Mike VanPortfleet is an American singer-songwriter and

keyboard player A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical ins ...

, most recognized for founding the darkwave group

Lycia Lycia ( Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; el, Λυκία, ; tr, Likya) was a state or nationality that flourished in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is ...

in 1988. During the 2000s, his focus shifted from Lycia to several other musical projects which included his debut solo work, '' Beyond the Horizon Line''.

History

Mike VanPortfleet was born in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

in the early 1960s. In 1978, he moved to

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

, where he studied and graduated with a degree in

cultural geography Cultural geography is a subfield within human geography. Though the first traces of the study of different nations and cultures on Earth can be dated back to ancient geographers such as Ptolemy or Strabo, cultural geography as academic study first ...

. Soon afterward he picked up the guitar and played with several unsuccessful bands, most of whom were notorious at local venues for their drunken behavior. After nearly abandoning his musical interests and returning to school, VanPortfleet learned about 4-track recording and decided to try his hand at composing and producing music himself. In May 1988, Mike began the musical project

under which he recorded mostly guitar experiments. He enlisted bassist John Fair and together they produced over a hundred songs within a matter of months. In March 1989, VanPortfleet released some of the music from these sessions under the name Lycia on '' Wake'', a 6-song demo tape released through Orphanage Records.

Discography

; Solo * '' Beyond the Horizon Line'' (Silber, 2004) ; Lycia * '' Wake'' (Orphanage, 1989) * '' Ionia'' ( Projekt, 1991) * '' A Day in the Stark Corner'' (Projekt, 1993) * '' The Burning Circle and Then Dust'' (Projekt, 1995) * ''

Cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

'' (Projekt, 1997) * '' Estrella'' (Projekt, 1998) * '' Tripping Back Into the Broken Days'' (Projekt, 2002) * '' Empty Space'' (Silber, 2003) * '' Quiet Moments'' (Handmade Birds, 2013) * ''

A Line That Connects ''A Line That Connects'' is the tenth studio album by Lycia, released by Handmade Birds on August 21, 2015. Track listing Personnel Adapted from the ''A Line That Connects'' liner notes. ;Lycia * David Galas – electric guitar, a ...

'' (Handmade Birds, 2015) * '' In Flickers'' (Lycium Music, 2018) ; Bleak * '' Vane'' (Projekt, 1995) ; Estraya * ''The Time Has Come and Gone'' (Reptilian, 2000)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:VanPortfleet, Mike American rock guitarists American male guitarists American rock keyboardists Dark wave musicians Gothic rock musicians Living people Musicians from Grand Rapids, Michigan Guitarists from Michigan 21st-century American keyboardists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American male musicians