateful they did, and I am grateful they did too. I’m trying to facilitate that as much as possible. It would be nice to have more economic security, I mean, I’m just like everybody else. I’m doing this for a living, and I have a family to support. It would be nice if I had more resources that I invest and put into production. I could spend more on videos or I could spend more on recording or I could spend more on arrangements. With that, I could get scores done with full orchestras and I could travel with an orchestra and do orchestral shows. I really want to do a Radiohead orchestral show. I think that’s in my future, I just really need the resources to get the scores created and I could pitch it to an orchestra. If I find the right orchestra or if I find a conductor who is a Radiohead fan and they hear me sing Radiohead, they’re going to be like, “Heck, please.” I think there would be a demand for it right now, I have a local Beatles cover band. We did one show with a local orchestra of all Beatles music and those scores were created by a couple of members of the band. It was all done in-house, and that was great. That’s Really Sweet. If There’s Like a Message You Could Send To, To Say to All of Your Fans, What Would You Want to Say to Them? Mike Massé: I’m always just appreciative that I have a music stand that I’m one of them. I’m just singing the songs I hear in my head, and the fact that other people that have any kind of value or meaning to other people is such a blessing and I’m grateful for that. I’m just grateful for all the time that they’ve spent listening to my music and any efforts they’ve made to share it with their friends. That’s how it spreads. I can’t share it myself; it has to spread through other people. My efforts are just a small percentage of the actual sharing that goes on. Every time that I see that one of my videos or posts gets shared, I’m just grateful. To Learn More About Mike Massé Check Out His Website At Mikemasse.Com!

Check out our Philip Serino Q&A below for insight into the work and life of a fantastic musician. Philip Serino is a musician that wears a lot of different hats, for a lot of different genres. Composition, songwriting, production, dreamer, as well as a musician of pop, electronica, jazz, EDM, acoustic, and so much more. His diversity in music and skills makes him a strong musician. He also maintains a balance in his life. “Learning to live and love with #intention. But be aware, Life will answer,” quoted from Philip Serino’s Instagram 2020 As his YouTube description reads, “He’ll stir up all your campers if you hire him as the music director for your currently unexciting summer camp, or lead your fellow congregation into a most intimate connection with God in seconds empowering hearts to radically love others when you hire him to lasso heaven onto earth with his majestic voice and music, or you can expect him and the rest of the Serino brothers to cause you to dance your face off and help you understand the meaning of LMFAO when you hire them to do music at your wedding, restaurant, bar, marriage proposal, or break-up. You name it.” Philip Serino Q&A How did you get started in music? Well, I currently live in Oregon. Before Oregon, I grew up in a big family. I am one of five. The oldest brother. Then we have an older sister, and we’re (Matthew, Thomas, and Phillip) like three younger brothers. My parents were worship leaders in the church. We were always surrounded by music. But I did not actually pick up an instrument until middle school. The first instrument I played was the saxophone, like officially in band. That was fun. I really start to be interested in music like the end of middle school. There’s more to that, I mean we started joining in the worship team like our family. From that point, I started to pick up the drum set, the base and just filling in whatever instrument needed to be played, and just figuring it out on my own. I didn’t realize that it was like harder than normal, but it must have been just my family and my parents that just have that ability in the ear to understand the language. School is where I picked up the piano. Then starting high school is when I started singing. When I officially did choir, then I realized, “wow! I can sing, cool! Yeah!” How do you think that your family affected your start with music, specifically like your family life? They had a big impact! Eventually, I started to take over in leading worship. When I started to take on that role that my dad was doing. In doing worship music for church, a lot of practice in like my dad has this like just tones of sheet music, just getting familiar with cords, charts, progressions, that was a big help in being able to really practice. Guitar, it was mostly guitar that I was playing at the time. Sometimes I did piano, once I got more comfortable with it, but I was able to. It gave me the practice to be able to play and also sing at the same time. That was a big impact. I think a lot of, that kind of music has had an impact. What were some of the other impacts on your music? When I was three or four, my aunt gave the Super Nintendo. Street Fighter was the first game. I was hooked, not just on the game but on the music. A lot of my influences really were Japanese composers and video game music. You mention that Street Fighter was one of the musical inspirations and loves that you had. What were some of your other musical inspirations when you were growing up? I should say, aside from Super Nintendo, when their Game Boy came out, I had that. I even remember having the Street Fighter Game Boy version and not playing the game but just to listen to the music. Just like, ‘Oh my goodness! This is genius!”