Mike began his musical journey at the ripe age of 11 when he moved to the amazing city of Madrid, Spain with his family. Immediately after the move, he picked up the trumpet in grade school symphonic band as his first instrument. For the next 4 years Mike learned how to read music and even though the horn was his primary instrument, he constantly felt the pull to drums and percussion. Secretly, Mike would get to the band hall early and play the drum set before anyone else arrived for practice.
After spending 4 glorious years in Spain, Mike moved back to the United States in 1984 and finally decided to give up the horn and take up drums in his high school marching band drum line. It is here where the true journey into his music passion began. For the rest of his high school and into his college life, Mike continued his passion for drumming. He marched with his college drum line (snare) and dabbled into drum corps. While in college as a music major, Mike also discovered the wonderful world of audio engineering and playing in the college jazz band. Throughout this extensive period in his life, Mike took any live gig he could to play. Mike also learned what it took to be a part-time session player while in college helping out other musicians by offering to play on demos and other recorded gigs. This experience left a profound impact on his musicianship.
Unfortunately, this journey would come to an end far before he wanted it to. Mike learned later in his music journey just how competitive the audio engineering world could be. He felt that unless your last name was Schnee, Scheiner, Jones , Schmitt or Lang the chances of landing a full-time gig as an audio engineer was a pipe dream. So, other than playing the occasional gig here and there, Mike’s journey as a musician and engineer came to a halt.
Fast forward to today…
In late 2023, Mike’s son, Colin, decided to pick up the electric guitar. Not unlike his father, this became a huge passion and soon, Colin convinced his dad to take up the drums again. Only this time, Mike wanted to outfit himself with the absolute best set up he could afford. After finding a choice set of Pearl Masters Maple drums, he outfitted them with top of the line Zildjian K series cymbals. Eventually, Mike set up an ultra-reliable tracking studio with workhorse mics, mixing board and a flagship MacBook Pro running Logic Pro with high-end plugins including Universal Audio and Solid State Logic.
All of this has led to Mike creating and maintaining a growing YouTube channel where he showcases his drumming and mixing skills. On his channel, @mikebyrddrums, he posts high-quality mixed covers of his favorite bands and drummers including Jeff Porcaro, Jim Keltner, Stewart Copeland and Alan White. Mike further enhances his covers by mixing each cover as close to the original drum track as possible given the fact he can’t mix at Sunset Sound or Abbey Road.
So where does Mike go from here? If there is one thing that he believes in, it’s never too late to start something that you’re passionate about. Col. Sanders started KFC when he was in his 40s. Sam Walton opened up his first Wal-Mart at 42. Ray Kroc was 52 when he launched McDonalds. Mike hopes that you too can join him on his “second” journey of creating music for others to enjoy.
Mike is based out of the metropolitan Washington DC area, USA.
All the best!!
