Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Liorti.
Hi Mike, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in the west side of Toronto in a city called Brampton. Played a lot of hockey growing up, and my mom put me in piano lessons. Eventually, I picked up a guitar and got my friends to learn drums, bass, etc. I started writing songs at around age 13 and started my band Rosedale at age 14. Entering our 20s, we started touring down to The States quite a bit. After several member changes and hired guns, I eventually did everything myself, from drums to lead vocals- both in the studio and on stage. I’d made a lot of contacts and fans through following the Warped Tour and playing in the parking lots, and eventually, they let me inside to hustle for some stage time. I started booking my own tours year-round all the way out to California and back, sometimes 5-month long tours. San Diego was always my favorite stop, and it became harder and harder to leave. I’d made up my mind to move there in 2018 and rebrand the name Rosedale. After Rosedale’s farewell tour in 2018, I packed up all my belongings like I would for a tour and drove straight to San Diego, and by January 2019, I was living in my tour trailer in San Diego. I eventually joined my friend Nick’s band, Mainsail, and found a rehearsal room in El Cajon to set up a little studio and camp out. I was sharing it with a Metallica Cover band that would practice twice a month. The landlord kicked me out after he caught me sleeping in there a couple times right around the time Mainsail was heading up the coast for a two-week tour. Which worked out perfectly. After that tour, Me and Nick started working at a merchandise fulfillment warehouse called Gnarlywood up in Carlsbad. They really respected the DIY punk rock grind and let me park my trailer out back and camp out. They even let me set up a studio in their corner room. I’d spend most of my week there, working crazy overtime hours, practicing drums, and recording demos for myself and Mainsail (which later became Summer Years). That was huge for me I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for those dudes.
I started picking up little sound gigs for shows and corporate AV gigs right before the pandemic hit. When everything got shut down, I had to head home to renew my work permit. The permits were banned most of 2020, so I was stuck back in Canada. I got to fly back in July after a 2nd attempt, but that was a really tough year for me and made me realize San Diego is where I belong.
Once I finally got back, I started playing full-band Rosedale shows again and working some pretty wild freelance gigs as a Lighting Op and Sound Engineer.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely a bumpy ride! I always struggled keeping band members because I was always overly passionate about my band, and I didn’t really understand why nobody else was. Getting fans out to shows was also very tough. I’d get messages and comments asking “When are you coming to Seattle/Boston/Chicago etc.” then I’d book shows there, and those same fans would just ghost me or have something more important that night. So, keeping a good reputation with venues and promoters was also really tough. Luckily most of them understood this was a common struggle and respected my grind and live show.
These are still everyday struggles for me because I’m still extremely passionate about making something special.
Whether it’s a recording or a live show, it’s tough to get everyone as stoked about a project as I am. And I see it with other great bands too. With so many sources of media hitting our senses all day every day, it’s becoming harder and harder to keep team members and fans excited about the art we create.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in production but in a Jack-of-all, workaholic kinda way. I produce my own songs, and my live show has a lot of production elements to it. I set up a light show for every show and it is synced up to the songs. I also produce most of my own music videos and have videos that sync up to each song live. I started doing that after my drummer and bass player left in the middle of a tour, and I was fed up with relying on other people. That inevitable gimmick really set me apart from every other artist/band I was sharing stages with. It also really let the songs and production shine and showed the audience that I was the brain behind everything they were hearing and seeing. I wouldn’t say I’m the greatest songwriter, or lighting designer, or singer, or producer, etc. But the level at which I can do it all definitely showcases the 10,000 hrs. of each. Part of me wishes I just put all 100,000 hours into just one skill, but I think I enjoy it all so much because variety is the spice of life.
What do you think about luck?
A lot of my friends/teammates see my day-to-day struggles and say I have the worst luck they’ve ever seen. But a lot of my successful business friends/mentors bring me back to earth by showing me the reason why I have these struggles is because I’m actually getting after it! If I was sitting at home just focusing on songwriting, I wouldn’t have band problems, vehicle problems, etc. So, it all comes from creation, and sometimes that adversity creates something beautiful, such as the one-man show. The good luck creates bad luck, and the bad luck creates good luck. But I will say the timing of some things is just ridiculous. My appendix bursting in 2012 right after I had all the Warped Tour success, Snow storms cancelling sold-out shows I was finally lucky enough to get an opening slot on… the list goes on. But that adversity also builds character.
I’ve started looking at these business/artistic endeavors as levels of a giant adventure video game (Like Tony Hawk Pro Skater meets Red Dead meets Guitar Hero). Every task is a side quest, and there are constantly NPCs and obstacles getting in the way or sometimes helping out huge. That idea has actually done wonders for getting my teammates stoked and thinking positive. It’s all just part of the simulation!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosedalemike/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ROSEDALEmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ROSEDALEexpresstv/videos
Image Credits
Madi Thiel
Dillan Stockham
