‘Every second of the day I’m thinking about music’: Beamsville’s Riley Michaels stays in tune
Niagara Music Award winner bends his sound on new single
For Niagara guitarist Riley Michaels, the pandemic is no time to second guess his career.
Despite having no live gigs for the past 10 months, the 20-year-old Beamsville resident says he has never been more sure of his path.
“There’s no other reason for me to continue doing it if I don’t love it,” he says. “Every second of the day I’m thinking about music. There’s not an ounce of time that goes by where I’m not thinking about music. My fingers are always moving like I’m playing guitar.”
That obsession has made Michaels one of the region’s most highly-touted young musicians, earned him praise from Canadian blues great Jack de Keyzer and landed him plum gigs at local blues festivals. He won blues artist of the year at the 2018 Niagara Music Awards, followed by male artist of the year at the 2020 event.
To his high school friends, the accolades are no surprise. While they were going out on weekends, Michaels was playing whatever shows he could land.
“I never went out, I never went to high school parties,” he says. “Friday night and Saturday night was not time to go out for parties, it was gig night. It was music time.
“I would come home from school, lock myself in my room and play music. I don’t regret at all not having the stereotypical teen social life.”
Rather than fret, Michaels has spent the past 10 months “improving” himself as a musician, studying music theory and working on his songwriting. A more mature artist has emerged, straying from the blues world to a more rock/ pop sound.
It’s all on display in the laid back new single “Turn Off the Lights,” released for streaming last week.
Michaels says the song stresses “balance” in life, which he realizes sounds strange coming from someone who has little time for anything other than music.
“I’m a workaholic, and I get so wrapped up (in music) that I sometimes forget to spend time with my family or my girlfriend or with people that matter. This song’s really about that internal kind of struggle.”
While he isn’t completely turning away from blues, Michaels says he’s determined to mix more genres into his sound.
“There is a way to appeal to everyone in some facets,” he says. “I definitely don’t think things like blues and rock are dead, (but) there’s such a focus nowadays on hip hop, R&B, rap and pop because it’s following the trend of society.”
The song is available on all streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music.