Michael (MIDIhead) Babbitt
I began my journey in music after discovering at the age of about 8 years old that I had the ability to make music in my head. I could hear every instrument, every note, every movement and melody, with many relentlessly returning to mind again and again. As I matured and began to realize the cognitive and spiritual benefits its power possessed, I searched for those kind souls who would be willing to help unleash it from within me: My fellow humans.
I grew up with several siblings, which stressed us economically to the point many of my meals consisted of red wheat, boiled in a pot with margarine on top; tortillas and beans; and an occasional treat of ground beef. I'm not complaining. It was a humble life without many of the material things my other friends had. I didn't care much because I knew that I was loved. However, these financial challenges made it difficult to have and study instruments, especially when my desire was to own a synthesizer and a drum set. It was a lesson in patience.
By age 12 I was interested in being a radio announcer, so I thought if I could use my maturing voice for that, surely I could at least PLAY music for a living. So I reached out to a local radio station and found myself the next day meeting the station manager, a native American named Nichinah. He showed me the control room, the turntables, the cassette deck, and the cart machine and then sat me down in front of the Electrovoice RE20 microphone and said "Ok, after this song is over I need to you read what's on that card in front of you". I passed, barely but it was enough for him to tell me to come back tomorrow, so I did.
It wasn't long before I got the hang of being a radio announcer and at age 13 was given my own show where I played music from Mike Oldfield, Patrick O'Hearn, and Vangelis. This was an AM radio station, so while it was a great way to start, there weren't nearly as many listeners as FM radio, so when I felt that I was ready, I decided it was time to ask Dad to take me to the big commercial radio station to volunteer my services for experience and training. As a 14-year-old, I impressed the program director enough to have him take me under his wing. Dad would then drop me off every day on the way to work and pick me up on his way home. This is how I spent two summers. Then one day, a famous night DJ at K-96 FM asked me a question that I will never forget: "Son, do you ever want to have a family?" I answered him that I did, to which he replied, "This is not the career you want to choose, then." He explained why, and that powerful and well-intended message resonated, prompting me to switch paths.
The beauty of being a radio announcer for me was that it helped me develop my verbal skills, which suffered with stuttering and disconnected sentences prior to the on-air gig. Having my newfound verbal prowess gave me the confidence to try the next adventure: DJing for public events. Since I could not yet make the music in my head, at least I could enjoy playing music that resonated with me. But I was starting over to learn a new skill that I had not had prior, other than my fresh ability to speak into a microphone, which would serve me well in the days to come. But the switch from radio to mobile DJ led to immediate failure... and consequently, humility.
My cocky 15 year old self, waltzed into a Battle of the DJs contest thinking I was going to win. I had with me my top-40 selections recorded to cassette tape, and walked onto the dance floor with those cases while everyone else was bringing in crates of vinyl. This was a foreshadowing of what was about to happen. I took my place in the booth, popped my first cassette tape into the machine, and hit play. At this time, I do not remember the song I played, probably because I purposely blocked out the most traumatic parts of the experience from that night. As soon as the song played, every head in the room looked up at me with a face of disdain, and booming moans and boos. The floor cleared immediately. Worse, I couldn't beatmatch like all the vinyl DJs were, so for my 30-minute set I was unable to get any meaningful activity on the dancefloor to happen.
After my time had expired, I think my obviously young age was the only thing preventing me from being murdered that night by an unforgiving crowd. But all was not lost. The owner of the mobile DJ company who put on the event came up to me and thanked me for giving it a shot and asked me how I thought it went. I was honest about my failure, and that resonated with him. He gave me his card and told me to call him tomorrow. So I did, and he kindly put me under the tutelage of his best DJ, an 18-year-old wiz on the tables who could scratch like Grandmaster Flash. He would be later known as DJ Diggabeatz, who I am still friends with today. When you become my friend, you are a friend for life.
The mobile DJ experience I gained prepared me for when there was an opening at a popular local dance club where I spun vinyl (beatmatching well by now) for several years on their main floor. This is the place where I really began to learn the art of good music production and the psychological effects that certain songs had on the masses. By these observations I learned how to not only keep the dance floor packed but also create a vibe that would leave attendees sending comments of adulation all the way up to management. It was one night at the club that a certain college student fresh from the bay area came into the club and handed me a cassette of his music to play. I listened to it and told him that his singer 'sucked' but admitted that the music was good. 'Well, that's me singing,' he replied. Embarrassed but firm in my resolve, I apologized, told him that I could sing, and then long story short, we ended up writing and performing many songs together. He would make the music and I would topline until something inspired us. I had discovered I had a gift, and that propelled me to start writing a solo album. Then finally, by age 25 I went off on my own to start writing some of that music in my head.
