Mike Viola is a producer, musician, songwriter and singer. Viola may be best known for his work with Panic! at the Disco, Andrew Bird, Dawes, Ryan Adams and Jenny Lewis, but his solo career stands on its own starting with a number of acclaimed records as the leader of New York based cult favorite Candy Butchers and 8 critically adored Mike Viola records. His original music has been featured on soundtracks for movies such as That Thing You Do!, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Get Him to the Greek.
Decades into his career his music continues to resonate with and inspire new generations of musicians and music lovers. Starting in 2019 Viola hit a prolific streak and released fan favorite records The American Egypt, Godmuffin, and Paul McCarthy, all recorded in his Los Angeles studio Barebones. His recent albums have garnered a whole new fan base and sold out shows around the US. A new Mike Viola album, “Rock Of Boston”, will be released on September 20th 2024 on Good Morning Monkey/Grand Phony in the US, Lojinx in Europe and SONY Japan.
Rock Of Boston was recorded over the winter of 2023 on ½” tape at Barebones, Viola’s home studio in Los Angeles. Once again joined by his friends Jake Sinclair on bass and Brendon Urie on drums. Viola says, “I’m always writing songs, or pieces of songs, or riffs. My writing process changes every song, so I never get trapped in a method. I let the song lead me. While I was on a world tour playing guitar for Panic at The Disco, I wrote the bulk of this record on the bus between soundcheck and showtime. On the days off, I’d find a recording studio wherever we were and I’d book studio time to sneak away to lay down a few ideas. When the tour finished, Jake and Brendon came home to LA and we never stopped playing music together. We just switched from touring with Panic! to recording Rock Of Boston pretty seamlessly without a break. Maybe that’s why the riffs seem bigger on this record, we had spent all those months in hockey arenas around the world playing big music.”
