MICHAELANE Q&A
Interview with George/Michaelane

How/why/where you formed?

Michaelane was formed back in the Spring of 2004 in Chicago, IL.  However, this wasn't the way we first met eachother's aquantance.  The reason for forming the band started with a conversation between me and Joe during highschool.  Joe asked, "What are you gonna do for a living when we get out of highschool?"  I replied, "I want to play in a punk band."  Joe laughed, then later upon considering it, decided he wanted to do the exact same thing.  At the time we we're both playing in a hip-hop project called Group Theory with our current drummer Nate Burgard.  Alot of different people would free-style over our live instruments at shows and on tape.  It wasn't exactly our primary genre of music, but it was fun to put live instruments behind hip-hop, so the three of us did so for about a year.  When me and Joe were 17, in our friend's basement, me and Joe both decided to get the word "PUNK" tattood on our chests with the chinese symbol for "ROCK" just below it.  It had alot to do with the music of course, but it also signified alot more.  It was a quick reminder of all the memories we had growing up but also of all the things to come in the future.  After highschool we both went on to college and forgot about our dreams for awhile.  I remember saying, "I'd like to play in a band again, but unless one falls on my lap, I really don't think I will."  But a few years later in  2003 me and Joe got together and played accoustic guitars as we sometimes would and things went very well.  We started taking it a little more seriously than we did in the past.  During a duration of about 6 months we wrote and recorded 6 songs accoustically for this new project that we pitched to a number of drummers and bass players, but no one really took the bate.  In december of 2003 we ran into Nate Burgard who had played drums prior with us.  We knew he was an astounding drummer, no doubt, but never considered whether or not he could or would play punk rock.  At the time Nate was involved in a metal band called Orion Nine.  He didn't have alot of free time but still agreed to meet with us to see how things went.  To say the least, they went pretty well.  We soon found a bass player by the name of Pete Kamuda who we had also known prior to the band and began playing a ton of shows in the Chicagoland area at any venue that had a stage and/or sound stystem.  I was 20, Joe was 21, Nate was 19, and Pete was 23.

How did you get your band name?

There is a gang street in our area called Michael Lane that all of our gangsta friends hung out at back when we were in high school, maybe still.  Anyways, they used to always be like, "Michaelane Dawg, for life." So when we we're naming our band, we thought it had a ring to it and decided unless we thought of something better it was gonna be Michaelane... for life.

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Member Biography:

George Michael Castady (currently 23) grew up in Villa Park, IL.  He began playing guitar and writing music at the age of 10 when his father taught him how to play.  At age 13 his father gave him his first and only electric guitar, a 1981 Les Paul Standard.  He was involved in several bands growing up including Crackerjack, The Brockmeyers, Group Theory and Cow Pie.  His most prominent success came in Crackerjack when at the age of 15 he was playing shows with some of the more established punk bands such as Fenix TX, The Lawrence Arms, Lucky Boys Confusion, Mest, Ann Beretta and Catch22.  His brother was in a major label band at the time called Showoff who really showed George just how far you could take your dreams.  George shares a birthday (May 24) with his father's idol Bob Dylan.  He recently lost his mother and plays passionately in her memory.

Joe Fontana (currently 24) grew up in Villa Park, IL.  He began playing music at the age of 13 when he taught himself how to play the guitar.  He began playing in bands at the age of 15 including The Eighties, Satan's Keg and Group Theory.  Joe's decision to pursue music was cemented in 2003 when he turned down a very well paying job out of state to play in Michaelane.  His grandfather, also named Joe Fontana, played drums in a very popular American band in the 60's called The UFO's and supplied Michaelane with their first PA system.  Joe races Motocross in his free time.  He also works as a bartender at a popular local watering hole that Michaelane and all of their friends regularly hang out at.  

Nate Burgard (currently 22) grew up in Lombard, IL.  He began playing drums at the age of 10 years old and before long Nate was outplaying his teachers.  He was able to play almost any genre of music almost naturally.  Though he could play many styles of music his main ambition came when he was exposed to death metal.  He had never heard anything quite like this before so through his teenage years he aspired to learn how to master this very advanced style of drumming.  Nate took on other instruments as well including guitar, piano, and bass.  He's played in several bands including Tallege, Dotak, and Group Theory.  He currently uses his free time to take classes on recording and constantly works to improve his knowledge of recording and engineering.

Pete Kamuda (currently 26) grew up Villa Park, IL.  He began playing bass at the age of 16 when his parents told him he could choose any instrument he wanted.  Due to the tremendous size of his hands, he picked the bass guitar.  He played in only one band growing up called Tang Parade.  They didn't play many shows due to the fact that they wrote mainly comedic songs but Pete's knowledge of the bass didn't suffer.  Pete was born with a tremendous amount of hair, doctors we're astounded.

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Who were your biggest influences? What bands? What people? Both as individuals and the band as a whole?

George's inluences include Bob Dylan, Greg Graffin of Bad Religion, Trevor Keith of Face to Face, Billy Joel, Showoff, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Costello, Waterdog, Bayside, No Use for a Name, Propaghandi, NOFX, 88 Fingers Louie, Smoking Popes, Useless ID, Descendents, 311, his brother Dan Castady of The Fold, his mother and his friends and family.

