Mike Cykoski is the man behind New York arty, literate indie-pop music project A Is For Atom. Mike has always been a fearless composer, drawing inspiration from time honored pop-rock songcraft, literature, classical and avant-garde music to create his signature sound. After studying music at Juilliard, NYU, Harvestworks and Dubspot his epiphany came when a friend invited him to check out some electronic acts. He says “These artists had guitars, computers, and their voice, and witnessing that opened so many creative doors. It made me feel like I could finally produce what I heard in my head”.
In this episode of The Creative Life Podcast Mike talks about writing electronic music, his shows and tours around north America, Mexico, Austin Texas, New York City, Toronto and Brooklyn. He tells us about how amazing the Canadian Music Week event was and also shares with us where his classical music influence came from within his family.
"When you're planting a garden, you gotta establish the roots and give it time."
- Mike Cykoski
Mike Cykoski 'Writing Electronic Music' Show Notes: Studying film music at NYU (4:48) Writing music from your dreams (7:35) Writing songs using Abelton (8:24) Fun with Native Instrument's iMachine (8:43) Getting burnt out on touring (13:05) Planting seeds in your music career (15:00) Favorite Tools: Rhymezone iMaschine iZotope Abelton Favorite Books: Silver Apples Of The Moon by Morton Subotnick Favorite Record: Principles of Orchestration by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
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LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jameskirktaylor
This is The Creative Life, James Taylor's weekly YouTube show.
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ABOUT JAMES
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As a creativity expert Taylor is a frequent guest speaker at universities and international conferences. He has given keynotes and talks at Apple, Subscription Site Summit in San Francisco, the British Music Show in the UK and at several universities across Europe including University of Dundee in Scotland and University of Macerata in Italy. He is often called upon by media outlets to give his views on trends in creativity and innovation. He has been quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Columbus Dispatch, STV, Business Insider and San Jose Mercury News as well as featured on BBC TV and being the subject of a 30minute program on his life for BBC Radio Scotland. As a host on shows about creativity and innovation he has interviewed legendary investor Maynard Webb (Yahoo.com, eBay.com & Salesforce.com board member) and New York Times best-selling writers Chris Guillebeau ($100 Startup), Rolf Potts (Vagabonding), Brand Cooper (The Lean Entrepreneur) and Ryan Holiday (Trust Me I’m Lying). James is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA).
Meet James at http://www.JamesTaylor.me
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ABOUT THE CREATIVE LIFE
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The Creative Life is a weekly self-improvement show full of #motivation, #inspiration, and #creativity strategies with creativity speaker and author James Taylor.
The Creative Life blog can be read at: http://www.jamestaylor.me
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