We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Abiuso and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, what makes you happy? Why?
Hello there and thank you for having me!

I find joy in seeing other people happy, excited and inspired, so in-return, that allows me to piggyback off their happiness. I’ve noticed in most cases that all parties involved in this industry are quite lucky as happiness seems to come easily here. Reason being is that no one is here for a paycheck (you can find much larger ones of those in nearly any other industry), but more-so for the sheer love and passion of art and the need to create and be creative. That sounded way more hippy-like than I’d ever want to be portrayed, sorry.

There’s extreme satisfaction working with both very young artists and likewise older, more seasoned musicians. The youngsters because they pick up on things and learn so quickly and are always full of excitement and energy, and for the elderly, it is a constant reminder that no matter what age, there’s a child within everyone that still gets giddy about art and also still taking it very seriously and close to heart. A reminder that we can do this forever and will always be learning and progressing and teaching others. Pretty cool, right?

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Lotta parts to this question, here goes nothing…

What sets me apart from others? Well, everyone is set apart from others just by being a human being which is a perk right out of the gate! No one person will think of the same things that another does when creating art. If I were to jot a few specifics that make what I do potentially different than other producers, I’d say that I constantly combine a bunch of weird skillsets in no organized manner. Quick background, I have a music ed. degree and toured for 10 years, so I’ve had people come in with just a couple of lyrics and no idea how to play a single instrument. Instances such as those, I’m able to record, produce, teach, engineer, perform many different instruments around the studio to inspire or give ideas, self track, compose, arrange, mix, master, I strive to be able to offer anything without limitations for my artists and that in itself is many lifetimes worth of knowledge that I can constantly entertain myself with trying to learn and navigate.

What am I most proud of, or excited about? Some recent things…I scored a film that premieres in 2 weeks with my close friend from 5th grade, Chris Bordeaux! We have a few others in the pipe, that’s pretty neat. I created, mixed and mastered commercial music for Nieman Marcus’ 2021 Holiday campaign with my good friends Rachel Norman and Danny Jonokuchi… That’s cool?! I feel like I’m bragging or showing off, so I’m going to cut this question off here if that’s ok.

Was it easy to get to where I am today professionally?…well, no, and there’s still a ton of room for growth, but I’ve always had an interest in music and developed an addiction to performing and recording. It became an all encompassing obsession (hopefully healthy?), but it always required a lot of focus and dedication. From there, I just had to follow my intuition, work hard, and what may be most important to me, build everything on a transparent, trustworthy foundation of solid plans, ideas and connections and then use all of those to bring the people up around you.

How did I overcome challenges? I guess choosing a specific challenge would be step one. A challenge that I faced was transitioning from being in the studio with my personal touring band to now being in a studio setting with clients. They are two separate beasts as the the goals are completely different. If you’re in your own band, the goal is to create what makes you happy. When being in the studio creating music for/with a client, you have to try and get as close to being inside the client’s mind as possible. Find out what they’re about, how they want to be portrayed, what they want themselves to sound like, what they’re inspired by, sonic elements that influence them, who their fan base is. There’s a good chance that those things don’t align with what I may intuitively think to do, so I have to be able to shell out a ton of ideas that are conducive to them and then be prepared to be declined and come up with a plethora of other ideas (that may also get declined), but always remember that I’m not doing this for myself anymore, it’s for the artist, however I’m constantly looking for something that makes us both excited and I think that’s where the magic is!

Lessons I’ve learned along the way would be how to gracefully respect my own value, worth, and time just as I do to others and be sure that others do the same to me in return. I expect musicians to show up on time, prepared, ready to create, have fun, do it meticulously with passion, pride, care and a smile!

What the world should know about me and my brand? I’ve recorded large artists like Cyndi Lauper and what I find is, I don’t want to record large artists to elevate my career, I want to create large artists and elevate our career!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Spending a lot of time in my Park Slope, Brooklyn recording studio as of late, let me run local to that for this question…There’s a good chance my best friend would be a musician, so we’d likely hang at the studio or a little bit, share some music, a few laughs, maybe a beverage or two, then head to a local small venue that has a cool vibe and cool music. They would include but aren’t limited to Freddy’s, Barbès and/or Sunny’s in Red Hook. From there I’d likely want pizza from Brooklyn Firefly in Bay Ridge (The Kick in the A$$ // tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, hot sausage, red onion, jalapeño, hot honey, cilantro) or a fat Italian meat wad from Charlie’s Sandwich Shop also in Bay Ridge (#7. “The Che Si Dici” WITH CHERRY PEPPERS – Prosciutto di Parma, sweet Sopressata, imported provolone, sun-dried tomato and oil balsamic. Toasted and seasoned with a little bit of Charlie’s love.)

If you wanna go to Times Square or the Statue of Liberty, I’ll call you and Uber and wait home till done…you’re welcome to spend the evening, just take my apt. key before you leave cause phone is on silent once the head hits the pillow.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Oh jeez, not only deep, but endless. People, friends, family are similar to toppings on iced cream, we may love them all so much, but that doesn’t mean we can dump all the topping on one scoop of iced cream. We pick and choose quantities of specific toppings of our choice and create the perfect blend that works for each of us ice cream cone!

With that said, and with all different people in my life, everyone is so unique, and full of all sorts of knowledge and beliefs. I listen to everything they have to say, but don’t necessarily utilize or absorb all of the information and suggestions provided. Sometimes I don’t even necessarily agree with it as we are all our own selves and we often have to go through motions in order to learn what works best for ourselves. But always extremely respectful of others nonetheless.

I’m a big fan of not having rules, so I’m going to run with that and list a few (two) people that I feel need to be recognized as being consistently supportive, lending an ear and/or lending advice.

My Dad is a damn work-a-holic in every sense of the word, he ran a few hair salons in Queens, NY back in his heyday and to this day, after selling them all, he won’t take a holiday off from cutting previous client’s hair. God bless him, but also, f*ck that. I definitely got my work ethic from him but reeled it in quite a bit from his methods (I took just a few rainbow sprinkles from that department). He also influences my ability to run my own business, and communicate well and with love towards others.

I’d likewise like to shine light on one of my best and most talented friends, Steve Sopchak who is a producer, songwriter and CEO at The Square Studios up in Syracuse, NY. Steve is one of those people who is so disgustingly good at everything he does, yet won’t say a damn word, so I’ll have to say the words for him. He is also a very sincere, smart and logical person who wants nothing but the best for everyone around him. He shares anything and everything he knows about everything including audio production and honestly wants us all to go up the ladder growing and working together. I have so much respect for that lad.

Yall awake? Lets move on before that changes…

Website: https://mikeabiuso.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeabiuso/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikeabiuso/

Other: Company Sites – Web: https://behindthecurtainsmedia.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthecurtainsmedia/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheCurtainsMedia/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BTCMteam

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