Malachai is the assumed name of Mike's musical project. Experimenting in soundscapes of strong song based structure, this music encompasses electronic and acousitic elements. Its kinda hard to describe "Malachai", but I'll give it a go. If you need to order your music collection in to some sort of genre based filing system, then Malachai would sit somewhere inbetween Ed Harcourt, Elliott Smith and Badly Drawn Boy. Piano based indie music is a fairly vague description, hardly adequate. Influences include Radiohead, OCS, Blur, Ben Folds, The Beach Boys (and Brian Wilson), The Beatles, The Bluetones, Teenage Fanclub, Tamla Motown, REM, The Kinks, Arcade Fire. What am I trying to achieve? Any creative person will tell you that creativity is like a drive, a push to explore possibilities. Its just this creative impulse to expand and push the boundaries. I'm hoping to produce music that appeals to people, to people who love music. In terms of what has been produced so far, to begin with the very idea of making a collection of songs that could hold together as an album seemed very ambitious. The first realisation of this was a collection of about 14 songs that I had written and recorded between 2000 and 2001. Highlight tracks were Dream and Escape Run. Then followed a more musically ambitious project that became known as S.U.N.G.L.O.W. which featured a mixture of classically tinged piano anthems and folkish musings. Which were recorded in Italy between March and July 2003. After having worked largely with piano and vocals and a few keyboard effects, my song writing methods changed dramatically, as synthesised and digitally or electronic music began to take over. The results of which were a new adventure in sound, which I gave the title "Intangible Gift" . Song writing was still paramount in this new era, but the quality of the sound and the craft altered substantially. The record was completed 2005. So then you may wonder was that it? Well no, there's more to this tale. After leaps and bounds in electronica came more alien sounds, and further experimentations in the depths of this new groove. However as well as strange new sounds, the song writing was always the key. The familiar sound of the piano resurfaced, though as keyboards that were filtered digitally. The collection of songs that belong to this period are "Bring Me Joy And Laughter" and were all written and recorded in 2006. For me the stand out tracks are In A Groove Of Its Own and At The Harbour. Now the creation continues, with a new variation of song writing which I have attributed to the name Malachai. These songs are largely acoustic and analogue, being a mixture of piano, clarinet, guitar, percussion and vocals. Watch this space!