Conversations with Mike Lerman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Lerman.

Hi Mike, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started playing music having learned some guitar from my brother around 11 years old.

I had some friends that had a hard-rock/metal band in 6th grade, we used to joke that I’d be their ‘manager’.

Later that year, I joined the band and eventually ended up becoming the lead singer and guitarist.

My old drummer’s uncle also happened to be George Kerhulas, who was a touring member of the Traveling Wilburys, so we grew up learning how to record in his studio in Northridge. He would tell me that I was singing into the same microphone that George Harrison, and at 13 years old I had no idea who that was or what that meant. 🙂

We played together for almost 20 years! The band was called MESIA and we were playing every dive bar and house party in the San Fernando Valley, then basically every Hollywood club that existed, then all around LA and beyond.

I also attended Cal State Northridge for Music Industry Studies, so we also played a lot of college gigs. I’d also begun working a desk job in music royalties so my career had been split somewhat between work and my music career.

Around 2013, MESIA had taken a break; so I started playing in other bands.

For about five years, I played bass and sang backing vocals for a folk-rock group called Rodney & John, which was led by Oscar-nominated actor John Hawkes and Rodney Eastman. It was great because everyone in the band could sing, and we had a killer violin player named Korey Simeone.

I also played guitar in a rap group, bass in a reggae band, and guitar in a pop group called Braemore for a few years.

I love collaborating, but writing had always been my passion, so in 2018 I decided to consider a solo album.

The idea for UNDERDOG was to bring in everyone I’d jammed with over the last ten years, as they had inspired my style and a lot of them started to give up on music over time but are really talented. I wanted to make an album that spoke for the ones who hadn’t made it big but were still trying and will never give up.

By 2019 most of the album was recorded. We have 17 guest artists playing on it, and it was almost all recorded at Pawn Shop Recordings in Van Nuys, CA. Patrick Burkholder had been the engineer and mixer for MANY of our friend’s albums, so he was the perfect fit.

I’d gotten a live band playing shows and we were getting ready for an album release party in March of 2020 when COVID changed everything. No live shows, no release party. Even my personal life got crazy as my marriage to my wife had to be canceled.

The virus was discouraging. So, I took some time to ‘adult’ as they say. My wife and I still got married and ended up having a beautiful baby boy. (Future Rock Star)

I also made some progress in my day job and things were fine; but there was this looming weight on my soul. I felt like I couldn’t continue in life without making the album.

Music is not a passion or hobby or career for me; it’s therapy. I need it to get through the week or else I start getting shaken, distracted- angry even.

So in late 2022, I became determined to finally make it work. I split the album into two parts –

I also started getting into Web3 groups and making connections so that I could release an NFT to go with the album.

Underdog: Part 1 is sort of the softer, more laid-back group of songs. They are like a cup of coffee in the morning and represent the naive nature of youth and innocence. Those ones were ready to go, so I found our old footage of ‘Make My Way’ featuring Liz Allen and got a video together. That album was released on New Year’s Day 2023 to signify a new beginning.

Underdog: Part 2 is like a shot of tequila. Those songs are like a bad hookup in a dive bar bathroom and represent the corruption of the human soul during adulthood. There’s even a comedy track in there.

So now the album is finally out! AND there is an NFT for sale!

A weight has been lifted, and now I’m ready to ROCK. Time to make it happen.

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?
Sometimes I feel like I was born too late. Hard rock is not as popular as it used to be, and growing up in LA makes it hard to cut through the noise. You can be out there every night and not make any progress.

So I think the adapt-or-die mentality is necessary for survival, as well as finding your audience.

Turns out that there ARE others that listen to old Queens Of The Stone Age albums all day or folks that can’t wait for the next Nirvana or Soundgarden.

Promotion is the other challenge. It’s really easy to post amazing content on a regular basis, but still only have the same 50 people on Facebook see it. I’ve found that there are communities of people that really do care and listen if you really look (like the crypto space on Twitter), but it’s a constant grind and is not for the faint of heart.

Like Janis Joplin said about trying to get laid, ‘Sometimes you just have to try harder!’

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My songwriting has somewhat of a bipolar approach to genres, but I love that. No song on the album sounds the same as any other, and although not every song may be for everyone, they are all catchy and have a hook that sticks.

I love to write and I do it all – The recording, the music videos, the promos, the music royalties, the publishing, the licensing, the live gigs and the promotion.

I also love to collaborate and can harmonize with any singer. I feel like all the experience in different groups helped me be able to bring out the vision of other writers.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I started off as being SUPER shy as a kid. Similar to Jimi Hendrix’s story, I think that being on stage as a teen and in my 20s turned me into an extrovert.

I’m also a goofball. Comedy is how I deal with adversity, so I love making jokes and creating funny jingles and videos.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikelermanmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MikeLermanMusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikelerman?lang=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikelermanmusic
• Other: https://recordstore.newm.io/collection/d121e0d9db0a75f76da1ca7dfc7c18baf668b34f1876d90ae86c4170