I created my debut project "impro-hop" after years of trying to find a musical approach that I would be motivated to stick with for a long time - without changing my mind and wanting to do something else. For over 20 years I studied guitar and often changed my musical style and tastes, without releasing anything. Gradually I developed a handful of musical principles that know I can stand behind regardless of where my life takes me - even if I become a totally different person like a rebellious hippie, a pirate, a stuffy rich person, or an elephant whisperer:

1. There is no need to add tracks to a project just to reach a certain number of tracks. If I only have two songs I feel strongly about, I will just release 2 songs and no more. Similarly if a few lyrics say what I feel needs to be said, there is no need to add verses of lyrics - the music can say the rest.

2. Music can be both catchy and deep. In this case, the instant appeal comes from clear melodies and solid grooves. The depth comes from colorful chord progressions, the poetic freedom of rap (not having to fit verbal concepts into a certain melody), and finally improvisation which has a tendency to be both ambiguous (making use of unresolved phrases) and human (due to the relatively higher frequency of mistakes which I love).

3. It is more important for me to reach people deeply than to reach huge numbers of people. This extends beyond the music and beyond my approach to marketing. I would rather change the lives of 3 people than have 3 million people who are passively aware of my existence.

I like to try to put at least one chord in each tune that falls outside of the key. I've always liked the way this adds color to the music and also makes solos a bit more unpredictable. I have also been experimenting with polyrhythms. There are a few moments in my solos where you can hear quintuplets sprinkeled in. This is something you will be hearing a bit more of in my next project :)

Mike Stanton