Please allow me to re-introduce myself, my name is Mike Warner. Over a series of posts I will share the different hats that I wear and I encourage you to do the same!

🧢 #1 Artist

Music has always had my heart, but I never quite got the hang of playing an instrument. Instead, I found my own way to spread the love. High school days were all about burning mix CDs for friends, and after that, I became the go-to guy for free drink passes at local bars and clubs. Which was easy to do when you and your friends are fresh out of high school and now of legal drinking age.

But hey, I wanted more. I wanted to be the one rocking the crowd, so I dove into DJing. I spent nearly 2 years with local DJ's driving them around, carrying and setting up equipment before I got my first gig. And let me tell you, it was a journey. After this, I craved bigger stages and new sounds, so off I went to SAE Institute to learn music production. Fast forward, and I'm releasing tracks under different names, finding my sound and exploring every corner of the music scene.

But here's where it gets interesting: My latest group, Date Night, hit a few bumps. The big labels weren't vibing with us, citing our name and eclectic mix of genres. So, what did we do? We signed up with DistroKid and uploaded our self-titled debut album and have continued to stay independent to this day.

Sure, I'm not "in the studio" making music as much these days, but I keep feeling the pull to fire up Ableton and dive back in.

Why do I not release music as much nowadays? Because through releasing independently, I made many mistakes and had some huge wins. I documented the process and realized that there were many artists wanting to follow a similar path. Hence, the reason I wrote a few books, but more on that in one of the next posts.

This post is part of a series where I re-introduce myself to you. Many of us have multiple skills, side hustles, passion projects and it's important to share them. You never know who may reach out as a result. I encourage you to reintroduce yourself and look forward to seeing what you share.