By the age of 12, Michael had already been constantly nagging and annoying his mom to get a guitar and start taking lessons for a few years. At one point, his mom gave in and accepted to buy him his first guitar on the condition that he would practice faithfully every day for the recommended 30 minutes. Even at that young age, Michael had to express himself musically and started making up melodies and writing his first songs on the instrument.

At one point, he got a classical guitar with a solid spruce top, which was a little smaller. He inherited or borrowed his mom's full-size dreadnought case to take the instrument to lessons; the case was actually as big as he was. Always having a musical sense and ear, he enjoyed singing and sang often in the school choir and at church, being somewhat of the teacher's favorite pupil for his musical ability.

His guitar lessons often required little quarterly concerts to showcase his progress, so he got his first stage experience at a very early age. By high school, it was numerous little cover bands, and he picked up the electric guitar; it was mostly hard rock or heavy metal bands, but he always had a more mellow or melodic taste and enjoyed bands like Led Zeppelin or Kiss and artists like Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Santana.

Later on, Michael decided that it would be wise to study music in college and pursue a career in teaching, so he went on to study in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, in a classical guitar program that had vocals class and a comprehensive music theory in harmony degree.” I was so happy when I passed the auditions because one of my friends at the time did not get chosen, so for me that was a cheering moment.”

Back then, I remember one evening seeing Eric Clapton perform on Letterman, the late-night show, and it was so powerful and melodic that it made me rethink my whole musical direction. By the time I got heavily into the blues, it was a strict blues diet for over a decade, just owning my craft, learning as much as I could, listening to all the blues greats, learning about the history, building my musical vocabulary.

I think I really started learning when I started going out to jam sessions in Montreal, meeting guys like Stephen Barry, who hosted the jam at Bistro a Jojo on St. Denis Street. Playing in clubs and being spontaneous and fearless was the name of the game. It's really a school everyone should go through.

By then, I was hooked; I couldn’t get enough of it. I started getting into recording, making demos, recording myself to better the music, learning about engineering, working on song arrangements learning about microphones and hearing yourself clearly also help a lot . Like everyone, I started with the tape recorder and then a four-track recorder, and then I got into computer recording in the late 90s.

After sending in a demo tape, Michael was selected to participate in a statewide blues contest in Quebec; he got chosen to participate in the semifinal competition. “I didn’t even have a band; it was really hard to find players, but I eventually found some guys for the competition; it didn’t go too well. I was nervous, and it was my first time on a really big stage; I did some crazy things, like sliding on my knees while playing a solo. I don’t know where that came from, but it just came out like that, the spur of the moment; I don’t think the judges enjoyed that.” So, it goes without saying, I didn’t win.

Things started going downwards at one point when I injured my left hand while rehearsing (repetitive motion injury). I think it was due to playing a poor-quality instrument with oversized strings, like Stevie Ray Vaughan did . I tore a ligament in my hand and had to stop playing for nearly two years; those were the worst years of my life; I really mean it. It really made me appreciate music and guitar and the gift that I was given.

After that, I decided to move to Austin, leaving Canada in a packed Dodge minivan and made my way down to Texas, where I worked at getting back my guitar chops in a very musically inspiring city. Those four years were pretty hard; it was an endless string of dead-end jobs, and at one point, I had to start my own business doing computer repairs and producing music & teaching.

I was lucky; I met some really good people that I’m still friends with now, my dear friend Joe Martinez, who is now past, who helped me enormously. He was my first music-producing client, and he eventually became a business partner. Austin has the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World title; there’s a lot of live music going on over there, so at one point, I was able to start playing downtown. I got connected with a booker from a contact of mine and started performing with little trios downtown.

Austin, Texas. The money was really poor, but the folks were really into the music, which was pretty much the only reason why we did it. I remember having a list of players I could call, half a page of bass players, half a page of drummers. There's so many live shows that it was hard to always get the same guys, but after a while, you have some favorites. I always called the same guys first, and that was Alex Salinas on drums and Reed Hoffman on bass, and a few other cats like Harold McMillan on bass. I remember Harold telling me one day, "Michael, I'll play with you anytime, as long as I don't have any other prior booking, I'll be happy to play with you." That really meant a lot to me, because for me, he was and is an established Austin musician. I also got to play with Oscar Ornella, who is an outstanding multi-instrumentalist (piano, saxophone, and vocals) who now tours the world.

After four years in Austin, I was on my way back to Canada after getting sick from poor living conditions in Texas. I stopped in Nashville, Tennessee, hoping to get some music work, and that's where I met singer-songwriter Peter Karp, who was a Blind Pig Record artist. He told me it was nice to be signed by a big label. They gave me a nice advance of $20,000, which was great, but it was an advance. He also told me that everything the labels do, you can do yourself. You can hire a publicist, you can hire a booker, you can get good at booking yourself, basically, and then you're in control of everything. So, he recommended that to me.