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Michael R. Willow was born in Greece in 1982. He has studied in Griffith College Dublin (Ireland) and in Kingston University of London. He is influenced by various musicians, mainly David Bowie, Tori Amos, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Scorpions etc. He is also distinctive for his baritone voice, nevertheless he has been commented as having an ”Axl Rose vocal quality”.

Early years:

Michael was born in a middle class family in Thessaloniki. Around the age of 8 he showed an interest for the arts and music and he later started music lessons and classical guitar in Alexandrio Conservatory of Thessaloniki and later in Macedonian Conservatory of Northern Greece. During his school years he showed interest in the anglo-rock music and the Greek folk. The family was pushing him more towards classical music and after a while they decided to discontinue his lessons as his progress in school was not good enough, because he was spending most of his time practicing with his guitar and singing. However he took up voice lessons secretly by various teachers such like John Jeff Touch and started singing in various metal bands. He joined the hard rock band ”Mehegama” as a singer, organizing demo works and gigs, but the band split up, as the two other guitar players moved away from the city.

Working in a radio station

From May 2004 until November 2006 he broadcasted the radio show “Sound and Vision” on City International 106,1 FM, Thessaloniki, which broadcasts in Greece the program of Voice of America (VOA). The show was sponsored by the electronic music-promotion company www.music-city.gr whose purpose was to promote new bands. Special guest in Sound and Vision was the British singer/songwriter Nikki Sudden (who had collaborated among others with R.E.M and the Rolling Stones) on the 15 and 22-11-2004 and 15 October 2005 promoting his live shows in Greece. More interviews followed with local groups (Big Sleep, I Knew Them).

Peter and the Wolf (2002-2005)

At 2002 he formed an acoustic band named “Peter and the Wolf”. He was playing the guitar and was singing together with singer and school mate Angel Live whose voice was distinctive for his high falsetto notes. The duet was more a tribute rather than an under promotion band, dedicated to David Bowie and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. They completed a cd album with covers of famous Bowie and Hedwig songs and some of Tori Amos and Lou Reed. During this period, they got a suggestion from the music producer George Pentzikis (Magnanimous Recording Studios) to sing Greek songs in order to have a succesfull career in the Greek music scene. The suggestion was rejected by Angel Live and after a while the band called it a day when Michael moved to Verona (Italy) for a short while and he was influenced a lot by the Italian music.

Recent career

bemolHe has collaborated with the second best seller famous Greek band “The Olympians Live” (known also as ”The Olympians”) helping them in some demo works using his own studio equipment. He has also participated in the debut album of the Greek rock band ”Bemol”, ”Keep me to the rhythm” (Kratise me ston rythmo) 25 May 2007, writing the song ”Why you are not silence” (Giati den ise siopi). Words by Vasilis Barlakas.

Since the summer of 2005 he has collaborated as a composer and singer with theolive publishing house «Idrogios» and the Non-Governmental Cultural Organization «Argonautes», setting poems to music and performing them at the Poetry Festivals organized by «Argonautes» and the «Music Company of Northern Greece». He has performed live in the 1st Poetry Festival of Thessaloniki (15 of October 2005), in the Poetry Festival May of Love (24 of May 2006), in the 2nd Poetry Festival of Thessaloniki (3 November 2006) that was dedicated to the world wide famous Greek poet and translator Takis Varvitsiotes. He also undertook the presentation of the festival in Greek, Italian and English. In view of the 2nd Poetry Festival of Thessaloniki a cd album has been released named ”Olive” (3.000 pieces). It includes 5 compositions of Wichael R. Willow. Label: «Argonautes». He is also member of AEPI (Hellenic Copyright Society).

He has worked as a music teacher (guitar and voice) in Dun Laoghaire Music School in Dublin (Ireland), with the Ozanam House community resources for the summer project doing choir arrangements and other music organizations in Ireland.

In Dublin he has performed supporting Eimear Quinn in the Pavillion Theater Dun Laoghaire.

Also he participated in the open mic show ”Naked Launch” and in the festival for arts Art In Action 2008-2009 giving classical guitar recital (Co Louth – Ireland).

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