Name: Light My Fire by Mike Lengel
Duration: 3 min 24 s
Description: From Sixties Kicks!, Olympia, WA--2010; Harlequin Productions

From Sixties Kicks!, Olympia, WA--2010; Harlequin Productions

Light My Fire

"White Room," Summer in the Sixties, 2011

White Room

Mike Lengel is a singer-songwriter from Seattle--from Pennsylvania; sometimes you start in one place and end up somewhere else. His debut EP (No Disasters, 2007) followed a similar path, as Mike showed up at Studio A in rural Pennsylvania with a notebook of songs and proceeded to write and record an entirely different set of songs. He played and performed for six years before focusing on songwriting, trusting his performing ability more than his writing ability. Given his technical skill, the EP could have been a showcase of his vocal and guitar work. Instead, experimentation and emotion became the focus of the final product, and writing, more than ever, became Mike's focus. The No Disasters EP was the product of pushing and trusting himself, but also of enthusiastically tossing the blueprint and embracing the process of writing and recording.

Shortly after finishing the EP, Mike drove across the country to make Seattle his new home. With no family there and few contacts, he again began the process of figuring things out while in the midst of uncertainty. He didn't break from performing or recording, immediately booking shows and writing songs in his new city. Despite experimenting with everything from lo-fi recordings to slicker studio production, he has become an artist who always sounds like himself. His voice, whether direct or soaring (and it can be both), is identifiably his, inspiring empathy and commanding attention. Lyrically, he can capture an emotion, a fleeting moment, or a night, and not only make you feel like you were there, but also make you care and feel it yourself. You can also expect striking imagery, whether recounting a death at one of his shows or describing landscapes that "look like a black and white painting of a black and white painting of itself.” Sometimes he says something outright, and sometimes takes the scenic route through emotion, asides, and striking descriptions. His shows are an invitation to be a part of the process of getting there, wherever that is and whatever it means.

Mike began recording his debut LP, The Sun Will Always Come Back, at Top Secret Studios in Seattle, WA in 2009. It will be mastered by Matthew Agoglia at Masterdisk in New York, and released independently in Feburary, 2011.


Light My Fire

Mike Lengel

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