Michael Bly

MICHAEL BLY – BIOGRAPHY

Have you ever had a bad day at work - so bad that you were ready to quit? Tell your boss to “take this job and shove it”? Did you consider all it would require - pay cut, back to school, learning a new trade or the chance that, after all that hard work and effort, things wouldn’t even be any better off than they were before? Like most of us, you probably said “screw it”, stayed where you were and just “sucked it up”, right? Not Michael Bly.

Michael was born in Buffalo, N.Y. where he completed College and Law School, passed the New York State Bar exam and took a job at a huge law firm in Manhattan. He was making more money than he had ever dreamed and had everything most of us think we want when we start out in a career. But something was missing. As he says with his usual explanation of so much feeling in just one word; “I was unfulfilled.”

So, after countless hours of study, over a hundred thousand dollars of investment, and more than three (3) years practicing law, Michael told his boss to shove it. As he recalls; “I had the worst Monday of my life, with a lot of competition for that title, and decided there wasn’t going to be another”. Now, many people would love to do this but are faced with the problem of what to do next. This was never a problem for Michael.

From years of guitar lessons and performing live in various contexts since he was nine (9) years old, Michael always knew where he really belonged – on stage. He explains; “you always know the right thing to do, the tough part is doing it.” It’s been a strange route to take toward becoming a pop-rock recording artist but, at 29, Michael feels that in many ways it might have been the best one; “my experience in some areas of life where few musicians walk leads to different conceptualizations in songwriting. Bringing something novel to an art is what art is all about”

Indeed, the title track to his debut CD, produced by Berklee guys Dave Devonshire, Craig Clemons and Kevin Myers (U2, Dave Matthews) and engineered by Pat Woodward (Matchbox 20, Maroon 5) at New York City’s world famous studio “The Hit Factory”, is called Cliché because the inspiration for the writing and the energy in the amazing live performance comes from the idea that each of us should find something unique that we can share with each other and never let our lives become “just another Cliché”.

Michael is a literary wordsmith in carefully crafting his lyrics, “the only meaningful thing I took from law school” he jokes. He cites diverse inspirations from Bruce Springsteen to Run DMC, and Dave Matthews to U2. The CD tracks are just as diverse. Songs like “Drunk Dial” – the hilarious ode to that 4am phone call we’ve all made will leave you rolling, while songs like “War No More” - a unique and timely consideration of the difficulties in considering the last resort of war – will provoke the thought it deserves.

Cliché has plenty of the love songs we expect from a pop artist including the energetic expose of life with the one you really want - “With You” - and the gorgeous ballad to honor a woman who can never be honored enough – “Angel”. But what really moves Michael in living and writing is also what makes him so unique among today’s pop artists – life experience. He feels like he’s been “born again….given a second chance to do what I was meant to do with my life.” He’s also kept a solid perspective on it all, not losing sight of the fact that many people still haven’t truly shared this enthusiasm. He remembers what that was like and, more than anything else, wants to inspire people to “find themselves” and live only the lives in which they really believe.

In addition to the title track “Cliché”, songs like “Hope” – a “perspective song” that can only be written by someone who’s lived enough to get it, “Why” – a calling out to those who dream what they want but haven’t really gone after it, and “The Music in Me” – the longest track on the CD and worth every minute. As Michael explains; “[I]t’s the story of how I changed my life and it’s meant to change yours.” And it will. If you don’t reflect on where and who you are after hearing this song, you didn’t listen.

Asked about the varied themes in his work, Michael explained; “I write only what I really feel. But I’m honestly every bit as passionate about having fun as I am about love or the poetry of life. More than anything, I believe in moving people with my music. Whether it’s moving them to love, see the world and their own possibilities in it differently or just to party. If I’ve truly moved them, I’ve done my job and I’ve lived my dream.

Like the newer artists he cites as everyday inspiration, Eminem, John Mayer, Jay-Z and Jason Mraz - Michael’s words and performances can be just as party fun as they can be socially conscious, inspirational and deeply connecting. But what’s never lost in any of it is that all of it is just plain good and abov