Dr. Mike
Hi there. I'm Mike Metlay. Pleased to meet you!
I have a Ph.D. in nuclear structure physics. My education and science career served as the backdrop for my early work as an electronic musician, including the formation of my production company, Atomic City. These days, I mainly use my Ph.D. in fast food restaurants, where orders for "Dr. Mike" don't result in every Mike in the building jumping up at once, and at trade shows, where the Ph.D. on my business card is great for starting conversations and stopping snake-oil salesmen.
These days I make my living as the Editor of Recording, The Magazine for the Recording Musician, reviewing gear and dispensing wisdom to musicians interested in recording their own music or developing a business recording for other musicians.
I have some really good friends in the world of music, whose input and support I value very much. I thrive on communication and connection; where others collect synthesizers, I collect synthesists.
I have a presence on Facebook and Twitter (@MrSpiral), where my policy starts with "first, do no harm"—where by "harm" I mean "spamming people until they hate you."
I live in northern Colorado in the USA, with my family. My wife Suzanne is a faculty member at Western Governors University; my older daughter Julia is in college, learning to take over civilization as we know it; and my younger daughter AJ is also known as Mystery Bubble - the youngest ambient performing artist in the world.
Elsewhere on the site you will find a detailed (maybe too detailed!) history of my long and checkered career in electronic and experimental music, and read about my thoughts and trials as I go through the difficult process of rejoining the music world after years of near-silence.
You can also hear and purchase (or sometimes freely download) my music, send me mail, chat with me during my internet radio shows, and learn about what's going on in the Here and Now of Mr Spiral. Thanks for joining me.