. Pokémon; same thing, just brilliant music. Let’s see, some other influences. I mean a lot of video games. Zelda was huge. Basically, the classic games, I still think is the best. I’m actually really excited to revisit a lot of those video game tracks and redo them into my own style with my brothers. They’re highly interested in redoing some of the music too, and just make them and bring them back to life. Aside from video game music, I’m really into Disney . I’ve been like throughout different genres of interest, I think that in elementary school, I was into Hip Hop. That was cool, but then I switch to hard rock, and then Punk Rock, when that was a thing. I didn’t really dive too deep into Christian music, I just thought it was always cheese. Nothing special but at the same time, I always came back to it. I was really interested in like James Horner, Hans Zimmer, John Williams; John Williams is one of my favourites. Erick Whitacre, I was really into, his choral pieces, in high school. Yeah, I am kind of all-around with my inspirations. You mentioned having played a few instruments, do you have a favourite of it all? The Voice. If it’s like I have to choose just one instrument because I’m really able to express myself to the best off my ability. Then I have to choose piano, and then guitar, if they were on a scale. I think I did saxophone; I mean I did all throughout college, I still have the saxophone, its just not as much of an interest of mine because I’m more like a composer and songwriter, yeah. But it’s very different, the guitar has its limitations because I don’t really like to limit myself. I like to think that the piano is. I can do just do a lot of different things and really explore worlds. Even though I am like Jacob Collier who can just do anything on the piano, He is a big influence for me and my brothers. I will say the piano, and my voice, and also the guitar. I always come back to guitar. How would you describe your sound? My gosh, I would probably ask them which one of my sounds. This is why I’m kind of struggling and why I haven’t really release content recently in the last few years — just been really trying to understand where I fit in, what is my personal Philip Serino’s brand. I’ve written things for choral, soundtrack, electronic, dance. It’s so much fun, but it’s also very challenging. If it’s my personal brand, I would say pop, jazz, ballad, Christian. I do have a Christian influence, so I’m more recently really digging into those roots again. It is kind of hard to explain. You’ve collaborated with a few different artists, including family members, What are your thoughts on collaboration? It’s a good question! It’s changed, I use to think that I could just do it all myself, and I was wrong. I mean I can, and some people do it, but I think just for me personally, it’s just much easier, hand the mop to somebody else. I’m realizing that now. More recently giving my music away, like two of my songs already. I’ve given it to the Serino Brothers, our little new band. They’re really nice to be, “Oh! We should play this”. And I’m like “awesome let’s do this”. But I always wonder why I don’t finish songs. Part of it maybe it’s because I’m giving into resistance and procrastinating. Really great book, by the way, is “The Work of Art” that my cousin recommended. It blew my mind and changed How I approach writing. I’m just now really inspired to get back to it but with collaborating. I realized that ultimately, I am a composer. I’m not a producer. I was thinking that I wanted to be a producer but it is just much easier for me to give my music to a producer and let them do it. Even though I have all the ideas for how I want it to sound. But then again, I don’t. I’m working on it being more composer for composers, where we just create demos for producers. We’re filled with inspiration and ideas. As for the producers, they don’t necessarily have that, they just want to. It depends on the kind of producer of course. But they’re just wanting to make it happen, make whatever content was made work. They can go to us, and we would make the music from scratch, in the studio even, and map it out, make it sound creative. I heard that John Williams doesn’t even play the piano or pluck around. He just writes what he hears in his head. I get better at doing that, but I know that I don’t have the skills that a producer has. That’s kinda a big answer to your question. I think that with a lot of songwriters, they feel stuck, probably because they needed to collaborate, probably they needed to send it off to somebody that they want to work with. Plus, collaborating is the best way to market yourself on YouTube. You share with your audience; they share with their audience. Do you have a single favourite collaboration you’ve done? That I’ve done. Hmm me, my cousin, and two of my brothers, and a friend of mine, just did a cover, “Burning House” . We made it happen. It wasn’t even spectacular, it was just, “let’s make music”. It didn’t even get a lot of views, but it was like, “wow, we just came and made something happen”. I haven’t really done much other than that, but some other collaborations. My cover of “Lava” with Johana, my wife, I didn’t know that it was going to get a lot of views. We just did it in a different key to accommodate her voice range. I can do it but is really high, so it ends up being just a different key. I think doing a different key, plus releasing it, when the movie (Moana) still fresh was what got it a lot of views. Plus, collaboration, duets in general, are very helpful in that way. Ultimately, I’m not into my solos. It is so interesting that the collaborations have a much greater effect. Why do you think they have much grater effect in general? I don’t know, it could be diversity, the people that are included. It’s really interesting, but I am willing to explore that. I’ve known that I wanted to collaborate and do more collaborative projects. Overall, what is one of your fondest memories for your