Prolific musician enters studio to begin work on sophomore release

A prolific musician who fronts the bands Soul Killing Female and Stand Alone Complex, Winnipeg’s Michael Lewis was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 16. Michael Lewis

The short bio on Michael Lewis’s blog says it all: “I eat, breathe and occasionally shit music,” it begins. “I write music constantly, whether I want to or not.”

Late last year, Lewis’s metal band Soul Killing Female (SKF) released Utopia Mine, the debut album he wrote and performed almost entirely himself. He’s already heading back into the studio to record the follow up, titled Landmines.

Meanwhile, Lewis’s industrial/electronic project, Stand Alone Complex (SAC), is tentatively schedule to release its first full-length in September. (The 10-track recording, titled Music for Suicides, is already available for download on CDBaby.com.)

While he’s recording Landmines, Lewis will begin recording a SAC EP titled Too Far Gone To Be Concerned with the Thoughts of Man and he’ll continue working on the SAC remix EP Remixing Suicides.

He’s also started writing the third Soul Killing record and the second Stand Alone full-length.

“I do write a lot because I work on it a lot and I’m inspired a lot,” the 32-year-old explains while sitting in the studio in his West End apartment.

“There’s two-month stretches where I really just couldn’t give a fuck about picking up a guitar or touching a keyboard, but then there are two-month stretches where it’s like, every day I have an idea.”

Lewis adds that living with bipolar disorder has something to do with his creative bursts. And struggling with being bipolar is something that continually influences his lyrics.

“I work very hard to take responsibility for it,” he says. “I hold down three jobs, I have a family, and yes, I’m heavily medicated – which means I’m not the skinny, svelte guy I used to be. But, it’s what I have to do to get through the day – you know, to be able to function like a normal human being.”

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Lewis has played the drums for more than 20 years and performed in bands ranging from Anthem Red, to Moses Mayes, to the house band at Blush Ultra Club. He makes his living playing and teaching percussion, which allows him to stay at home during the day to work on music.

He’s looking forward to releasing Landmines.

“I have a lot of expectations for this album,” he says. “Not commercially, but creatively. For me personally, it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done. I have no idea how I’m going to top it, and to be honest, I’ve lost sleep over that already.”

Read more from this interview at www.uniter.ca/blog

-See Stand Alone Complex at the Royal Albert on Friday, July 23
-Nocturnal Divinity and Dead Romantic will also perform

Visit http://www.myspace.com/standalonecomplex

See also http://kill-a-dj.blogspot.com and http://www.myspace.com/soulkillingfemale

Published in Volume 64, Number 27 of The Uniter (June 30, 2010)

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