Features : TMike, with a new single, ready to take his own mix of musical artistry out to the world

He has made music that blends rap with guitar and with piano and with other instruments, because that is what music is for Fort Myers, Florida, artist TMike – a blend of instruments, genres, life, mood and moment.

For instance, his newest single, “Already Made It,” blends celebration and manifesto.

The celebrating is a party-beat rap about how far he has already come, and the manifesto is that the celebration is not going to replace the hard work of getting where he wants to go.

The first two lines of the first verse starts the celebration: “I done made the most I ever made / When I was struggling,” and a few lines later comes the determination: “Now I can’t stop for nothing / Too much money I can’t let it go.”

Asked what’s next, he said, “Really, just continuing to push, continuing to grind. The sky is the limit, and there's no time like now. So I'm gonna do as much as I can and see how far I can go.”

He started making music as a young child but didn’t take it seriously until about 2017. He has released four singles and two albums this year alone, but he has a lot more out and even more ready to go.

“Honestly,” he said, “I have a lot of unreleased music. I have enough music right now to release one song a week for the next three years.”

So, is that his plan?

“Depends on what happens, man. I'm trying to stay relevant. I'm trying to stay ready. I don't want to be caught with my pants down.”

Growing up, he listened to hip hop, R&B and gospel. Gospel is still a big part of him. “I grew up in the church,” he said. “I’m a God fearing man. I put God first. Without God, I’m nothing. That’s just the truth on my side.”

In college, he was introduced to a lot of different music, country, rock, “a lot of different types.” His music now he calls a “mashup” of everything he has been exposed to, the mainstream music of all kinds around him, how he feels when he goes in to the booth, what’s happening around him, all of it.

That’s how “Already Made It” came about. He was in the studio and, with his engineer and producer, was “going over ideas.” His engineer, Hero, had created a beat, “and I just felt the party vibe on it,” said TMike.

“And the way I was feeling, you know, I was looking back on my life and thinking about the things I overcame, and the things I went through to get to where I am already. And I felt like ‘Damn. I'm not even really started, I'm not even done yet, and I feel like I made it.’ I'm doing a lot of things I never would have thought I'd be able to do, and I'm accomplishing what I never would have expected me to accomplish in so short time.”

He doesn’t call himself a rapper. He is an artist who sings and is creative with sounds and feelings. When he goes into the booth, he said, “I let the mood guide me. I go with whatever happens in that moment, or whatever may going through in the studio that day.”

A lot of mixing goes on in his music. “Start of the Summer,” a single from 2019, features a machine-gun fast, explicit rap on top of a soft guitar melody. Another, “Wavy,” also features a hard-core rap, but this one is mixed with a wandering, speculative kind of melody played on a soft, flute-like instrument.

Asked about that one, and what that instrument was, he laughed. “I don't even know that instrument, but I fell in love with the sound and I told Hero he had to put it in,” he said.

And another single from earlier this year, “JPay,” features piano. That one was inspired by Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon.

“Backside of the Moon was like a classic album and, as an artist, you got to listen to things like that, just because it's music and it's, you know, classified as legendary.”

TMike, his engineer and producer create his beats together.

“I try my best to like make my lyrics a dance with the instrumental. I want everything to be intertwined, you know, seamlessly, so when you listen to it you really enjoy it. I was a fan before I started making music, so I try to put what I love from music into mine.”

Stay connected to TMike and follow his music on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

Websites:
Amazon Music
Apple Music
Spotify
YouTube

Socials:
Facebook
Instagram