MIKE KOVACS

For the past whenever, Mike Kovacs has been producing music, art, poetry, and film that has both defied category yet not been exclusionary. Having started playing guitar as part of a group class as a freshman in high school, he was unintentionally set on a path that would wind through many different worlds.

During his high school years he played in everything from church folk groups to metal bands while studying privately with John Benthal, Cary DeNigris, and fusion ace Glen Alexander. After hearing acoustic guitarist Michael Hedges, he decided to study classical composition at Rutgers University while also getting a degree in Economics. There he studied with serialist composer Charles Wuorinen, all the while playing coffeeshops and bars in New Jersey performing everything from indigo girls to Black Sabbath.

After graduating Rutgers and spending some time in Washington state (teaching guitar in the same store where Nirvana used to shop), he returned to New Jersey and kept plodding along, teaching guitar, taking classical music composition from Noel DaCosta, and playing bass with the band If Darwin Played Drums. Then he began to release solo material, including the multi-media work sacred, releasing a cd with the same name. Soon after he went to Minneapolis, Minnesota to study composition with composer/teacher/ all-around-great-guy Jim Oestereich at Music Tech College, culminating in a standing ovation by both faculty and students for the debut of his ensemble piece the voice of silence.

Since his return, Mike has built his own recording studio (Mexico City Studios), released six cd's on his own Brimstone and Blue productions label, composed several dance pieces performed at Connecticut College, and recorded his latest classical piece crescendo which was debuted at the Ukranian Institute in New York City on January 31, 2004. The work is part of another multi-media piece he is doing with noted Russian artist Vladmir Aituganov.

Writing on water (part II) is a release that is very special to everyone involved. Both a look to the present and a salute to the past, the disc draws from music from before sacred to selections from the latest disc, Reaching for the Brass Ring and the upcoming instrumental disc Welcome to Utopia Parkway. The disc is also special because it is a charity project, with all profits going to the family of Mike's late friend Fred Stilo, who died of cancer in 2003, leaving $140,000 in medical bills behind for his family to pay off.

Reaching for the Brass Ring is the latest cd release from Mike Kovacs and the Post-Modern Tribe. It is a bittersweet victory, as it is the last cd of bandmate Steve Hajdu-Nemeth, who died on November 7, 2006 after a battle with bladder cancer. Full of shimmering pop harmonies, as well as a touch of the avant-garde, the work finds the band at a new level of musical growth.

Mike Kovacs has also just debuted his rock concept piece, "After the Valentines," and will be transforming it into a multimedia work for spring 2008.

Having never compromised a single note played, a single frame shot, a single collage created, or a single word written, Mike Kovacs has taken the road less traveled in his creative journey. Watching bands come and go, he has stayed true to his vision and made a music that can truly be called his own.