Micheal Fordays drops powerful new release "The Life We Live" and connects with us for a revealing interview
- STAFF
- Sep 3
- 16 min read
By: Staff
“The Life We Live” is a soul-stirring, masterfully crafted triumph that radiates truth, depth, and artistry.
Micheal Fordays’ new single, “The Life We Live,” arrives not with a whisper, but with a surge of power and purpose. From the very first note, the track invites you into a charged, emotionally layered world that pulses with urgency and intention, yet never strays from vulnerability. We spoke with Micheal about this riveting new release, and what unfolded was more than a conversation about music. It became a deep look into the spirit of an artist in motion.
There is something quietly defiant in “The Life We Live,” a sense that every lyric and sonic choice is part of something larger. The music doesn’t beg for attention. It commands it, not through volume, but through conviction. The voice behind it is seasoned, yet searching. Reflective, yet pushing forward. In our conversation, Micheal opened up about the creative shifts that led to this new chapter, the unshakeable principles that guide his songwriting, and the moment he realized his music could become a vehicle for something far bigger than himself.
As the layers of this song are peeled back, a story emerges, not just of an artist, but of a human being with something urgent to say. He spoke candidly about vulnerability, the emotional cost of truth-telling through art, and the quiet shimmer of inspiration that always seems to be pulling him toward what’s next.
Dive into our full interview with Micheal Fordays and discover the fire behind “The Life We Live.”
Here’s how it went:
Begin Interview:
Hello Micheal Fordays, we’re thrilled to have you here for this interview! We've had an amazing time exploring your music and diving into your creative journey. Now, we’re even more intrigued to get a deeper look into both your brand and your personal and professional inspirations.
Q. We love the opening of “The Life We Live.” The energetic, explosive opening felt like we were in motion from the second the first note struck. Your vocals come in soaring, powerful, with a gentle commanding essence. Also, we loved your entire dynamic and musical persona.
When did you first realize the power of your voice and creative expression? What moment in your life transformed it from a personal, intimate expression to a tool for sharing your story with the world, ultimately laying the foundation for the quickly growing career we see today?
A. First, thank you for listening to my music, and thank you for the invitation to do an interview. I actually started down the road of music creation as a guitarist. My stepfather played guitar every morning before he would go to work. He played jazz and country music. He was a very talented player, and as a young child his playing, combined with the various bands performing on television and the radio, struck my ears and pulled at my soul. He taught me some chords and when I got older he signed me up for guitar lessons. My family would always tell me stories about my grandfather, who passed when my mother was a child, about how he would make the guitar speak, and how he performed with various bands. Because of this I felt, being a musician was in my DNA. In high school, after forming a band, I had my first experiences performing live and recording in a studio. After high school I co-founded a band called Mind Over Four, we started playing local venues and later expanded to touring around the world, opening for some major bands and eventually headlining a few tours in Europe and the U.S. We would rehearse 6 days a week, and we wrote consistently, always experimenting. We released 6 albums. During the early years of the band I was attending college, focused on music and later attended a music conservatory. I continued touring with a few other bands after M/4 ended and ultimately reached for my solo work. I never considered myself as a vocalist, but following my own road led to becoming my own authentic artist through my own voice. I found an amazing vocal instructor who taught me strong vocal techniques and through years of singing my own lyrics in my own natural style, it became part of my nature.
Q. You’ve described “The Life We Live” as the beginning of a new artistic chapter. What internal or external shift occurred that made you realize it was time to evolve your creative direction?
A. I usually write a set of songs focused on my musical desires, my current state of mind, and the messages I want to leave in the body of work. My main goal is to always reach for a higher level in writing, performance and production. I wish to reach a higher sonic plane. I never strive to sound like another artist, and my goals are not monetary. Staying connected to who and what I am is natural and, in essence, easy to achieve. I write what I am yearning to hear, the sounds that are ringing in my head. I believe that I have my own style, which is naturally applied to my work. As I work on the new set of songs, releasing “The Life We Live”, having just mixed my next release called “Forward”, I have two more songs in various stages of recording and production and I’m set to go back into writing mode. I’m motivated lyrically at the moment by the current state of the world and how it impacts my life. Every set of songs I write is a new artistic chapter.
Q. You speak about living with unwavering principles. How do those core values show up in your songwriting not just lyrically, but in the choices you make creatively and sonically?