Joe's influences inlcude Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Goldfinger, Bad Religion, NOFX, Dan Castady, Showoff, 88 Fingers Louie, Bob Marley, The Decendents, Pennywise, Face to Face,  No Use for a Name, Screeching Weasil, Bayside, Millencollin and his friends and family.

Nate's influences include Yanni, James King, Dying Fetus, Necrophagist, Gorgasm, Unmerciful, Bayside, Face to Face, No Use for a Name, Kurt Russel and his friends and family.

Pete's influences include Smoking Popes, The Beatles, No Use for a Name, Bayside, Bane, Lifetime, Goldfinger, Pennywise, NOFX, Bad Religion, Face to Face, Propaghandi, Catch22, Showoff, 88 Fingers Louie, Operation Ivy, Guttermouth, Rise Against, Squirtgun, Teenage Bottlerocket, 311, Greenday and his friends and family.

As a whole the band's influences come from a mixture of all the bands and people listed above.  However, there are three bands that we all seem to take to which are No Use for a Name, Face to Face and Bayside. Our families and friends have also continued to be a strong influence on all of our inspiration and success.

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After you formed what have you done? What releases have you made, demos even? Self released or how did a label come to pick you up? How did you first start making your own sound?

Michaelane has had only one prior release to our upcoming album "Straight from the Ghetto."  We recorded and engineered a 5 song demo on our own that was praised by professional engineers as "The best basement recording they have ever heard."  Instead of unrealistically hunting for labels right off the bat we decided it best to grow our following and release our music on our own.  We formed a record label called Fuckhouse Records that gave us a solid name to throw shows under.  The shows went extremely well and before long we were filling up local venues with other bands from the area such as The Scissors, Moral Decay and Question Mark Zero.  We decided after a few years of touring and handing out demos, it was time to book some real studio time and record a handfull of our current songs.  We decided to call the album, "Straight from the Ghetto" because we actually recorded the demo for the CD in the ghettos of Chicago.  Our practice space, at the time, was located on the busiest drug trafficking corner in the city of Chicago (Cicero and Augusta). We're largely agreed that we found our sound by combining all of our various musical influences and trying to keep things energetic.  Lyrical content, fresh guitaring and complex drumming are what make Michaelane who we are as a band.

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Touring: Who have your toured with , what festivals or events? Where have you toured? What was the most meaningful show you've ever played?

Michaelane has done three successful tours.  Our first tour was in 2005 when we headed out west and played shows in Texas, Arizona, California and Nevada.  We booked 20 shows in 30 days on our own.  Halfway through that tour we played our second ever House of Blues show in Anaheim, CA.  Our first was in Chicago for a Showoff Reunion show earlier that same year.  After Anaheim we met up with a local Los Angeles band called Costello.  We proceeded to play shows with Costello in California until our tour came to an end in Las Vegas, NV.  Our second tour was in the Spring of 2006 when we decided to head south down to Florida.  Again, self-booked, we decided to invite our good friends The Scissors to come on tour with us.  We toured all over the coast, playing at wide variety of local punk venues in various beach party towns.  Despite car trouble trouble, we made it back to Chicago unscaved.  For the third tour we decided to see the rest of the country and headed east, this time solo.  We played shows in New York, New Jersey, Massachusettes, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Indiana.  In August of 2006, shortly after we had found out my mom, Jeanette Castady, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, we played a benefit show at The Arabian Knights Barn in Willowbrook, IL with The Plain White Tees, The Fold and The Scissors.  The show raised almost $4000 dollars for her out of care expenses!  It was by far the most meaningful show we've played as a band.

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What inspires you to compose your music?
The inspiration for Michaelane's music comes from a alot of things.  Simply put, it's the things we go through day to day, the good times and the bad.

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Who produced/mixed/mastered this current release?
The album was produced by Michaelane.  It was recorded and mixed at Atlas Studios in Chicago, IL by Matt Allison and it was mastered by Alan Duches in New York, NY.

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Where do you or don't you fit into which scene in your country? Why or why not?
We fit in well with the punk rock scene in Chicago and abroad.  We've never had anyone tell us they didn't like us.  Even when we're put on an all metal bill, they still seem to respect our music because of our drumming and guitars.  I would like to say we fit in fairly well with most scenes but I'm sure alot of people might disagree.

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What bands have you been compared to in sound? Who do you think you sound similar to , a combination of which bands?
We've often been compared to bands such as Greenday, No Use for a Name, Bayside, and Face to Face.  We feel we have a sound similar those bands as well, however, we don't feel bound by it.  We like to think we have found our own style within our influences that we hope continues to evolve into something totally new.

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What's the future hold for you?
We plans to continue to write and record albums for the duration of our musical careers with the intention of becoming an established band who can pack venues from coast to coast and around the world.  We have no fear for lack of success, only a drive to succeed.  We're not going to stop pushing until the name Michaelane is synonomous with punk rock.