Gavin Mikhail (born March 26, 1975) is an American composer, pianist and singer-songwriter from

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. The winner of the 2007 "Lay It Down and Mix It Up in the UK" fan-vote contest, he has released more than 30 albums and singles independently. Mikhail also composed the piano soundtrack to

Ruta Sepetys Ruta Sepetys ( lt, Rūta Šepetys; born November 19, 1967) is a Lithuanian-American writer of historical fiction. As an author, she is a ''New York Times'' and international bestseller and winner of the Carnegie Medal. She is a Rockefeller Foun ...

' ''New York Times'' bestseller ''

Between Shades of Gray ''Between Shades of Gray'', a ''New York Times'' Best Seller, is the debut novel of Lithuanian-American novelist Ruta Sepetys. It follows the Stalinist repressions of the mid-20th century and follows the life of a teenage girl Lina as she is de ...

'' which was released in 2011.

Early life and education

Mikhail was born in

West Lafayette West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister c ...

, Indiana. Coming from a family where much emphasis was placed on the arts, Mikhail began studying

classical piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

by age seven and began performing at weekly church services by age ten. He graduated from

West Lafayette High School West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School (also informally known as West Side High School or simply West Side) is the only high school within the West Lafayette, Indiana, West Lafayette city limits, and is administered by the West Lafayette Communit ...

in 1991. Turning his attention to mainstream music, Mikhail spent the next four years at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

, in West Lafayette, performing in bands as lead vocalist and keyboardist while pursuing a degree in finance. Graduating in 1995, he moved to Nashville to begin a career in the music industry.

Giant Records and independent songwriting (1997–2001)

In 1997, after a year of part-time work at various music companies, Mikhail began working at

Giant Records In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

, the label started by

Irving Azoff Irving Azoff (; born December 12, 1947) is an American entertainment executive and chairman of Full Stop Management, which represents recording artists. In the mid-1980s, he brought success to MCA Records. Since September 2013, he has been chai ...

. Originally hired into the finance department, Mikhail transferred to a position on the

artists and repertoire Artists and repertoire (colloquially abbreviated to A&R) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists (singers, instrumentalist ...

(A&R) staff within four months. Throughout the next two years in his A&R role, Mikhail assisted in the signings and promotion of acts including

Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music singer and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single " Austin". The lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" spent five weeks at ...

Clay Walker Ernest Clayton Walker Jr. (born August 19, 1969) is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1993 with the single " What's It to You", which reached Number One on the '' Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Son ...

Daryle Singletary Daryle Bruce Singletary (March 10, 1971 – February 12, 2018) was an American country music singer. Between 1995 and 1998, he recorded for Giant Records, for which he released three studio albums: ''Daryle Singletary'' in 1995, '' All Because o ...

The Wilkinsons The Wilkinsons were a Canadian country music trio from Belleville, Ontario. Founded in 1997, the group consisted of lead singer Amanda Wilkinson, her brother Tyler Wilkinson, and their father, Steve Wilkinson. The Wilkinsons achieved success late ...

and

Georgia Middleman Georgia Leigh Middleman (born December 27, 1967) is an American country singer. Middleman sang from age ten at the Texas Star Inn in San Antonio, and began writing songs shortly thereafter. She sold recordings of her first song, There's a Rainbo ...

. Leaving Giant at the end of 1998 to pursue songwriting and production, he spent several years working with independent artists and began to focus more heavily on his own writing and solo artist career.

Solo career (since 2002)

Mikhail completed his first self-produced demos in early 2002, a number of which would later appear on his debut album ''My Personal Beauty Needs''. In 2003, Mikhail released the album independently and immediately began work on his follow-up album ''Like Normal People Do''. In 2007, Mikhail signed a licensing deal with Trolley Bus Records to distribute ''Like Normal People Do'' to

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

and

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Records ...

stores in Japan. Winning the "Lay It Down and Mix It Up in the UK" fan-vote contest sponsored by

Eventful Eventful is an online calendar and events discovery service owned by Audacy, Inc. The service allows users to search for and track upcoming entertainment events in their area (such as concerts, festivals, and film presentations) involving specific ...

Tunecore TuneCore is a Brooklyn, New York–based independent digital music distribution, publishing and licensing service founded in 2005. TuneCore principally offers musicians and other rights-holders the opportunity to distribute and sell or stream the ...

, and

Solid State Logic Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound ...

in October of that year, he traveled to

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

Real World Studios Real World Studios is a residential recording studio complex founded by Peter Gabriel and situated in the village of Box, Wiltshire, England, near to the city of Bath. It is closely associated with the Real World Records record label, Real Wor ...

in England to record. In early 2008, Mikhail was featured as an "internet sensation" by ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine in its "Underground" video series and later that year was invited to perform alongside

Matt Wertz Matthew Stewart Wertz (born February 17, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter. Originally from Liberty, Missouri, as of 2014 he lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Life and career Born and raised a Christian in Liberty, Missouri, Wertz's intere ...

Matthew Perryman Jones Matthew Perryman Jones (born 1973) is an American singer and songwriter. Career Jones began his music career in 1997, playing his first public performances at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia. In 2000, Jones issued his first solo release, ''N ...

, and Jeremy Lister for the

Nashville Songwriters Association International The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) is a 501(c) not-for-profit trade organization that works to help songwriters in three ways: through legislative advocacy, through education and advice about the actual craft of songwrit ...

Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival The Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival is an annual festival of songwriters in Nashville, Tennessee. It was established by the 4,000-member Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) in 1993. The festival is typically a five-day sessi ...

in Nashville. ''The Real World Sessions: Volume I'', Mikhail's first album from the trip to Real World Studios, was released in April 2009. The album includes his piano-based cover of

alternative-rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

band

Death Cab for Cutie Death Cab for Cutie is an American rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. The band is currently composed of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass), Dave Depper (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Zac Rae (keyboar ...

's song "I Will Follow You into the Dark". The song and associated video later went on to become a YouTube hit and was viewed over one million times. In 2011, Mikhail's friend Ruta Sepetys asked him to compose an original piano soundtrack to her ''New York Times'' bestselling novel ''Between Shades of Gray'', which Mikhail released in 2011.

Discography

* ''My Personal Beauty Needs'' (2003, Tower Window Records) * ''Like Normal People Do'' (2006, Tower Window Records) * ''The Real World Sessions: Volume I'' (2009, Tower Window Records) * ''Between Shades of Gray Soundtrack'' (2010, Tower Window Records) * ''Some Die Young'' (May 23, 2012, Tower Window Records)

References

External links