Check out Mike Liorti

Mike, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Grew up in Toronto listening to 90s/early 2000s punk rock, played a lot of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. I always loved the SoCal scene/culture/vibes. 7th grade; Convinced any and every friend to learn a musical instrument so they could join my band. By high school, we were Rosedale.  Near the end of high school, we were traveling on weekends, grinding on that Myspace hustle. Through the roller coaster of touring and releasing music, I lost several bandmates and eventually just went solo as Rosedale with lots of clones of myself (on a video screen)

I toured heavily for about five years developing the one-man show along the way and releasing a couple Rosedale albums/eps I’m still very proud of. SoCal was always the highlight of my travels. Even when I’d bring the odd rain and cold weather I still felt warm vibes from everyone down here and couldn’t deny this is where I belonged. So in January 2019, I packed all my things into my giant cargo trailer and pulled it cross country to make my stay in San Diego!

We’d love to hear more about your work. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I primarily make music, but music has me making all sorts of art (graphic art mostly… which I’m still not great at). Music has also really taught me how to be a showman/entertainer. There’s a lot of positions you gotta learn how to play if you wanna get your music heard these days. And from that I’ve gotten pretty good at creating all sorts of content and even booking tours (an art in itself!) But sound-wise I would describe my music as hard-hitting power pop with punk/post-hardcore tones; my voice and production is very pop-influenced, but my chords, lyrical content, structure, drums, guitars, bass, etc. are definitely drawn from early 2000s punk/emo bands. I’ve done some side work too for other bands like extra production (strings, pads, piano etc.), sang on some Disney stuff, I do some video editing for companies and the sd band I play bass for (Mainsail), and I do sound at some venues down here from time to time. But primarily, my main hat is songwriting, singing, and production. The rest is just things I do because nobody else will. I guess my unspoken message is don’t be afraid to be a Jack of All Trades. You can still be a master of a few if you’re efficient with your time and don’t take it for granted. You’ll likely have much more fun figuring it out and grinding on your passion than sitting back and watching others live theirs. So find yours and go hard! There’s plenty of time to not waste! And of course, DONT GIVE UP! SUSTAIN!

What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
Make sure your brand/name is the most unique thing ever. Even if it’s hard to say or spell or remember. Do not think you are the only one until you are ABSOLUTELY sure, then Trademark it. After that, there’s about a thousand more lessons I could tell you all about, but there’s some great audiobooks out there now that do it better. So if you’re an artist (any artist) save yourself the tuition and get an audible account. It’s much quicker, more realistic, and cheaper than getting that laughed at art degree. (It’s not too late… drop out!)