A. Who I am, what I love, and how I proceed in life (and writing) is all about choices, as it is for everyone. I’m an independent artist without corporate support or assistance, which sets a manuscript for personal accomplishments and freedom. I like what I like, I write what I like, while trying to achieve the highest level of authenticity and quality. There are specific guitar sounds I want to progressively accomplish, voicings, chord structures, rhythmic placements, melodic movements and tones. I have a bass style that I want to apply. I want the lyrics to express what I’m feeling in my soul, and vocally I press myself for the best possible performance that is true to my nature. (All mixed with raw experimentation.) Once these particles of essence become intertwined and the work has been released, the song vibes out with its own style, sound, and movement. Many times the song’s energy, once recorded and produced becomes its own dynamic substance, often beyond what I had anticipated.
Q. You’ve emphasized the importance of standing up for what’s morally right. Was there a specific event, conversation, or realization that sparked the message behind this track?
A. The world is, in my opinion, spiraling in a scary, negative direction and I believe it is important to focus on humanity, love, safety, and positive moral righteousness. We are all going to move through the life we live, the choices we face, and life decisions, so let’s do it as correctly as possible, with emphasis on kindness. So many people are prioritizing money, even over doing what is right. (In my opinion) I think it’s important to educate yourself, read the words, listen for the truth, and do what is right. If you can help someone, you should, “No more pain, no more sorrow, no more hate, there’s no more time!”
Q. When people experience “The Life We Live” what feeling, idea, or realization do you hope stays with them?
A. The message is having empathy for others. To have consideration, compassion, and generosity for neighbors, strangers, family, and friends. “The Life We Live, let’s make it right”, meaning each person must uphold goodness, proper ethics, fair, and loving treatment for all. Surprisingly, to me, in these supposedly modern times, some people are still racist, for instance, but there is no such thing as different human races. It is incorrect to say this race or that race; it’s a manipulation tactic used by the rich, elite, and powerful to keep us divided, but not based on anything real. Science has proven that we all belong to the same human race or species, Homo Sapiens. I also believe that people who are homeless or of a low financial status should be aided by all of humanity. I’ve read that in Native American societies, they had little or no theft because of strong community and sharing. It was a collectivist culture where the well-being of the community was prioritized over individual wealth. I think if we could just lean a little more in that direction many of our societal issues could be mended.
Q. You’ve said this song is a reflection of the times we’re living in. What do you believe is the artist’s role during periods of social and moral upheaval, and what kind of impact do you hope your music can have in that context?
A. I think artists should consider and express their times, their conditions and their circumstances. Art should be a reflection of life. I’ve quoted this amazing artist before about this subject, Nina Simone, who said, “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Of course, the beauty of being an artist is to have the freedom to express whatever you want, and I don’t only reflect the times; I also dip into my personal past and express things from pure imagination, but I can’t help being moved by the crazy times we are currently living in. I hope my music can and will review history a bit, and maybe shift some thinking or at least open conversations about positive direction and forward movement. Of course, my opinion is just my own view point, myself being just one of the many humans with opinions based on our personal experiences.
Q. Who is your favorite artist that preceded you and made a significant impact through their music in a way that reflects moral conviction or social awareness?
A. From very early times on my musical road I have been influenced by the Beatles. I love their progressive artistic movement and songwriting innovation. Love, being a huge theme throughout their songs. I also think that in some ways, Punk Rock, which I was exposed to in my youth, challenged the societal norms and pushed against corporate monetary music, which still impacts me today.
Q. Can you tell us your full musical genre journey? Is this particular musical genre styling something you’ve always embraced from the very beginning of your journey, or has it evolved over time from influences or other genres you experimented with earlier?
A. When I was a teenager my goal, like many beginning musicians, was to sound like my musical heroes. I would spend hours trying to replicate a musical style or a part of a song, listening over and over, trying to play their part on guitar. (When I was younger, we didn’t have all the tutorials that are available today, so you had to listen directly to the recording and find its placement on the guitar.) After a few years, I was able to replicate solos and passages in a fairly easy manner, which made me a bit bored and had me seeking something else. I started becoming interested in horn players and improvisation. I listened to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy (and others), which was very inspirational and challenging to attempt to master their skills and improvisational techniques. These players led me to other guitarists that I wasn’t familiar with, like John Scofield, Mike Stern, and Grant Green, all of whom inspired forward movement. After high school, I co-founded a band called Mind Over Four. I co-wrote with the players of that band. I was studying music in college at that time and was able to bring higher-level skills to the table, but our vision was to break traditional patterns, structure, and formula, which is something that I still adhere to today. After that band broke up, I was hired to play guitar for a band called KMFDM. I toured with them for a few years, but I wasn’t permitted to contribute any creativity or songwriting. It was a great experience, but I left the band because I’m a songwriter and I had my own personal creative motivations to follow. When I left the band, I had to find my own direction and remembered what a college professor had taught me: that if you don’t have a solid song with just a vocal and one instrument, then you have nothing at all. So I began pursuing songwriting on an acoustic guitar, performing solo, without a band, playing small venues around Los Angeles. I recorded a few releases with that structure, hiring a guitarist, bassist, (even though I could perform those instruments myself), and a drummer to replicate a band. I recorded like this for a few years until the relationship with those players and that studio (in Hollywood) faded. I needed to find a new studio to record and create, (which is how I met Dave Klein), and I decided to play all the guitar and bass parts myself which brought me back to the style that felt most natural and real to me. I switched my focus back on the electric guitar, and inciting unconventional musical mechanisms very similar to Mind Over Four, but with some of the songwriting skills I learned from my acoustic days, and my heavy electric guitar experiences and techniques that I loved, which is where I’m at today.