music career? There are several. When I was in college, I was with the group called PLUtonic, and we went to America’s Got Talent , with my arrangement of “Low”. That was a fond memory with just a group of dorky dudes and being able to tour in choir in Germany and France. First place, I can’t remember what it was. I wish I could remember stuff like these. My mind was in a different state, but I had arrangements that we have song both in the men’s group and in the choir. It’s amazing, for me as a writer it’s one of the most amazing things when your music is being sung or played, or performed. I would say, it’s not my music, but I did lead the worship in college, and it was just miraculous. There’s this one time at the retreat that we did. I couldn’t handle it. On the stage, I swear there was like angels singing with the group. It was just a beautiful sound that I didn’t expect for them to keep singing the song. I was just humbled by God’s love and grace. They just kept singing, and it moved me to tears. That was a powerful moment. What appeal do you think covers have compared to the original songs? Even I didn’t even think about it. So, taking one song that another producer has produced, that another writer had written, it’s very interesting. They changed a lot of things in the process to make it sound mainstream or whatever. It just depends on the project but it’s just one version. The originals always going to be, in my opinion, the best, because without the original it wouldn’t be. But the cover really takes it somewhere that you wouldn’t expect. It gives you a different perspective about the same story of the same song. I had so many cases where I’ll play the same song, different, and it’s so fun. You can play a song and turn it to a jazzy sound, or a ballad, or a rock song. The same song and you can explore different emotions by changing the core progression, which is something I love to do. But just messing with the core progressions that are different from the original, really is what makes it stand out. It’s kind of fascinating. I did this one version of “Annie’s Song” by John Denver. It sounds completely different from the original. It is a really good practice for musicians to be able to cover their song, not to try to imitate the actual original but making their own version. Because it’s coming from them, it’s coming from their songwriters. I don’t know if the songwriter or the singer is, but the artist, they are storytellers, even though John Denver. I don’t know if he actually wrote this song, but he sang that song his way, and another artist can sing it with a different perspective, and it’s just fascinating. How do you think that covers songs generally impact the originals that they are covering? I think it’s a really good impact. It means that the original is good, and ultimately, the original is going to get more plays, more views, more money. Its kind of helping that brand creates more brand awareness by having people cover that music. Like “oh I didn’t know that this song existed, I’m gonna check out the original”. It’s all like love, all this like positive energy around this song that’s been created. What are your opinions about the music industry on the internet? They always said, “content is king, distribution is queen”. I think it is fascinating. I think that’s where the artists, I mean people, and businesses in general, aren’t used to marketing themselves. For a while, I was starting to be really interested in doing social media marketing for people. I might do that, but I think I’m learning it, ultimately, for my business for my brand, and how I go about collaborating with other people, businesses, artists. I know that’s a challenge. It’s a pain to just put yourself out there. For me, I don’t know if I really like struggled so much with that. I have more so struggled with sitting down and working. What advice would you give to new musicians, that are also facing these same obstacles? I would say, challenge and encourage the person to ask himself, what do I want. If you don’t know, it’s ok. I went to a school of music, I went to college, I have a degree in music composition, which sounds really cool, but I’m not doing much with it. My composition teacher encouraged me to take a year away after I graduated, to figure it out, to take that time away to discover what it is that I wanted to do. At that time, I was actually much more involved in ministry and leading worship for a college group. That was my focus, and that was actually really good. I needed that year. That turned into me working really hard because I’ve always been provided for, I’ve always been in school and really didn’t know the value of work. So, I would say to new musicians, learn how to work really hard. Where we’re at in this age, and with the amount of creators that are creating, you got to stick out. I would say, read The Work of Art, and not give in to resistance but also love your work but not so much to where you don’t work. Just being able to, what the book says, “be a professional and not an amateur”. Do I want to write music? Do I want to perform music? Or do I want to produce music? Those three questions when they ask themselves. What do I want to do, if you had to choose? I want to do all of those. Some people might be able to do all those things. If you want to write, learn how to write, surround yourself with people who do write, same thing with producing, same thing with performing. If you wanna just perform music? Then surround yourself with people who are performing and go to concerts. If you want to get into producing, there are more schools who would teach you how to run the sounds, but if you know anybody, shadow them, reach out to professionals, just learn. That’s the other thing too, is ask yourself if you want to be doing music full time. Because that could mess with