The Super Clean Sound of Michael Pink
Every serious musician dreams of earning a sustainable income solely from their craft, but the reality is very few of their efforts yield enough monetary results to support that kind of lifestyle. The vast majority of musicians must live a life of duality. You never know which gas station attendant, shoe salesman, cop or doctor could be a virtuoso in disguise. Sometimes rock ‘n roll happens right under our very noses, and if we’re not careful, the next prodigy could slip through the cracks.
We found such an individual a few months ago at the 1100 AM radio station on Broadway. The irony is that it wasn’t on the air that we heard about him, but rather he was hiding behind the scenes. Had it not been for 1100 AM sound man Tom Bushy, we would not have known this particular talented songsmith was in our midst.
A few of us at HPR host radio shows on 1100 AM, and one night after a broadcast of “HPR Night with Raul and Zach” we were urgently beckoned into the production room by Bushy. We listened with wonder as he frantically told us about Michael Pink, who just happens to work at the station in a janitorial capacity.
Bushy is a radio-world veteran of over 20 years, so when we saw him get that ecstatic over a musician we were almost immediately sold. Then he pulled up Michael’s Myspace, and nothing could have prepared us for what we heard.
His music is so powerful, yet what is perhaps most impressive is the fact that we were listening to an entire band orchestrated by one man. On his self-produced, self-titled debut album that was recorded “in various bedrooms across the upper Midwest,” he sings, drums, and plays both guitar and bass. He also happens to be entirely self-trained on every one of these instruments. His sound is difficult to classify, but in terms of noticeable influences, Beatles, The Replacements and The Laws seem to stand out. His songs are like a tour through the realms of indie rock, classic rock, folk, confessional and everything in between. Truly a versatile player.
Michael Pink first began his life as a musician at the age of 14 in West Fargo, under the oddest of circumstances. “In my room I had an electric blanket,” he said, “and it started on fire and burned my room up… totally scorched my room. We took the money from that, refurbished my room and stuff, but also took that money and my mom bought me a drum set.”
Once the musical cogs were set in motion, Pink was determined to take it to the next level. Along with this support of his wife, they put a plan into action.
“I met her when I was 16. We started dating… got married when I was 18. I played drums for some bands [around Fargo], and then when I was 21 or 22 I started taking a real profound interest in trying to write songs, and I had just picked up the guitar properly. I just got the sudden urge to write and record and I couldn’t do it in an apartment,” he said. “So, she has relatives, my wife, down in South Dakota, so we always thought this little town, Yankton, was kind of a nice little town. We kind of decided let’s pick up everything and move to Yankton, South Dakota, and rent a house, live the simple life. I can have a place where I can record, and write, and making pick up some odd jobs….”
It was there in Yankton that Pink began creating the album that caught our attention, and according to Pink, it didn’t take long for a few of these first tracks to pique the interest of some record labels.
“I set up shop there and started writing and recording… put a couple songs on Myspace… and I got record label interest right away from just that. An A&R guy contacted me… up to that point I had a suspicion that I might be good at writing songs. I mean, everybody thinks they’re good at something, but it just kind of confirmed it and fueled it. I was doing it for me, but up to that point it was like I was the only one that thought I was good,” he said.
After a couples years in Yankton of writing, recording and communicating with record reps, Pink decided to take advantage of the booming music scene in the Twin Cities.
“I had accumulated a lot of interest from the Cities, so we went to Minneapolis, which was kind of a bummer in a way…. Going from a nice house in the countryside to a little apartment in the Cities… it has its advantages, obviously, and amenities…. I was unable to record as much, because you can’t really record in an apartment, so I pretty much spent a lot of time smoking cigarettes on my snow-covered balcony, once in a while driving into the city for meetings with producers and stuff.”
Pink has been contacted by associates of various names like Paul Westerberg, Soul Asylum and Quiet Drive to name a few. In addition, Mr. Pink (not to be confused with Steve Buscemi’s Reservoir Dogs character) has a track being considered for use in an upcoming Steve Buscemi film, and there’s talk of a Subaru commercial as well. When he’s not negotiating with record reps and the like, he supports himself through various cleaning gigs, and takes pride in his work and its almost meditative qualities.
“When I was in Yankton I had a job at a car dealership sweeping up there,” he said, “and they always played muzak, and it was awesome. I heard this song that I really liked, so I walked to the mop closet, which is where the display screen was. I went home and searched the artist, and I wanted to get my music out, so I contacted the record label that the artist was on and kind of sheepishly put out my songs. I got up the next morning to check my email with my coffee, and I got an email back from him right away saying like, ‘Your stuff is great.’ And then I thought maybe I could be up on that speaker in the car dealership…. When I lived here [in Fargo]... I pretty much cleaned every place in town. I’ve cleaned the Fargo Police station, City Hall, Wells Fargo, every bank in town pretty much, and it’s always been this thing for me. Everybody’s got muzak… when I’m doing that kind of work I get inspired like that.”
We’re proud to have Michael Pink playing HPR’s 15th birthday celebration on Friday, Sept. 18. You’re not going to want to miss out—we guarantee you won’t be disappointed. For more information on Michael Pink, visit http://www.myspace.com/michaelpink, or you can hear the archived radio broadcasts from 1100AM at http://www.AM1100.tv (Show dates: 6/5/9 & 7/17/9). He will also be on the “HPR Night with Raul and Zach” show this Friday night at 8 p.m. on 1100AM. Check out the info box for upcoming live performance dates.
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INFO:
When: Thurs, Aug 27, 10pm
Where: The Nestor
Who: Michael Pink
When: Fri, Sept 4, 10pm
Where: Aquarium
Cost: $5
When: Friday, Sept. 18
Where: HPR 15th Birthday Party
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