Mike Montrey takes on his biggest project to date with the multi-media components of Song by Song by Song. Hot on the heels of his highly successful releases, A Perfect Reality , a record that opened many new ears and afforded great media opportunities such as the single, ”Take Me Down Mississippi” being featured as a Garageband track of the week. Weaving the Basket was the MMB’s sophomore release which received accolades from press outlets such as The Signal, who said, “The audience sat mesmerized by the explosive energy of the music and the enthusiasm and passion of the band members,” and of course here at The Aquarian Weekly we called Weaving the Basket, “Spontaneous and brimming with dynamic intelligence.”
Photo by Ron Best
Mike Montrey is a singer songwriter that has had great success playing with the Samples, as well as touring in the Everyone Orchestra. The list of Everyone Orchestra participants includes members of The Grateful Dead, Phish, Moe, The Flecktones, Club Adrian Belew, Taj Mahal, and many other performers. But now, Montrey and the band take a new step far outside of the standard format of simply releasing 12-songs on one disc with their third, and most challenging undertaking.
The new project will feature Montrey and company focusing on one song at a time, with an accompanying video to be released alongside the composition in specific time intervals. Along with this dual attack, the MMB will also be offering more visual accompaniment in the form of original artwork (Supplied by fans) that will tie into the overall presence of the video and song set as a symbol of each piece.
The result will feature twelve original songs, (one each month) presented with an emphasis on the building blocks of freeform creation instead of running along the standard, music industry guidelines. At the end of that 12 month period, the MMB will present the overall sessions as a complete set of multimedia art that will fit together like arabesque puzzle pieces with intricate meaning to match.
The idea came about as the band, which has been hailed as “On the verge” By Relix Magazine, grew tired of following a formula that hasn’t changed in decades. Matter of fact, the idea of recording individual compositions puts the act of chance back into the game. It’s the thinking process of a chess player as he plans his next of several moves. It also harkens back to the old days of recording and performance where an artist had to rely on wood shedding pre-production and insight. They didn’t rely on surveys, or Pro Tools and video editing suites to get their point across.
The MMB has always been a band that leans toward the organic side of compositional design, and Song by Song by Song pushes that style to its furthest possible limit. The first track, “The Sunshine” will be released in September and will be available on ITunes, Reverbnation and Facebook as well as the band’s website.
The MMB consists of Mike Montrey on vocals and guitar, Anthony “Duke” Duca on bass and vocals, Rob Smith on drums and backing vocals, Karl Dietel on keyboards and backing vocals, and Adam Garnys on saxophone.
For more information on the MMB and their new step by step release, Song by Song by Song, head over to www.mikemontrey.com
by John Pfeiffer
(John is a contributing writer from The Aquarian Weekly)