Q. Since “The Life We Live” speaks to a lot of your personal emotional involvement, does it ever feel difficult to reveal so much of yourself in such a comment and judgment-driven world, or do you find it liberating to express that level of vulnerability through your music?
A. My goal beyond always progressing upward and forward, is to write my own unique and personal sound and style. Whether that sound is good or bad is not for me to say. In today’s world, with so many different genres available on demand, you could be the greatest, most innovative artist in your genre, and listeners that don’t like that style would say you suck anyway. So I believe that I have to achieve the level of sound that is inspiring to me, that motivates forward creative movement. When artists try to replicate someone else’s sound, I believe they really miss the chance to reach their own innermost expression of real authenticity. However, artists that are motivated by monetary accomplishments or fame probably have a different view, wanting to adhere to the current musical structure and formulas so they can capitalize on their efforts
Q. You’ve shared that one song often leads to the next. Do you feel like you’re unfolding a larger narrative through your music, even if that story isn’t fully revealed at the time of writing?
A. When I go into writing mode, which I’m about to do again in the next couple days, I sit with my unamplified Les Paul, casually reaching for an inspiring musical movement. This movement can be a chord structure, melodic arrangement, or just a passage that inspires forward creative motion. If I land on something that triggers an excited reaction for me, then I can’t stop until I reach a complete structure. As I advance and progress within the potential song, melodies and lyrics fall into place. At this moment, I may pause and continue the following day. If the idea still swirls in my head, then I know it has solid potential, and advancing ahead becomes natural. Sometimes during this stage, I’ll come upon an idea that I truly love but doesn’t fit the current song, and this naturally expands into another song. Regarding a “larger narrative”, that is something that comes to light after evaluating the songs I’ve finished and released. While writing, I usually go through a rotation of loving, then hating what I have. I’ve written songs that I felt I’d hated, put the song to the side, only to, after some time, fall in love with it again. Finding the reinstated inspiration, I alter bits of the song just so I personally am not bored, wanting to hear inspiring and jolting sounds rather than cliché structures. Recording the song extends the depths of the song again. I record the completed song structure on a scratch track, vocals and guitar only, and Dave uses that track to write his drum parts, and I use it to write the bass lines. When the drum and bass session is completed, the song has already shifted forward to a new dimension, which inspires writing higher-level guitar parts for the next session. This may push the melody to change a bit, at least in its placement as I use the completed instrumental recordings to work out my vocals in preparation for the vocal sessions. After, Dave will add keyboards and percussion, and by the time we’ve reached the mixing stage of production, the song is usually much deeper and detailed in a way I didn’t anticipate, which is always very fulfilling and exciting. After releasing the song I may have thoughts about the material not living up to what I wanted or fulfilling what I consider my artistic standards, but oftentimes after time passes and I listen again, those songs become my personal favorites. Looking back at the “body of work” I can perceive a sound and natural narrative, I can step back and attain a deeper view of the work, and obtain a better understanding of what I’ve written. Thankfully it also currently describes a progression into the higher level of expression which ironically leads to new songs.
Q. There’s a natural cycle in your creative process, writing, pausing, producing, then returning to write again. What do you gain from working this way, and how has it shaped the music you’re creating now?
A. I love having songs in various stages of recording and production, one song being mixed, one song waiting for vocals and yet another awaiting instrumental overdubs or whatever is coming next, this integrates authentic interest and inspiration to move the works in a better direction at a satisfying pace. I listen to the various stages of the work daily, wanting to provoke new ways to spiral the songs upward. Reviewing, revisiting, re-evaluating but not being trapped by perfectionism, moving from session to session. Dave and I complete each session, finishing, sometimes through experimentation, but moving along to completion. Generally we don’t redo any session, or parts, we move along to the next required step, and when the song is finished, I don’t rethink because I’m on to the next structure. Looking back at the song, months or years later, I gain an appreciation for the work it took to stay real, and the symbolic model of a time in my life. That viewpoint inspires new creative direction and new levels of comfortable experimentation.
