Meet whatever mike | Artist, Musician, Singer-Songwriter

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

Hi whatever mike, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
I am prioritizing peace in a way I never have. Over the pandemic (and in the years just before) I began meditating regularly. In 2020, I left NYC and moved to Joshua Tree for about 6 months. I had a series of spiritual insights during that time that led me to leave my label and write my new project, “Word to the Trees.” During this time I also began exploring and questioning my attachment to manhood and came out as trans. Trans means change and change means god. These awakenings helped me understand with more clarity that my priority for my brief time on Earth is my peace. Prior to the pandemic, as a label artist, a Yale student, an over-achieving high school student in a white supremacist society, I never valued peace! I valued “success” – numbers, dollars, data. Over the last few years this balance has completely shifted and I am working to figure out what ambition looks like for me in a mindset that prioritizes peace. I know that I must wrangle the Music Industrial Complex (a cesspool of greed, white supremacy, and abuse – like all industry) to support this peace and that is the challenge on my plate most days!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m most proud of my commitment to honesty, healing, and change. Over the last ~4 years, I left my record label, left New York City, moved away from the people and places I know best, came out as trans/non-binary, and actively decided to prioritize Peace in a way I never had. For most of my life, I allowed legible achievement (getting good grades, graduating at the top of my class, getting into Yale, getting signed to a record deal, earning a million streams, etc.) to buoy my sense of self in a world that run on us being disconnected from Spirit. Over the last few years, I have transformed (and it’s very much an ongoing process) the way I think about living and being. Meditation & plant medicine have helped me begin to let go of ego and so many of the stories I have attached to over the years, that have ultimately kept me from myself.

My new music is definitely a reflection of this transformation. My upcoming EP, “Word to the Trees” is about the decimated relationship between nature and humanity. It’s about finding hope and possibility in the collapse of everything that we know. It’s about believing that even now, as late stage capitalism, white supremacy, and climate change ravage everything and kill millions, there is a beauty and a joy in all that is. The new work draws heavily from Buddhist teachings as well as my experience as a queer person in America. Making this work has been super free-ing for me and I just hope the people that hear it can get a little more free as well.

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?
Oh we are gonna smoke some weed and go for a gorgeous hike! When we get back we’ll have a fabulous vegan meal and maybe go see a movie or watch a show. I love all things nature, hiking, trees, parks. I think the natural world is a mirror of how we used to be, and as I think about returning to Love & Spirit, I know that many of the solutions are in the natural world around me. My friends are on board with all this shit so they’d be down for the tree moment of it all 🙂

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I dedicate my Shoutout to the trans community. Trans people have taught me everything I know about spirituality, transcendence, peace, and possibility. Trans people are saying “Everything can change. Nothing has to be this way.” And look around at our world — why would we want it to continue like this? For me, my transness is not just about my gender — yes I am transgender but more broadly I am trans-everything. If we want to survive, we must trans-form everything about how we live on this planet as human beings. Frankly, gender is a side note. Why are we so obsessed with who is a boy and who is a girl when climate change is on the rise? When war and famine plague the planet? Billions of people do not have access to education, healthcare, clean water, etc. Yet even in this state of desperation and destruction, I have learned to hope through the brilliance and re-imagination abilities of trans and queer people, specifically, I would mention, black trans/queer writers and thinkers (Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Bell Hooks, Adrienne Marie Brown to name a few) who have been at the forefront of this kind of transformative thinking that refuses the fear and scarcity mindset of white supremacy and says “Yes, everything CAN change.”

Instagram: @whatevermike_

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/whatevermike

Other: Tik Tok @whatevermike Spotify – whatever mike

Image Credits
Lauren Desberg Pamela Fazio