CURRENT MISSION

Traveling the world with a message of peace and unity, playing rock'n'roll with my band Chicago Mike's InterGalactic Brother & Sisterhood of Big Eyed Beans; Empowering musicians worldwide to succeed through education, innovation and inspiration!

ABOUT ME

I have a band called Chicago Mike's InterGalactic Brother & Sisterhood of Big Eyed Beans - 114 bandmembers scattered across North America, Europe and Asia.

I'm on tour most of the year, mostly in Colorado, Utah, California and Arizona. Four weeks each year, I perform at the Bright Angel Lodge on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and I spend about 3 months each year touring Europe: mostly Switzerland, Germany, France, The Netherlands, but I've also performed in Ireland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Belgium and Spain.

If you're interested, you can hear some of music online at http://ChicagoMike.com

In 2003, a songwriter named Burt Hurner from Heber City, Utah and I started a music festival in Park City, Utah during "Festival Week" -- running concurrently with the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals. It's now called Access Film Music Showcase and we're celebrating our 14th anniversary, bringing in over 50 artists from around the world for 14 days of music and film festival madness! Access Film Music also hosts music showcases at the ECU Film Festival in Paris, France each Spring, as well as other music events like our private showcase rooms at the various Folk Alliance conferences and Boulder's Big Hootenanny in Ward, Colorado. Great music and more info is online at http://AccessFilmMusic.net

Since 2005, I've taught classes every August on International Touring and Music Licensing for Film and TV at Planet Bluegrass SongSchool in Lyons, Colorado, and speak frequently at music industry events like the International Folk Alliance Conference, South-by-Southwest and others.

I love music -- It has been my life and my career -- and I love helping other musicians connect with opportunities to share their music.

PHILOSOPHY

I admire and am inspired by those who use art to improve people's lives and make the world a better place. I have been highly impacted by the work of Zana Briski (Born Into Brothels, Kids With Cameras) and Brazilian contemporary modern artist Vik Muniz (whose art I discovered through the film "Waste Land" by João Jardim and Karen Harley), as well as Buckminster Fuller.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

For 16 years, my girlfriend Heather and I often hosted touring musicians and travelers in our home in Libertyville. We broke up in Spring of 2015 (though we're still close friends) and now I've been on tour across the USA and abroad since August 2015. My opportunities to host are now more limited, though not non-existent (feel like to coming to the Grand Canyon for New Year's Eve?) -- Life has definitely made me a moving target these days!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've had a couple great experiences through CouchSurfing.org and many informal couchsurfing opportunities -- A touring band often ends up on couches! We had an AMAZING Couchsurfing experience in Leeuwarden (in Friesland, the northwestern province of The Netherlands) and Austin, Texas. THANK YOU COUCHSURFING.ORG!!! The stars aligned!

Interests

Music, humans, history, nature, reading, the future, technology, music. Did I mention music?

• arts
• singing
• performing arts
• modern art
• festivals
• film festivals
• education
• running
• technology
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• bouldering
• music
• guitar
• skiing
• teaching
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

I love a huge range of music -- Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, John Coltrane, Muddy Waters, Captain Beefheart, Steely Dan, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, Willie Nelson, The Beatles, UFO, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd, John Hiatt, Grateful Dead, Sonny Rollins, Shakti, Junior Brown, all the Stax/Volt stuff, Rocky Horror Picture Show, bizarre freaky stuff, guilty pleasures -- and tons of artists few people are familiar with.

My life has been heavily influenced by the Sundance Film Festival and so many of the amazing documentaries I've seen there.

One of my favorite books is "Wild Thing" by Ian Copeland, who was the booking agent for The Police (his brother Stewart Copeland was their drummer!), and I read a lot of biographies, many of which are about musicians.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I think back on all my travels and all the impossible staggeringly improbable incomprehensible serendipity I've encountered in my life, I just can't believe it's real. Ask me about the time I met two Italian guys on a train just outside of Utrecht, Nederland and gave them a copy of my CD. Then, 5 years later, my luggage and guitar got lost when I was bounced off a flight from Chicago to Milan, Italy and while sitting at Kennedy Airport in New York on a layover two days later, just after being told by Delta Airlines baggage service they have no idea where my luggage is, I get an email out of the blue saying "You may remember meeting me on a train from Amsterdam to Utrecht several years ago, and you gave us your CD. Well, I work at the Milan Malpensa Airport Lost & Found and I have your guitar!" Thank you Riccardo and Christiano! Or the time five years ago when a talented young German singer named Carmen Corrina Braun, who was living in Valenica, Spain at the time, was skiing with her father in Switzerland and asked if she could sing a song with my band at the Old-Inn in Saas-Grund. The Venetz Brothers who run the Old-Inn asked me to write a song about the place -- I did and ended up including a line in the song about Ms. Braun. Well, this song has turned out to be one of my more popular tunes and so I've played it at most of my gigs since I wrote it; so I sing and think about Corinna quite often. Last winter, she walks through the door at one my gigs in Park City, Utah. Blew my mind. Or the time that...

Teach, Learn, Share

I teach at various music conferences and events. Topics include international touring for musicians, licensing music to film and TV, and music career forecasting, planning and management. I have also taught guitar and often help people with computer stuff.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahamas, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Saint Martin (French part), Sint Maarten (Dutch part), Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, United States