Howdy. I’m Myke, and I make beautiful and atmospheric audio stories.

To paraphrase William S. Burroughs, I believe that when you cut into the past, the present leaks out. Audio tape is both a physical and a metaphysical medium, layered with meaning and context and time. What one hears in a piece of archival audio is only a fraction of the potential it holds. I’m passionate about bringing those embedded histories into view.

I’m currently the Senior Producer in the Music Department at the legendary KCRW in Santa Monica, CA. From 2018-2021, I produced the original Lost Notes trilogy with creator Nick White and hosts Solomon Georgio, Jessica Hopper, and Hanif Abdurraqib. I returned in 2024 to helm the show’s fourth season, co-hosted by Novena Carmel and Michael Barnes.

During the pandemic, I created Private Playlist for KCRW as a way to engage musicians and producers by talking about the music that was keeping them sane. The best episodes of the show were picked up by NPR under the rebranded title, Lockdown Listening.

Concurrently, I spent two-plus years painstakingly cataloguing, digitizing, and restoring the personal cassette archive (1,000+ tapes) of former KCRW DJ Deirdre O’Donoghue. This effort became the heart of Bent By Nature: a sprawling, multi-pronged project that birthed a podcast series, an on-demand archive of live performances and interviews, and a 24/7 streaming station of Deirdre’s original broadcasts. The project won a 2023 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism (NAEJ) Award in the Multimedia Package category.

Earlier, I was a contributing producer and editor for The Organist, KCRW’s audio collaboration with The Believer magazine, and a contributor to KCRW’s OG audio documentary series, UnFictional. I began my career at the station as a music supervisor for Lea Thau’s Strangers. My fingerprints are on countless other KCRW projects as a sound designer, composer, story editor, mixer, and silent partner, spanning the full breadth of KCRW’s News, Music, and Culture programming. I also contribute written music journalism pieces to our digital outpost when I feel so inspired.

I’ve been lucky to collaborate with storied institutions and creators like the BBC, NPR, This American Life, WNYC, WGBH, WME/Endeavor, and lots more. I’ve won awards for my individual reporting/production and in conjunction with colleagues at KCRW and the Getty Museum. And my work has enjoyed accolades and year-end placement in publications like The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, Stereogum, The Verge, FLOOD Magazine, and others.

A love of sound is the fundamental through-line in my life and work. I’ve traveled to the archipelago of Socotra to record the songs of fishermen, shepherds, and ritual drummers. I’ve wandered the hills of Bulgaria to document harvest songs, wedding music, and communal dances. I’ve worked with renowned playwrights to adapt Tony-winning scripts for audio drama. I’ve produced dozens of short-form documentaries on subjects ranging from Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) to the drag queen Miss Barbie-Q. I’ve created sound and installation art for institutions around the world. And I’ve produced and released my own music for decades, ranging from the collegiate indie-pop project Science Park to recent collaborations as Warm Sound.

Most recently, I’ve been extending my love of archival audio into a partnership with the American Archive for Public Broadcasting, in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Under the auspices of AAPB, I’ve added three collections to the LoC: the archives of Deirdre O’Donoghue; KCRW’s Michael Silverblatt and Bookworm; and Monitor Radio, a newsmagazine produced by the Christian Science Monitor. A fourth project is currently underway.

In an attempt to carve a clearer path, not everything mentioned here is represented on this site, and the projects I have included are largely in excerpt form. It would be mind-numbing to include it all. If you want to hear more of something, just ask via the contact form below.

Outside the studio, I’m an avid outdoorsman. I’ve worked as a fire lookout under the US Forest Service and volunteered on backcountry trail restoration projects deep in Los Padres National Forest. I’m passionate about road cycling, ocean swimming, backpacking, and cross-training. In the realm of domestic wildlife, I’m the proud co-parent of two nutty tuxedo children, Colonel Mustard and Mrs. White. They are proud alumni of Santé d’Or Foundation, a cat shelter in Atwater Village, Los Angeles.

I divide my time between L.A. and Austin, TX, but I’ve been known to follow a sound (literally) wherever it may lead me. Let me know if you have one worth chasing.

The portrait photo is by Larry Hirshowitz. We shot it at the abandoned Boron Air Force Station in Boron, CA. Once part of the SAGE radar network, it was later a Federal Prison Camp and ultimately a derelict ruin. The site was razed to the ground two years after this shoot, although the FAA radar still remains.