you. I don’t know if I ultimately do, but I think with the variety of all the things I could be doing, I could make it work. I’m not just singing all the time, or just producing all the time. How have you yourself overcome some of those obstacles in your music career? Being patient that things are going to turn out for you, and that you’re not alone. Something that I personally struggled with and learned, more recently, is to really enjoy the process. What I mean is, me and my wife hit a rough patch, because I’ve been so focused on trying to make this work, that I haven’t given her the time. I didn’t really give my child the time. All because, ultimately, I’m not happy or satisfied. She thinks that I would be happy if I made it with music, I mean money. But to really look at yourself, your life, and be thankful for everything you have, and realize that, this is for me, that, what I have with music, is all bonus. If that’s something that you really love when it comes to music, or whatever your passion is you don’t want to squander it. You don’t want to make it something that is not enjoyable for you, I had to let go of my past, of my obsession with music. If it’s creating a problem in your relationship, and it’s creating a problem, then is a problem. How do you balance work, passion, music, personal, and family in your life? It’s a challenge. Thankfully, me and my wife have counselling. I’ve been so hung on making this music work, and my desperate want to get out of a nine to five job. It really works in your favour if you just stop and paused and be thankful, because you’re not only getting money for yourself, for your family, and supporting, but you’re helping that business, whatever it is, and you’re giving even though is a nine to five job. Is what it is. A lot of that is just being thankful for what you have. For me, it has been a challenge still trying to figure out what my routine is. I think that I learned to talk to my, the spirits, you know, weird, cause artists and writers, they’re not the ones that are doing all the work themselves, they are getting inspiration. I will have a team, down the road, you know, once my business gets going, and starts to grow, I am excited for that, but just really learning to really enjoying present and really enjoying what I have. When I’m there, I won’t be here, and I want to be happy now. Do you have an idea of how you want to go forward? I’m starting to get an idea about it, actually, more recently. I said that like three times, but is true, a lot of things have happened in the last year. Me and my brothers decided to finally become a band, super new, and we are really excited about that. It is just still in the very beginning stages: what do we want to sound like? Who are influences, and that sort of thing, I did a lot of collaborations with my family, like cousins and brothers and some friends, that I really, really, really like. The music is just not ready. I’m so excited about it but I’m just not ready for it. I think I have to first know what it is that I want to do for myself. I have a lot of music, that I’m just hoarding, so I’m wanting to put it out there and give it to the world. Ultimately, I do music for myself but I’m realizing that its to give and share with the world. That’s sort of my plan, to map out what’s my first album. I made spreadsheets. I can’t believe it’s that much music, and at different times. Eventually, we get into redoing video game music. I’m really excited about that, my brothers and cousin are down to do that sort of thing. It’s really just how am I going to be productive, while being married, and have an amazing child, with a whole bunch of this music. It’s just, gathering it all and I guess putting it in the right place. Then, I don’t know. I probably need some help, externally, from somebody who can just help me. But, if I were to just do alone — I think that it’s what I’m doing right now — is just being able to put it all. I feel much better about it now. It was just scattered everywhere. The first thing I need to do is focus on my sound and my music and get that out there and just keep going, Artist wise. What are some of your future plans? I want to establish my business to help composers, and also producers, and also artists. I want to start that project and keep with it, where we create demos from scratch and send them off. We’re just a music laboratory, as a beat factory, then I want to rearrange just a bunch of video game music (Teenager Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Kirby, Zelda) and just get my music out there. Once I get my music out there, — which means I want to make my own first actual album, that I haven’t done — go on tour with my brothers. I’m excited for that because each of us has our own different unique sounds that we do. When we come together, we have our own sound. We do a tour that is just a bunch of music, that you get from Philip, or you get from Andrew, or Mathew, or from Tom. Eventually, this is a bigger dream of mine, but I know will happen someday. We will have our own music café. Maybe that starts as a food cart, and we’re playing music. But I really like the idea, I have a lot of ideas. Down the road, I want to be a film composer, whoever that looks. I want to create music video ads, like trailer music but for products, for different companies. Trailer music is another passion of mine. I want to create music video TV shows, like musicals, but they are more TV shows. But done in a different way, so it’s more like artistic music video style, but in episodes. I want to help people share their stories in a creative way. I don’t know how that goes, but I know that TV, film is a passion of mine. That’s why I went to school for music composition. That’s the big dream. Thank you for exploring the world of music through this article, “Philip Serino Q&A”.

