Songwriter, Filmmaker, Photographer, Writer, Producer, The Metropolitan Cowboy. These are the some of the hats that Michael Coleman wears, in addition to being Artistic Director of See Your Shadow Songwriting (SYS), whose artistic works specialize in utilizing their network of extremely talented vocalists and musicians to make music and art within a space with no boundaries.
We caught up with Micheal to discuss his passion for the arts, his current fully-instrumental single “My Worth,” and SYS.
CN: For our readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little about yourself?
MC: Well, I’m Michael Coleman, The Metropolitan Cowboy, or Metro as my friends call me and I run an organization called See Your Shadow Songwriting, which is an organization that creates art with music being the flagship staple of the art we create. Creating artistic work in all mediums has always been my passion and through the very talented folks that make up the See Your Shadow Network of Stars, I am allowed to do so.
CN: With everything that’s going on in the world with regards to COVID-19, we hope everyone in your circle is safe and healthy. How are you all holding up?
MC: I do have to say that I miss interacting with people, I am a hugger and toucher and pretty famous for my hugs and seeing so many in need of hugs during this time has been difficult, but we are safe and healthy. We’ve been hunkered down at The HOasis, which is my Arizona house and catching up on a lot of programs that I have not been able to watch, plus keeping the creativity going.
CN: You grew up in Ohio, and were nominated for the very prestigious title of Ohio’s Poet Laureate.
MC: Well actually, I grew up in San Diego, California and moved to Ohio when I was researching a screenplay that I was writing, fell in love with it and decided to call it home. Being nominated twice for that appointment was really special although it would have been better if I won, but being the only professional songwriter being considered for the appointment further let me know that my brand of the lyrics of See Your Shadow standing on their own as literature was reinforced and that songwriters are poets.
CN: How were you introduced to music? When did you realize that you wanted to pursue it as a career?
MC: The creative arts have always been my passion. There were always all different types of music playing in the house when I was growing up. I was a band and orchestra geek when I was in school and it was a means of escape for me. I really didn’t get serious about it until I had a milestone birthday, I won’t tell you which one it was, but I was managing a law firm in San Francisco and I hit that milestone birthday and said to myself what am I doing, I have too much talent that is being wasted and I need to do something with it. So then I started on this journey.
CN: Which was the first album you ever owned?
MC: Oh my goodness. I have huge music collection that spans, vinyl, cassettes and cds before everything went digital. The first album, I owned was “Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. We studied the poem Richard Cory in English and I identified with that poem and then when the teacher played the song by Simon and Garfunkel, I had to have a copy so that was the first album I bought with my own money. Now the first cassette I bought with my own money was “ She Works Hard for the Money” by Donna Summer and the first CD I ever bought with my own money was either “Tina, Live in Europe” or “Faith” by George Michael I may have even bought both of them at the same time.
CN: Can you share with us the philosophy behind See Your Shadow Songwriting?
MC: The philosophy behind See Your Shadow is a simple one. In the early years of See Your Shadow, I wrote a song called “One Life” and there is a line in that song that has been our philosophy and that is “Erase the words I can’t from your mind”
CN: Your career was originally centered in dance music and filmmaking, but recently you’ve made the change to country, what led you to the switch? Was there a moment where you felt like you had to go down a different musical path?
MC: Well country has always been my preferred genre. When I am sitting down to write a piece it is always done with it being a country song in mind and my catalog had a vast number of country songs in it before we started doing the other genres. As a matter of fact, I got a lot of push back and fallout from my country crew when I told them I was going to start doing other types of songs. The thing to remember is that I am an artist first and I started doing the dance music and other genres as a means to push myself as an artist and we started having success at it. The first song I ever had on the radio was a Jazz/Hip Hop Hybrid and then other non-country projects just kept coming up. When See Your Shadow relocated to Phoenix, I wanted to rebrand and relaunch the organization and narrow its focus to what has always been my first love, country and western. The timing was just right. Not saying that we won’t do another dance record, I just go in the direction that my heart leads me.
