Hi. I’m Myke. I’m an award-winning radio producer, field recordist, and songwriter/musician based in Long Beach, CA.
I’ve been publicly writing, thinking, and obsessing about music since age 13, when I published my first ‘zine on a hand-me-down Apple IIe and dot-matrix printer. I was blessed to come of age during the halcyon days of late ’80s independent and underground music, when college radio ruled the world (OK, my world) and the last generation of bands were operating before the oncoming panopticon of the internet. While still in high school, I interviewed precocious heroes including Pere Ubu, The Residents, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, They Might Be Giants, Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, Glass Eye, and others long lost to time.
My first radio gig was at WTBU, Boston University’s low-power station, where I played the same warbly cart of a Velvet Underground radio ad already worn thin by my forebears. The next year, I scored a gig at the revered indie label Rykodisc, where I worked under the Slow River subsidiary and helped launch the careers of Josh Rouse, Fan Modine, and more.
At the same time, I formed the conceptual bedroom-pop group Science Park, under which name I released three albums: Science Park (1997), Futurama (1998), and Disinformation (2001). Science Park earned critical praise from SPIN, the Village Voice, the Advocate, the Boston Globe, and others before disbanding in late 2001. Somewhere in the midst of all that, I spent a moment at the legendary Boston Phoenix, answering phones and writing for their Calendar section. (I briefly reactivated Science Park for one further album, Mercator, in October 2018.)
Nowadays I’m the Senior Producer in the Music Department at KCRW (Santa Monica, CA). I’m responsible for music-related special projects, broadcast and podcast initiatives, and whatever else I cook up with Anne Litt, our Program Director for Music.
I was the founding producer of Lost Notes, a documentary music series which ran for three seasons (2017-2020). Lost Notes’ third season (written and hosted by Hanif Abdurraqib) was named one of the Best Podcasts of 2020 by the New Yorker and IndieWire, among others. It subsequently won a Director’s Choice Award from the 2021 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.
In 2021, I developed and co-produced another music documentary series, Bent By Nature, about KCRW DJ Deirdre O’Donoghue. It was named #8 in The Atlantic‘s 50 Best Podcasts of 2021; #2 in Time Out’s Best Podcasts About Music; and included on Audible‘s 20 of the Best Music Podcasts to Play on Repeat. It was also featured by Vulture, The Guardian, BBC, and FLOOD Magazine, among others.
From April 2020 to December 2021, I produced a weekly series, Private Playlist, where I interviewed my favorite local musicians about the music that’s moving them in the here and now. It ran as part of KCRW’s Morning Edition lineup on Fridays. NPR presented their own curated selection of PP episodes under the rebranded title Lockdown Listening.
Concurrent with my work at KCRW, I’ve worked with tons of other podcasts and shows over the years. In 2020, I was part of the Getty Museum‘s production team for the series Recording Artists, which won a Webby Award for Arts & Culture Podcasts that year. Read more about my radio work.
From 2005-2013, I ran ShortWaveMusic: a global sound series which aimed to document the sounds of regional and international broadcasting around the world. Traveling with my radios to deserts, mountains, and open plains, I recorded hundreds of hours of music and speech from stations on every continent, with a particular interest in transmissions from Africa and Southwest Asia.
One of my earliest and most enduring projects is At The Tone, an ongoing audiovisual history of the U.S. Government’s shortwave time signal broadcasts via radio stations WWV and WWVH. The project was first issued on cassette in 1992 and has been continually revised and updated over the decades since.
Another major passion is field recording, and I’ve traveled around the world to capture sonic landmarks and soundprints. I’ve recorded ritual drummers on the archipelago of Socotra; calls to prayer in rural Mali; folkloric singing in the mountains of Bulgaria; and much more. I also produce audio travelogues of Black Rock City, NV, where I’ve been an itinerant citizen since 2006.
I returned to music in 2022 with Warm Sound, a new project with my life and creative partner. Our debut EP, Terminus, was released in April.
If you’d like to read about my work in (truly) excruciating detail, check out the chronology.
I’m always happy to shoot the breeze about whatever’s here. I despise social media, but your best chance of finding me is on Instagram. Otherwise, best to reach me via the contact form below. Thanks for stopping by!
[Please note that as of 1 January 2021, I am no longer fielding inquiries concerning tape syncs or low-level production/field work. Feel free to consult the AIR Talent Directory!]