Michael Warren: Changing Perceptions One Song at a Time

Independent music is rapidly becoming a major player in the music industry. Substantiating that point is the successful independent debut of American Idol’s Elliott Yamin. In light of that success, more musicians are opting to take the independent route for releasing their music to the public. Singer and songwriter Michael Warren is just such a musician. He may be independent, but Michael has shared the stage with major label acts such as Gladys Knight, B.B. King, Live, Taylor Hicks, and several others.

Michael Warren: Changing Perceptions One Song at a Time

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 13, 1983, Michael Warren is quite an impressive young man. He’s all of 24 years old, yet his attitude is already adjusted, his head is on straight, and he understands the important things in life: Heart, home, and God. Michael has many aspirations for his music career, but to really understand where Michael is going, we must understand where he’s been.

Michael began to dream of a career in music when he was but three or four years old. His father typically awakened Michael and his brother on Saturdays by blasting the house with oldies on his stereo. “My dad—every Saturday, when he used to clean up the house—he’d wake us up, not with an alarm clock but with his record player. He used to always put records on every Saturday and Sunday and blast it all through the house. We’d be like, ‘Put the Hammer tape in!’” He listened to all this stuff, you know, like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and James Taylor.” Michael decided then and there that since he and Michael Jackson shared the same first name, he was destined to stardom. “My name’s Michael, his name’s Michael. He made it, I can make it.” Michael knew what he wanted to do with his life. He bought a guitar and took one lesson but quickly determined that he could not afford the $30 per half hour cost. Instead, every day, he took his guitar and went to the local Wal-mart, sat in front of the guitar poster, and taught himself all the chords. To hear Michael play acoustic, you would never know he’s self-taught.

Michael’s music may best be described as an eclectic mix. Influences from rock, pop, soul, and gospel merge to create a unique form of rock. When asked who most influences his songwriting, Michael reveals: “I’d probably say, gospel-wise, Fred Hammond is a huge influence. My brother came home with one of his CDs one day, and I put it in the CD player and didn’t take it out, I swear, for three months. . . . James Taylor—oh my gosh, I love James Taylor—India Arie, all of Motown. . . . I love the spirit, and you can just feel what they’re saying, and that’s what’s important to me. When I write a song, I want people to feel it and not just [hear] a bunch of random words.” Michael has succeeded in that endeavor. On Michael’s latest release, every song is just a bit different, but each one makes you think. “Home,” for example, illustrates that while Michael enjoys life on the road touring with his band, he’s always anxious to return to the people and things that he loves most. The song “Try” will lead one to believe that Michael is singing of his heartache caused by a girl who refused to put her all into the relationship, but he is actually singing to himself. “I was a jerk during relationships. I mean, a major jerk. A lot of times, these songs are written about me, so it’s kind of therapeutic to me.”

Michael’s songwriting skills include the lyrics, the music, and the melodies. Interestingly, though he doesn’t perform in the genre, he is an excellent country songwriter. Michael hopes to some day sign a publishing deal, through which he can introduce these songs to country artists looking for material to record. “I’ve got a lot of songs that, hopefully, I can pitch to some of [the] artists that I like once a deal or something happens.” Michael is under no delusions about signing deals with major record labels and publishing firms. While many new artists believe they can maintain control of their careers after signing with a label, Michael has no such misconceptions.

. . . Labels have the control. . . . You knew what the job was when you signed up for it. . . . There are a lot of things they know that you don’t know, and there are a lot of things that you know from being around your fans that they don’t know. I think a lot of people are really desperate to sign when they sign.  That’s why they get turned around, but if you find that right marriage and accept that right courtship, that’s when you have artists like John Mayer that are going to be long-term and not just a year and a half kind of artist. . . . It’s one of those things where if you’re not ready to give up a bit of control, don’t sign the deal. For me to sign a deal I definitely have to be ready to say that I’m going to cooperate and make the project go as smoothly as possible and understand that it’s not going to be all my ideas on this first record. . . . If you play your cards right, it’s going to give you a chance to get introduced to the world and broaden your audience instead of just your city or a couple of thousand people.

Wise beyond his years, Michael is more than ready to take the next step. He would like for his career to become “huge,” and he understands that much work and responsibility go along with making that happen. On the work side, Michael wants to take his band to the next level by changing their image.

