itstheBino is proud to present Mike Golden and Friends.  I sat here trying to write a paragraph describing Mike Golden’s sound and I thought it would be best to  leave it to Mike himself.  Make sure to pick up Trees EP (Part 2) ASAP on iTunes, as it is one of the best EP’s I’ve heard this year. Check out Mike on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter and make sure to listen to Midwest Love, my favorite Mike Golden track.

Mike Golden & Friends is an act based out of Chicago, IL. It is hard to say when singer/songwriter Mike Golden (22) began the project. He has been writing material for years and gathering friends along the way. MG&F is an acoustic jam band (for now) with all music/lyrics done by Mike Golden, and performed live with a variety of different friends at each show. With no drum set or bass guitar…(yet.) MG&F use beer bottles, stomping, and industrial sounds to give each show a unique affect on audiences and a different feel at each performance. With Mike’s unique vocal range, intense lyrics/melodies, and most importantly his friends, the sound almost comes to life either on stage or in your headphones. With Mike’s goal of no target audience he is opening up doors many artists struggle to open. Golden wants to bring a little grit and blues back to Chicago From Schubas to Jbar, Chicago is taking MG&F from an indie street cred crowd on Friday night, to a hip-hop based bar on a Wednesday night.

itstheBino: Just in case people don’t know yet, what exactly is Mike Golden and Friends?

Mike Golden: It’s a project I started almost a year ago now.  Just my friends and I doin some wild shit.  I write all the songs and play the acoustic guitar while I plan out what my friends could add to the mix to spice things up. lol. sorta.  I guess I just wanted to pull somethin real , and raw off since I have been noticing how overly done most music is nowadays.

itstheBino: Who inspired you to make music?

Mike Golden: My Dad inspired me to pick up the drums, My best friend inspired me to pick up a guitar, and to many musicians have inspired me to create music.  It’s just what I love to do.

itstheBino: You just released a new track I Got Front, featuring CP.  How did you guys link up to do a track together?

Mike Golden: The song actually was released awhile back before we were getting blog love, so nothin really happened with it.  but it would be dope for yall to feature it.  The rapper is my dude CP from Indianapolis.  I met him while I was going to Purdue University and we just always wanted to do a track together.  I think he is a fierce rapper, and has a very distinct voice.  I had him in my head for the record all along.  So while I was in Chicago tracking it, I called him up and asked him to come down and spit somethin on it.  We went into the studio and knocked it out in one day.  He had never heard the track before that day.  It worked out to be one of my favorite songs.

(song starts at :40)

itstheBino: When your high school band disbanded, did you see yourself still pursuing a career in music?

Mike Golden: I always wanted to , and even though it seemed impossible now without a band to play with I kept writing.  Just kept writing in case someday I felt I was ready to take on a career in music.  I knew at 18 I wasn’t ready to handle all the business aspects that came with it.  So I went to school for Public Relations/Marketing and just wrote and worked, and went to school until I felt I had the material and mindset of what it was going to take to accomplish it all.

itstheBino: All of your music is infamously recorded entirely using homemade microphones and equipment.  It’s great because it gives your music an organic and natural feel.  Is this the sound you were going for or is using a homemade studio strictly an economic decision?

Mike Golden: Not entirely, mostly…Some of the vocals we had to do on standard studio mic’s to get certain tone’s, but at that same time there was another microphone placed somewhere within the room that was homemade picking up some sort of tone. lol.  My Producer Scot Stewart is the genius behind all that.  I explain tone’s I am looking for and what I want , and he finds them for me…even if that means rewiring a headphone from the 60′s to be a microphone instead of speaker.  But I do agree that it gives the music more of an organic feel, and atleast knowing how we recorded it alone reminds the listener of its natural feel.

itstheBino: You don’t use prototypical instruments (drum set or bass guitar) in your songs.  You use “industrial sounds” such as bottles and stomping.  Can you explain this decision?

Mike Golden: I just wanted to bring something different to the table, but also it was a way I could almost have any of my friends perform on stage with me.  Since schedules conflict with some of my friends who play bass and drums, I was stuck sometimes with having to do solo shows.  Now even if my friends don’t know how to play bass or drums all they have to do is clank bottles, stomp, clap, chant, etc. and theres a lot of people musically inclined enough to pull that off for me. (laughs)

itstheBino: What has been the most exciting part of your career so far?

Mike Golden: Playing Eastern Illinois in Charleston Illinois which is about a 3 hour drive from Chicago.  I think everyone that was there would agree.

itstheBino: Who are some artists/producers you would like to work with if given the opportunity?

Mike Golden: wow.this question is always the hardest, but ill name a few….but these are just a few.  Rick Rubin, Tom- Lord Alge, Kanye West, and I have a song for Joe Cocker, Eminem, and myself that would make my dreams come true to make. (laughs)

itstheBino: Whats next for Mike Golden and Friends?

Mike Golden: A lot of stuff is next for myself and friends. One more Music video off the second EP, I might be poppin up on a couple hip – hop tracks this winter and in the Spring/Summer 2011 I’ll be releasing my first Full length record. Picking up bass, drums, and electric guitar among other things for the record.

itstheBino: In rotation on your iPod right now:

1.Living Decorations – by Maps & Atlases

2.Bombay – by El Guincho

3.Start it Up – by Lloyd Banks

4.Chief Rocka – by Tennile feat. Sir Michael Rocks

5. Shake it Out – by Manchester Orchestra