Mellow Madness

It took Michael Sandefer awhile to find his sound because he’s the one who had to create it.

He’s known as Mike-C (www.myspace.com/myperfectapathy) and even though he had been writing songs since he was 10 and played in a few bands in his teen years, it wasn’t until he started experimenting with computer music programs and after lots of trial and error that he found his “Darkwave Industrial” sound.

Mike blends aspects of industrial music and darkwave electronica together to create music that has developed a dedicated following on the internet as well as locally. Mike’s idea for his darkwave industrial sound uses the basics of darkwave electronica and fuses it with elements of jazz, lounge music, and rhythm & blues accompanied by catchy, addictive lyrics. He records this music under the name ‘My Perfect Apathy’ (www.myperfectapathy.com).

My Perfect Apathy’s current album is called ‘The Depth of Madness’. Mike calls it his debut to the world and his greeting card. He personally designed the artwork on the CD and said the 16 tracks on the CD “are a combo of jazzy sort of loungy electronica with catchy pop style lyrics and some neat ideas I got when I went rummaging for neat ideas.” The Madness album is very enjoyable and provides a mellow relaxing listening experience with a smooth beat. Great cuts from ‘The Depth of Madness’ include Mafia Man, Picking up the Past and Charlie Chaplin. You can get ‘The Depth of Madness’ locally for $10 at the Great Escape, the Outer Loop or from Mike himself.

Mike is currently in and out of the studio, working on a follow-up album that he describes as “a more ‘grown-up’ and more progressed album that follows the development of my jazzy sort of loungy electronica style.” He said the new album has better written lyrics, better composed music, and cleaner vocals.

Mike said he also thinks the production is better on the new album. He said, “On Depth of Madness, Ryan Adkins of BG Chophouse Studio and I were working in his studio on a DAW machine with a Toneport UX2 module and it had a high noise floor. It was my first time recording an album in a recording studio and I was trying to feel Ryan Adkins out and I think he was trying to feel me out as well. Now, we are used to each other and he is used to my sound and we’re doing it his way on his Mackie D&B board in which he is the master of…so things are going very smoothly.”

Mike said that this new, more progressed album won’t be coming out until 2010. And while that seems like a long time away, he will be debuting specific chosen tracks off of it when he appears on local radio shows throughout next year. He hopes that fans will keep up with the appearances and, if they have been listening, they will have heard the entire album on the radio over the span of a year.

Some of those past radio appearances have also created interesting opportunities for Mike. A movie writer/director from Franklin named Dan Lashley contacted Mike after hearing him on D-93. He wanted Mike to lend a song to the soundtrack of a film he was working on. The trade that they worked out was for Lashley to shoot a music video for Mike’s song, Mafia Man, in exchange for Mike to score Dan’s entire movie. Later on, Lashley asked Mike to do a cameo in the movie and he will be playing a waiter named Travis who is having a problem with the main character in a restaurant setting. This movie experience has intrigued Mike and he has decided to start taking acting classes, workshops and image development to try to know more about the acting world.

Mike’s music may be on film even more in the future. My Perfect Apathy has recently been accepted by Pump Audio, which is run by major record label A&R reps that accept and market independent music to television commercials, movies, tv shows, etc. Pump Audio is very selective and a major label representative has to listen to your music to see if it’s any good. When Pump Audio “green lights” you, they feel the music shows great promise in their opinion.

Mike is also trying to market his music in other aspects as well. A few years ago while Mike was working in Tennessee, a co-worker named Art Collier who was interested in music arranged a meeting between Mike and Dale Bobo, who was (at the time) a publisher at Warner Brothers / Chappell Records in Nashville. Bobo gave him some advice and said that if Mike ever had anything good to send, send it. Bobo is now the Senior VP of A&R at Warner Brothers / Chappell Records. Mike contacted him a few weeks ago and Bobo asked him to send his material. Mike hopes that some sort of development deal will come from sending out this press kit. Mike also has recently met with BMI Records session bassist John Sparks who has taken a liking to the music of My Perfect Apathy. Sparks has agreed to send it through the channels to possibly see if BMI is interested.

Mike wants his music to be heard and is currently doing the work needed to achieve My Perfect Apathy’s long term goals of being signed to a major record label, making music for a living, and touring the world.

Chris Houchens manages operations for the Amplifier and is the Online Director of both the Amplifier and the Daily News. In a previous life, he played a lot of music in 6 hour chunks. Find Chris on the web at www.ChrisHouchens.com