Page 33 - BiTS_01_JANUARY_2021

someone else had it. I found ‘Black Shuck’ by reading a book and it’s an old mythical creature that
originated from England. The first album on my label was ‘Born Lover’ the second was ‘Blues With A
Mood’ and the most recent is ‘Bloodstains On The Wall’. Previous to that I had three albums on Blind
Pig ‘Ramblin’ Mind’ and ‘Blues In The Blood’ as well as that ‘Rising Son’ album.

There are good things about owning your label an example being the three songs I did was in the series
‘Shots Fired’. I own the label I wrote the songs and I own the publishing so when they wrote the cheque
it didn’t get split with nobody it came direct to me which gave me a good feeling. I’ve also been an
actor in that series and I sat on the set and acting as though I was singing and playing my music. I was

in episode two and four.

On my latest album, ‘Bloodstains On The Wall’, they wanted a blues song that fuses with hip hop and
I had some doubts about it but we got in the studio and did it in twenty minutes and it’s called ‘Hold
Me Baby’ and it’s amazing how those hip hop guys work. With blues we play the whole song but they
split the number and once they got the groove they asked me to write some words to go with it and
we got the melody top of my head. The lyrics were like poetry and this was all for the ‘Shot’s Fired’

show.

I’ve not really talked to anyone about the personal side of life such as the yellow pants thing. I don’t
want to say anything that will make my father look bad as he was great.

Anything I can hear is an influence on me and my music especially after that ‘Shot’s Fired’ show. It’s
interesting how the music thing has gone what with all those free downloads and things. As a record
label that has to invest many thousands of dollars to make a record, you have to think of how you are
going to get that money back. I like the idea that TV and films give me a way to get returns on my
money. So what I have been doing now is when I watch TV and films I listen to background music and
I have found that a lot of that music is very moody and sets up a scene. So I am going to go into the
studio and record a number of moody songs that may be used in future films and stuff because as I

have my own record label I need to figure how I am going to get my returns back. I’ve got one guy
helping me to try and match songs to a movie. It’s so difficult at present to make your money back off
of making records so you have to look at other options for your music.

Mike Stephenson