In this age of internet optimization, where everyone’s looking for the angle, the way to hack the algorithm, striving for fifteen minutes of viral fame, Detroit musician Mike Harrison seems to be trying something else entirely.
Recently a handful of friends started sending me instagram videos of a young mustachioed man, often bathrobe clad, sitting in some nondescript white walled room, playing and singing one brilliant original song after another. Songs that spoke to the humor, hipness, humanity of life today. Songs clearly influenced by a classic tradition but also that signaled something new.
He sang them at what might be described as an intimate volume, smiling at the camera with just enough irony for the internet age - and just enough sincerity to make you trust him.
Just who was this mustached bathrobe man, I wondered? So I slid right into his DMs and arranged to talk to him. Turns out Mike Harrison is a 33 year old piano player from Detroit, working the club circuit and living a largely quiet life.
Mike never planned on making it in music. He studied psychology at Wayne State, taught himself piano in college, and stumbled into Detroit’s working music scene almost by accident.
It was only recently that Mike’s music got any real notice outside of Detroit, after he began the practice of posting another song every Sunday. Ironically, it was only after he gave up any ambition of going viral that it happened to him.
Mike says that the major factor that keeps his ambition in check is his aversion to administrative work.
It’s a surprising philosophy in a moment when so many seem to be trying to scale themselves into something bigger.
Detroit, says Harrison, is also a nice place to be right now. With a lively music scene and a low cost of living, he can survive as a working musician.
For now, if you want to see Mike Harrison live, you’ll have to find your way to Detroit. Otherwise, he’ll be posting another song every Sunday online.
You can watch my full conversation with Mike Harrison here.