CN: Which musicians, country or not have influenced you both personally and as an artist?
MC: There is so much talent all around us and the musician I think that has probably had the most influence on me is a man by the name of Jeff Smith aka Bodeen. Now you ask who is Jeff Smith? There are so many great musicians the world has never known because they are your guys who never become famous. Jeff was one of the best guitar players I have ever met and I was so lucky to have him as part of the See Your Shadow Network of Stars. When we did the first ever country and western hip hop recording, “Like a Kid Again” performed by Ah-mayz Macson and featured on the Motion Picture Soundtrack H2indO, it was his guitar playing that was at the forefront of the recording. He was just an amazing talent and sadly, he died before the movie and soundtrack came out, but he was the best guitar player, you never knew. You can hear the track on our website.
CN: Your previous single was the emotional song, “I Will Tell Jesus You Said Hello” which went to #1 on the ITunes Country Chart in South Africa and has a very moving music video. What is the backstory to this song? Is there a personal connection?
MC: I have really been touched by how well that song was received and continues to be received. It is actually one of my favorites from the new body of work. I really don’t know where that song came from to be quite honest with you. The inspiration for the chorus just hit me out of the blue, which happens and then I constructed the verses. The version that you hear now is not the original version of the song. When I rebranded See Your Shadow and set out the do a new body of work with our new sound, I reimagined the piece and thought to myself that the song would make a great duet, so I set out to tell the story of the young couple who lose their child, that first verse is the original first verse and I just expanded the story. The interesting thing about that song is that you can plug any hardship into those verses and still find healing in the chorus, which is a true testament of the power of the piece. I don’t have any children and have no idea what it would be like to lose a child, but channeling emotions about things I haven’t experienced first hand has always been one of my gifts as a songwriter and I actually found healing in the piece as we were working on it shortly after my mom died and I found comfort in it.
CN: “My Worth” is your current single, and it is a straight instrumental country song. What was the inspiration behind the track?
MC: Liquor. Actually, I was having some cocktails one night and I started banging on the bongos and that was the foundation for the track. Then when we were in the studio I started playing the beat for my musicians and then we just had an impromptu jam session and that was how the original track came to life. Fast forward when I set out to do the new body of work, I pulled the track off the shelf and I was going to write lyrics to it, but the track just stood so strong on its own as an instrumental that I decided to keep it that way. It is so rare that musician get to showcase their talents, unless it is a live performance and I thought that we should change that.
CN: Instrumental songs can be just as emotional, if not more so, than songs with lyrics. How did you go about composing this song to mimic the feelings brought upon by words?
MC: That is a good question and so true that instrumentals can be just as emotional, movie composers capture that all the time. For this particular piece, it was important to pull the emotions from the musicians. When you are in the recording studio every musician brings their own level of emotion and since “My Worth” started out as an impromptu jam based on a rhythm and beat, I had to construct the piece from all the moving pieces and parts to tell the story and have it make sense and be cohesive. It’s not an easy task.
CN: If you could collaborate with any one artist, who would it be?
MC: Whoa this is a good one because there are so many that would be on this list from a music standpoint, so I am going to go out here and say I would love to co-write a screenplay with Quentin Tarantino.
CN: What was the first concert you ever attended?
MC: The very first show I ever attended was Darryl Hall and John Oates, the “Out of Touch” tour. I was and still am a big Hall & Oates fan.
CN: If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be and why?
MC: Oh, I have to think about this for a minute. I think limitless is a good word to describe me. I never know where my mind is going to take me which is why I have done so many types of projects in so many different mediums. I always say labels equals limits and when you label yourself, you close yourself off to growth and opportunity.
For more information on Michael Coleman/See Your Shadow Songwriting, visit seeyourshadow.com and follow along on Facebook and Twitter.