Q. Your collaboration with Dave Klein seems rooted in mutual trust and artistic chemistry. How does that dynamic push you to grow as a songwriter and performer?
A. I’m very lucky to work with Dave. We’ve been working together since 2021 and we’re working on our fourth project as a team. Although we both have had years of experience recording and touring, I feel like we have grown and progressed together, making for enhanced songs and gratifying outcomes. I keep pushing my songwriting and performances as vocalist, guitarist and bassist, as he keeps upgrading his studio and pushing himself to higher levels of recording and mixing. A great sounding studio, and great production is in itself inspirational to write new music. As we progress song to song, I’m feeling, admiring and appreciating his drumming, percussion and keyboards, and realizing how much impact they have on the overall sound and vibe of the work. We also have a lot in common, through our musical life experiences, morals and virtues, so we talk a lot, creating a relaxed work environment. When we’re in motion, tracking, he has great ideas and creative input. His ideas are always so good, high end suggestions, and I always try to interpret them through my own style, but they always push my perceptions to new ways forward, and he always plays a huge role in the vibe of the song. His mixes keep getting better and better, as he always looks for ways to improve and create with detailed spacing and expertly controlling the tones, volume and sonic motion of the song, placing the vibrations of each part in a position to highlight the other parts, and ultimately causing the parts to exist as one energetic composition.
Q. What is it about the environment at Dave Klein Recording that allows you to create with such freedom and authenticity? Is there something unique about that space that fuels your best work?
A. I like the vibe and feeling of Dave Klein Recording, our interactions in that vibrant space are uplifting and pleasant. Dave has the proper equipment and high-end gear and is very professional in the setup and use of the correct placement of microphones and setting up the sound to be in the best position for recording and preparation for ultimately combining the high quality sounds when the mixing occurs. As we set the tracks in motion Dave is intellectually guiding sonic movements to work in conjunction with the ultimate end goal of a properly crafted creative endeavor. We are also loose and free with experimental objectives, both of us wanting to try things that are different from our last session. Dave always dives in with real and authentic connection to my art which in my experience is rare in the studio recording system.
Q. You’ve described your inspiration as something shimmering in the back of your head. That imagery is so vivid we can almost see it. Now describe what does that creative pull feel like to you, and how do you recognize the moment when it’s time to follow it?
A. Most of my focus and thoughts regarding art is a driving energy that pushes at me to reach forward for the sonic creativity that I long to be a part of. I can’t help the feeling of fragmented particles of musical motion vibrating just above my consciousness. Sometimes I pause writing for a while and let the lingering display of potential new artistic developments rotate in thought until I have to at least write it down. A lyric, a structure of creation, a signal of new works can burst through at any given moment inspiring a new unfolding sound. Just when I think I’ve reached a new level I’m inspired by an idea that pushes forward, manifesting a fresh direction and a new way to deliver a message that must be spoken. I’m also driven by the fact that I know I may reach a time when I can no longer create. I’m blessed to be at a place where experience, knowledge, creativity and honesty ushers artistic inspiration and that I’m in a place where I can see these ideas expand to a quality result, and feed the energy of the body of work, my legacy and my human message.
Q. Micheal, we can’t thank you enough for sharing these intimate and thoughtful insights. So, what’s next? Can you give us a glimpse into your upcoming projects and what fans should be excited about? We'd love to help share the journey ahead.
A. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to communicate my thoughts and creative visions, I’m a story teller and I love to be able to tell the story of my past and current artistic journey. At the moment I’m at the beginning of a brand new set of songs. As you are aware, I’ve released the first song “The Life We Live”, I’m awaiting mastering of my next release, “Forward”, and I have two more songs in recording and production mode. I feel good about the nature of the work and I’m excited to write some new songs, I’m just trying to decide which direction to facilitate as I sit in anticipation of writing mode. As always I’m inspired to move with some new approaches and experimentation with tuning, tones, rhythms and approaches in structural mechanics. While my thoughts rotate in anticipation of what to bring to the body of work, I’m preparing for a vocal session on a new song called “Riding A Pale Horse”. I’ll be back at Dave Klein Recording in a couple days, we’re preparing for not only the vocal session but we’ll be adding keyboards and percussion soon. I release each song as a single until I achieve the group of songs that will make up the next album release which I anticipate coming to fruition in mid to late 2026. Thank you to all for listening to my music, I wish health, safety, love and joy to all. Thank you.
Micheal Fordays, thank you so much, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us!
End Interview
We’re happy to have shared Micheal Fordays’s exciting journey with you and uncovered such inspiring insights about their creative process.
