Mike Monday | 10 tracks 10 weeks

If you haven’t heard Mike Monday’s music before, I think he can sum it up for you best when he says:

“I write electronic music. It sounds a bit like Prince getting drunk with Mr Scruff in Royksopps house.”

He also does stuff like give away 10 free tracks in 10 weeks. Yup that’s right, from Monday July 19th until September 20th Mike will be giving away 10 free tracks from his website mikemonday.com

Mike will keep a studio diary of his project so you can read about his journey as it evolves. Subscribe to his RSS feed so you don’t miss out on any of the free goodies. Mike had some inspiring and thought-provoking words on why he is doing this, which he posted on his website a few days ago:

“After about a month of soul searching and head scratching I finally have a plan: Every Monday from July 19th to September 20th 2010 I'll write and release a completely new track for free. All the music will remain free to download for the 10 weeks of the project and as I write the music I'll talk about how its going in this studio diary.

Why am I doing this? Its an experiment I'm conducting on my music, my creative process and internet music distribution. And if it works well it'll help me (force me?) to find a distinct musical voice, something which I believe has largely eluded me for the last 16 years. Releasing music from my web site will stop me from getting distracted by other people's expectations. Without a label I don't have to conform to a specific scene or sound and the only person I have to please with the music is myself (except possibly my wife).

Making it free will allow me to concentrate on writing music without worrying about how many of you lot will buy it. It would be a lovely bonus if someone digs it, but removing commercial considerations will allow me to be more creative. Writing and releasing a track every week will give me continual challenging deadlines which will avoid the endless head scratching I fear my newfound creative freedom might bring. I have a theory that my best ideas are usually the first and having to complete a 10 tracks in 10 weeks will force me to get on with it.

I'm doing it for 10 weeks because I believe that 10 tracks makes a nice length for an album, and one of my aims is to make a body of work which will hang together as an album. I don't know how this 10 tracks 10 weeks idea will pan out, other than a few vaguely sketched out ideas and starting points I haven't a clue what I'm going to produce. It could end in an album of exciting and interesting music of which I'm proud, or in creative despair and abject failure. But whatever happens it's going to be a trip.”

Mike Monday Pulse profile