You’ve got to have girls coming to your show if you want to do anything. The girls are going to bring the guys. So, there’s a whole grooming that is about to take place with me, with my band, with the way we carry ourselves, with the way we look, our sound, and hooking up with a producer that’s going to take my sound to the whole next level. . . . You can’t look like four ragamuffins and make strides. You’ve got to look good [and] you’ve got to sound good. . . . [M]y mom’s trained me, my dad’s trained me. . . . Care about your appearance. I had one musician one time just look straight shabby. Just a hot mess. I cleaned him up. The next week, he played at the same place, the same people were there, and all of a sudden, it’s like, “Oh my God. He plays so good!” It’s all about the appearance. The way you look makes you sound better and look better. It’s just natural.

On the personal side, Michael wants to become a force of change. During the time that Michael led worship at a Birmingham church, he came in contact with many of Birmingham’s less fortunate youth. Many of these children were often left on their own, which really bothered Michael. “You’ve got a 12-year-old cooking dinner for all his little brothers and sisters and not knowing when mom and dad are going to be there and them having to dress themselves—things that we take for granted, not having to walk to school all the time, parents dropping you off and knowing that they’re going to be there at your performances and stuff. I see a lot of these kids, and it tends to lead them to the dark. They feel that there’s no hope. . . . [I]t seems that teenagers these days are just angry, and they’re just pissed off. F you, f this, I’ll do what I want.” Michael hopes that his music and his positive example will help to turn some of these kids around.

With my music I’m always conscious of how it’s going to affect somebody, and I never, ever want to lead anyone down any wrong roads because I know I’m going to have to meet my maker one day. Whatever anybody else believes, I know what I believe, and I know I’m going to have to meet the Lord one day. He might say, ‘What did you do? What did you do with what I gave you?’ I don’t want to be saying, ‘Well, I inspired these kids to shoot, steal, cuss, rob, cheat,’ and all that stuff. I just feel like there needs to be more role models because there are not role models. . . . I don’t think the record industry and TV stations realize how they have molded a whole generation to fail. I want to be one of the few that—kind of like a resurgence to change that and to set the course for teenagers to do something different and not have that apathetic attitude about everything and not to be so disrespectful. It’s a big thing, but I feel like I can help lead other people to start to come out right, one person at a time, so that’s what I want to do. Especially for black kids—young black teenagers. I want them to realize that they can listen to something other than rap, and they don’t have to be ashamed of it.

Playing to a sold-out crowd of teens at predominantly black Minor High School in Birmingham, Michael began to change some of those minds. While the student organizers wanted Michael to perform at their school, many of the other children wanted no part of rock music. They came, they grumbled, but when Michael’s band began sound checks, a hush fell over the room. By evening’s end, many of the “toughest” kids in the school found themselves swaying to Michael’s beat and wanting to meet him after the show. One teen e-mailed Michael at his My Space page to tell him, “That ‘Blankets’ song there is tight,” while another teen wrote, “Man, I love that rock stuff, man.” Because of the reaction of the teens, Michael knew he was on the right track. “The way they reacted to it, that means we need to have a balance. I listen to Lil’ Wayne, I listen to Jay-Z. I listen to all of that. It’s basically all I used to listen to growing up, never rock really, but it’s to influence people to think for themselves and not if somebody jumps off a bridge, you jump with them. I feel that my purpose in life is to help give back.” And give he does.

Michael’s live performance is something worth experiencing. Through his music, Michael allows the audience to feel his sense of giving by putting everything he’s got into each performance. He can rock the crowd out with “Try” and make them think about their relationships with God by singing “Amazing,” a beautiful, spiritual song that Michael wrote about his own relationship with God. Much of Michael’s music is based on life as he sees it, how he sees himself, and places that he has been. As a result, what comes from Michael musically comes from Michael internally, and his audience is invited into his world with each song. A unique and talented artist, Michael Warren is a rare find. He has an innate ability to bring people and things together. In a world where life can be disjointed and it seems that no one cares, Michael brings something to the music industry that is ready to be shared with the world.

Hear Michael’s music at www.myspace.com/michaelwarren or www.michaelwarrenmusic.com. 

Shirley has a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science with an emphasis on Creative Writing and a Master’s in Public Policy. She is currently working as a freelance writer and freelance publicist for several bands and musicians.