Page 25 - BiTS_06_JUNE_2025_Neat

MD: Yes, so when he comes in and does his stuff, he gives me a totally different like

idea of what I originally had. Or he'll tell me, like Mike, what you did is cool. I like that.
So it's great. Then my co-producer, that's my keyboard player, I've been playing with
him for 25 years.

BiTS: And the name is?

MD: His name is Vince Varco, and he's playing piano and organ.

BiTS: Tell me something about one of my favourite tracks on the album, ‘End Like

This’. I think it's an absolutely terrific song.

MD: Oh, thank you.
Thank you. Well,

basically, I've done
a lot of blues shows
in Chicago at the

Kingston Mines and
at Buddy Guy’s, and
it's the Chicago

shuffle. My nephew
is like, uh, we need
to put a shuffle on

the record. So I was
like okay, and so
basically, I come up

with the music. The
music always comes
real quick to me.

The hardest part for
me is coming up with the title. So once I lay the track down, I listen to it a few times.
I might have a glass of wine or a nice dinner or something. Then I'm like hmm. Like,

yeah, baby, everything was cool, and then why are you leaving me? It doesn't have to
end like this. I'm like, oh, that's it, ‘End Like This’. Once I come up with the title, I can

write something in like maybe five minutes or 30 minutes.

BiTS: How do you go about writing a song, Mike? Do the words come to you first or
the music, or how does it work for you?

MD: The music usually comes to me first. This is the honest to God's truth, Ian, I like

pick up the guitar, like sometimes I say okay, I'm going to focus on practising today.
I'm going to warm up and I'm going to run through some scales, and I'm going to

work on this and that, this and that. Two or three minutes after me practising, I start
strumming these chords. Oh, that sounds pretty good. Oh, no, no. I end up writing
the song. I hate practising because I end up writing songs.