Mike Massé is called “The new voice of Classic rock” worldwide as a solo, duo, and a full band. His voice and musical stylings have quite a bit of versatility. If you don’t believe me, check out his YouTube and a highlight of his music below. As the new voice of classic rock, Mike Massé remakes classic rock songs while keeping them classical. Breathing new life into old music, Massé doesn’t launch the music into a new genre, key, or style like many other artists do. “I’m choosing songs that I think are great, they’re relatively perfect and that’s why they don’t need to be changed. I get many people who tell me like, “Thank you for treating it respectively or like, thank you for like not ruining this song,” Explains Massé, “I’m sort of archiving this for a new generation in some ways because I have a lot of fans who are younger that never heard the original.” Take his most prominent cover, “Africa” by Toto. Mike Masse is a known musician by his fans and other musicians with his cover of “Africa” by Toto. This classic rock song brought his music to the forefront of everyone’s mind with his cover from 2010. Check it out for yourself and you’ll know why it got him to where he is today. It is one of his top shared  YouTube  videos with over 13 million views. Some of those views come from a rather surprising place. Not only does his audience love the cover but so did the original artists of the song, Toto. It all started with a simple email exchange between Massé  and Steve “Luke” Lukather (the virtuoso lead guitarist for Toto). Lukather was very enthusiastic about the cover and thanked Massé for covering it. People were sharing it with Toto constantly! He writes to his fans that this was an amazing moment for him to meet the band, TOTO. It didn’t stop just at a simple meeting. “I was not prepared for what happened when I met David Paich , the one who wrote ‘Africa’. I was so honoured to meet the man behind the song. But I did not expect him to seem excited to meet me or even know who I was. The greeting I got blew me away and still gives me chills to this day, just thinking about it,” Massé continues. Not only did  Paich love the cover, but he mentioned that he shows it to people whenever they come over to his home. That’s an amazing achievement for an artist and their cover song. Toto isn’t the only band that has shared their love for Massé’s music. Sarah McLaughlin, Rush, Asia, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Boston, Dennis  DeYoung (Styx) and Third Eye Blind have all expressed their love of his cover songs and sound in general. With over 281,000 subscribers on YouTube, it’s not a surprise that he’s been so highly acclaimed by his audience. He came from a place of music from a young age. There was a piano in his home that his sisters used to take lessons. At the time, Massé was too young. Unlike his sisters, he didn’t grow out of the instrument and instead continued to let his music talent flourish throughout his childhood. This led to him getting an electric guitar at the age of 10 and then a keyboard synthesizer in Junior High and ending with an acoustic guitar in High school. However, this didn’t lead him to a musical career early on. Massé didn’t start as a musician, but instead a public defender. In an interview with Switching Styles, Massé explains that he became a lawyer for practical reasons. “I have always had a sort of innate sense of justice, or maybe injustice. sometimes I speak up even when I shouldn’t, and so I always kind of like the inherent skill of advocacy, and so I became a public defender because I really wanted to do criminal law. To me, I didn’t even really care which side of it was on. Being a public defender appealed to me way more than being a private defence attorney. You’re working with the people that society has kind of shunned or forgotten in some ways, and you’re getting them at their lowest point, and they need a friendly face. I mean, they need help. And a lot of time, it’s about damage control. You know, you’re trying to make sure that they’re treated fairly by the system.” His cover of “Africa” was the catalyst he needed to transition from part-time musician and full-time lawyer to full-time musician. The transition between a public defender and a full-time musician was rather simple and smooth. There’s quite a bit in common between lawyers and musicians. “I actually know a lot of lawyers who are musicians. I don’t know what the correlation would be, but they tend to attract the same people sometimes,” He continues. That single cover led to increasing interest from more than just fans for his audience but professionals in the music industry. Gaining interest from a manager in Nashville, he got together with musicians and recorded a CD. Massé said, “it was a CD of covers but with a full band, like with a few musicians. It was really cool, but that guy, Richard, showed me that the industry is a good fit for me at this point. Maybe there is enough interest and maybe I can make this work.” From simple beginnings, he’s gone to great and amazing heights. He’s on tour now throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Europe with concert stops in Miami, FL, Beaverton, OR, Denver, CO, New York, NY, London, UK, Liverpool, UK, Toronto, Montreal, St Luis, and Amsterdam. “I sing because I love it. The fact that other people enjoy hearing it, that’s my side benefit, but that’s not why I do it. I just sing, I just do it. And I think that helps. I know that it has helped people because they’ve told me.” Check out Mike Massé and his music here.