At this time in my life, the club DJ days were behind me. I was working for Robert Redford at Sundance Resort, handling all the audiovisual and sound reinforcement needs for the resort, meeting celebrities, and learning that being famous is maybe not something I wanted to aspire to anymore. It's where I built my first studio, adjacent to Bob's private screening room, where I once hosted Peter Gabriel for a moment when he was there for his daughter's photo art display. It was there that I cut my first album, "Power Undiminished," which would later win Best Album at the American Synthpop Awards in Hollywood at the Roosevelt Hotel ballroom in 2001. Mind you, not a prestigious award like a Grammy, but it was a wonderful moment for me among so many other great artists in that genre. Just a year prior I had opened for Alphaville during their first-ever concert in the US, and being that I was a huge fan of their music at the time, it was a great honor to share that stage.
Shortly after the Alphaville show and before the American Synthpop Awards, I packed up my family, and we moved to Los Angeles, where there was no shortage of hardships. This was an incredibly humbling time for me as nothing was panning out for me with music, so commuting 2 hours every day and working for $20/hour was the necessary thing to keep bills paid. Then one day as my dear, sweet Shauna was working at a private school as an assistant for her mother, a man came late to pick up his child at the end of the day. During his apologetic conversation with Shauna, he told her he was held up by a client and that he worked in the music business. Shauna, of course perked up and mentioned that I wrote electronic music and that's when he asked if she had any examples she could point him to. She reached into her bag and pulled out a CD I had just burned, and handed it to him.
I got a call the next day, and Bob Mair then asked if I could create something in the vein of The Prodigy. I gave him the affirmative, delivering a suitable track for him the very next day after working all night on it. A week later, he called me back and said that he landed it in the television show Dark Angel, and the rest is history. After that, my music appeared in a Matrix Reloaded movie trailer and many dozens of television shows. A couple of years later I was contacted by Konami Hawaii and remixed Akira Yamaoka's song "In Your Eyes" which grabbed the attention of their music direction team. That remix delivered many other placements in the game series Dance, Dance, Revolution. Then later more trailers like Mad Max - Fury Road, and Silent Hill and loads more television shows.
During the DDR days, I had also just started working for ILIO, a company that distributes award-winning virtual instruments and audio plug-ins for professionals. This is where I started meeting a lot of industry people, making new friends along the way which brought more opportunities for me to use my many different acquired skills (thank you, mentors). Here, I collaborated with Grammy nominated artist Kaskade, BT, and my long-time friend J. Scott G. on sound libraries for Spectrasonics Omnisphere. For a few years afterward, I traveled to Germany with the Spectrasonics team to demonstrate their products at Musikmesse. During this time, Germany's Beat Magazine featured my song "Fall Awake" in a remix contest for their readers. I signed with FIXT records shortly after and released an EP, but given financial success was not in the cards for me with music, I resigned to make music for myself and for others, strictly for therapy. Music is AMAZING for this! From writing songs about life after death to give hope and comfort to those who lost someone, telling the story of the WWI Christmas Truce, to a tribute for Pacific Palasades fire victims, I found peace in writing for the pure joy of it, and for being a musical practitioner for others.
It's been an eventful journey, and there is so much that I haven't shared, but this is already a long read, lol.
All that said, I am eternally grateful that I've been able to continue to write and produce music, do sound design and synth patching, voiceover work, and perform live as a vocalist. I've raised five kids during it all, and while I haven't gotten accolades like many of my friends have for their work, the experience and joy that have come from the power of music cannot be replaced by any measure of success. It is this joy that motivates and inspires me to fight the good fight of keeping human-made music alive and thriving so that others, especially young people, can discover the joy that it brings when you work hard, learn patience and discipline, fail and make mistakes, and become like the rough stone that is refined by the rocks and treacherous ocean to be made smooth and beautiful. May God assist us in this endeavor, and may we never lose hope and never give up to keep human music alive and evolving!
With my sincerest gratitude,
