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Mike River is an Atlanta and LA-based recording artist, actor, songwriter, and performer. He began developing his musical gifts at an early age, playing the drums at the age of 3 and singing/dancing around the age of 5.
Mike spent 2015-2017 as a member of the popular boyband Mindless Behavior. Over the last decade, he has fine-tuned his writing skills, and has developed a versatile ability to write hit records in multiple genres!
This November, Mike will drop his debut solo EP Black Sheep. However, Mike has released his new single “Close” today. Give it a listen below!
I was able to chat with Mike about “Close” and the importance of being true to yourself, especially as a musician!
Can you give us a little background on the inspiration behind “Close”?
Basically close is when you are in the same place with someone you don’t really know but you’re kinda drawn to them and you don’t really know how to approach it. You just want to get closer to that person. It’s a reggae type beat, and the inspiration behind it was simply that.
At what point would you say you realized you wanted to pursue a career in music?
Honestly my whole life really. My dad and mom were heavy in the industry my whole childhood, and I’d see them do stuff and kinda just want to be a part of it.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences?
Obviously Michael Jackson, Anderson .Paak, H.E.R. , stevie wonder, and maybe Chris Brown in a weird way.
Your previous single “Chance” is a really smooth, swoon-worthy track. How did the process of creating “Chance” differ from making “Close”?
Very different. “Chance” was real acoustic and smooth like you said and with that process it was very much like me and a guitar. With this process I was in the studio, I was in big bear when I wrote “Close” I had a broken finger FYI, I was cold as hell, and that’s where I felt the vibe of the song a little bit. But when I was working on Close, I was way more high energy. I was striving to make something more up tempo.
What is something you hope people who listen to your music 20 or 30 years from now will realize?
Everything was genuine. Everything that I wrote about was just genuine to myself. It’s all coming from a place – either something that I’ve gone through or something that tI’m going through. My music is definitely like me.
I know you play the guitar. Can you tell me what other instruments you play?
I play guitar, drums, piano a little bit and bass.
How would you describe working as a solo artist differs from working in a group? I know you were in Mindless Behavior at one point in your life.
Totally different. With a group you don’t really have much of a say in terms of what you do per say. They give you options but that’s what they are – options. With me being a solo artist I feel like I’m kind of the captain of my ship. Everything that I do… obviously I have a team so I have to run stuff by my manager and stuff like that but everything that I do comes from something that I want to do and me only but with a group it’s not all about you so you kinda gotta get everyone’s opinions or do what makes sense for everybody.
This is the one thing I always gotta ask – what advice can you give to any aspiring musicians out here or creatives in general?
I would say listen to yourself and be true to yourself. A lot of the times when we do stuff a lot of people might not get my vision or your vision but they’re not supposed to. That’s why its your vision. You gotta create it for people to understand and see it. If you’re always listening to what other people think or say about what you have going on you might not really get your vision across all the way. It might be some kind of blockage there so I would just say to kinda always follow your heart follow your mind with your creative process.
Be sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikerivermusic and Instagram @mikeriverofficial!