Violin in a New Light, Featuring Lindsey Stirling. Lindsey is successfully achieving her dream to become a household name in music. Introducing Lindsey Stirling “On stage, Stirling moves with the grace of a ballerina but works the crowd into a frenzy, “dropping the beat” like a rave fairy.” as the internet accurately describes .  Starting to learn the violin at the young age of 6, Lindsey Stirling has always had a passion for music. Growing up in Gilbert, Arizona, Lindsey pursued the dream of becoming a household name in music. But  she wanted to do it her way.  One of her first steps into Stardom was on America’s Got Talent . That didn’t go well. Even still she showed her passion and that she was different from other musicians. That’s what got her so far in the competition and her talent.The judges thought she was talented and skilled, but they didn’t know she was good enough because of the choreography and the fact that she was a soloist. There had been many obstacles in Lindsey’s life: disappointment, rejection, health issues, and mental health issues. Throughout it all, she didn’t give up. “Every time she felt like quitting, she felt like God was saying, “Nope, nope, nope, you’re almost there. You have a mission. It’s going to be okay,” said Lindsey’s sister, Jennifer. Fast forward nearly a decade later, and Lindsey did precisely what the judge’s datacenter for and became legendary as a musician and violinist. Her music career has flourished since her time at America’s Got Talent.  She’s proven the judges wrong. She is taking the world by storm as a solo artist performing modern popular music with a traditionally orchestral instrument. She has created a sound all her own by merging the worlds of classical and contemporary music—an infectious sound. Her YouTube channel has over 10 million subscribers with over 2 billion views. That’s not all; Lindsey has won 2 Billboard Music awards, with Billboard chart-topping hits and sold-out tours worldwide.  In 2012, her career took off as she released her debut album featuring one of her most popular hits, “ Crystallize .” The song has over 225 million YouTube views, while the album reached #1 on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Chart and Classical Album Chart,  Two years later, she released her album, Shatter Me, which reached #2 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, selling over a quarter-million copies. The song shares the same name as the album, has over 78 million views on YouTube, and won the 2015 Billboard Music Award for “Top Dance/Electronic Album.”  Her album Brave Enough debuted at #5 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart and scored the #1 spot on Billboard’s year-end Top Dance/Electronic Album list. This single album earned Stirling a 2017 Billboard Music Award for “Top Dance/Electronic Album.” O n this album alone, the collaborations included Andrew McMahon and the Wilderness, Carah Faye, Christina Perri, Raja Kumari, and Rivers Cuomo, to name a few, She’s collaborated with numerous other musicians, such as Elle King , Peter Hollens , Switchfoot , John Legend , Kurt Hugo Schneider , Tyler Ward , ZZ Ward , and many more. Here are some highlights of her collaborations. Lindsey Stirling Playlists “Hold My Heart” by Lindsey Stirling and ZZ Ward “Radioactive” by Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix “Voices” by Lindsey Stirling and Switchfoot She has a great mixture of original and cover songs. Her magnificent style doesn’t waver between the projects. Here are a few highlights of her songs. “Shatter Me” by Lindsey Stirling and Lzzy Hale “Moon Trance” by Lindsey Stirling “Otto Knows” by Lindsey Stirling, Dying for You, and Alex Aris Her next musical endeavour is a tour across South America. previous tours have sold over 500,000 headline tickets worldwide at venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, Chicago Theater, New York’s Central Park Summerstage, and the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Her most recent tour is focused on her new Album Artemis. Locations include Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay. Do you have a favourite Lindsey Stirling song? Let us know on X @StyleSwitching!

Quaalude Beats is a German music producer known for his electronic beats. Combining the sounds of electronica, hip-hop, and dubstep, he creates unique and fantastic beats perfect for any kind of trip. What inspired the name Quaalude Beats? The movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Wolf of Wallstreet” from 2013, is based on the book “The Wolf on Wallstreet” by Jordan Belfort. Quaalude is the brand name of methaqualone, a sleeping pill from the 60s-70s. The funny thing about it is when you take it and resist sleeping for like 10 minutes after it acts you get a really hard trip. In the 80s they stopped producing these pills because of the abuse. What connection does Quaalude have with your music? I never thought about a deeper connection when I picked this name but there is a scope of what it could be. So this “drug” effects very explosively and hard, maybe like some of my beats? How did you get started in music? I started with music when I was 8 years old. At first, I played guitar and with 11, I started to rap. 4 years ago I started to produce hip hop beats and electronik music like dubstep, drum and bass and house. How would you describe your sound? I’m a big fan of dark and deep vibes and I think you can hear that influences in most of my beats. But I also prefer to be dynamic, so I also do sometimes stuff that is smooth and lightly like old school beats with nice jazz samples for example. Who are your musical influences? That’s really hard to say because I listen to a lot of artists in every genre. When I was younger I often listened to Linkin Park, Rammstein or Slipknot. Then I started to listen to rap and electronic stuff. When I look back I would say that I always loved, “in your face” sound but also respected quieter stuff like classic, jazz or pop. So my most influence is my love for music. Why did you start making hip hop beats? I started because I want to be independent. I don’t wanna depend on others, and so I started creating beats myself. Do you have a favourite one of your beats? In the last 4 years, I produced over 200 beats and I’m the type of producer who likes his work when it’s done and then starts to criticize it. So I like every beat for some weeks and then I start to make a better one. How do they tend to compare to the original sounds or samples? It depends on the beat. I work a lot with synthesizer and create my own sounds. Sometimes I’m using samples like in the snake jazz remix or some old school beats, where I’m using jazz samples from 1920-1970. So it’s hard to compare. Why did you start on YouTube? At first, I started on MySpace, because it was a good digital platform to promote my music, so people can hear it and give me feedback or tell me what they like about it. But then came Facebook and killed MySpace, so I used YouTube. Today I’m trying to promote my stuff threw every existing platform like Spotify, iTunes and so on. But in the end, I like it when people can hear my music and it gives them something. What is the typical process of creating a beat? I’m starting with the drums and then I compose a melody. When the melody is ready I’m starting to creating a bassline and then I work on the details like sound effects, grooves, timings and mastering. What are some of your fondest memories throughout your music career? In my beat producer career that would be the release of my first beat tape in February 2020 and that one of my beats was released on “fat cat beats” a YouTube channel with over 250.000 followers. Those are two things that I’m very proud of. What are some obstacles throughout your music career? Until this moment they don’t exist. I’m trying to have fun and doing what I want. What advice would you give to musicians just starting out on YouTube? If you want to get bigger on YouTube you have to upload regularly videos, like every second or third day (because of the YouTube algorithm). And also work on your content, make it interesting and put some creative ideas in it. Its never guaranteed that you will be a YouTube star but maybe you get someday a fan base of some hundred or a thousand people. What are some projects you have in progress right now? My last project was my beat tape vol. 1 that was released in February 2020 and now I’m producing beats for my rap project and some other people. My next Quaaludes project will be a drum and bass/house/dubstep tape, maybe it comes around August or later. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I try not to look so for. My work goes step by step and I just plan these steps and then I see where I am.

Flakron Rexha . You’ve heard his remixes when Switching Styles showcased our article on “ Snake Jazz .” These chill beats are just a few highlights of his work. With nearly 25 thousand subscribers and over 3 million views, Flakron has created quite an audience on YouTube. Now, let’s showcase some more of his hip-hop  beats.