New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Mike Chylinski was the co-founder and former drummer of London-based acclaimed "dream pop" band Drugstore (who toured with Radiohead, Tindersticks,
Jeff Buckley and The Jesus and Mary Chain). He has spent the last decade composing both musical and photographic landscapes. His latest photography projects involve inscribed vintage snapshots and were just exhibited in Switzerland and Atlanta and will be included in a book by next year. His musical compositions have lent themselves to projects at NPR, The Oxford American and Side Long Films, and he played drums for the soundtrack to the film "Zen and Zero" for which he also played live at the European premiere in Munich.
While still a member of Drugstore in the year 2000 he began to branch out, releasing a 10" solo EP of mostly instrumental music that garnered college radio airplay. When Drugstore took a hiatus in 2002, Chylinski moved back to the States and his hometown of Los Angeles. 2013 finds him with a musical solo project by the name of Arrow Highway, whose eponymous debut album is a song cycle composed of 11 hypnotic, atmospheric instrumentals with Chylinski behind most of the playing (with friends lending a hand occasionally) and the entire recording (done in his home studio with a selection of mostly vintage instruments along with a dash of electronics).
The transition from drummer to composer wasn't that difficult--"I realized at a certain point that I wanted to make my own music rather than be a drummer," said Chylinski. "I love playing drums but apart from that I felt more like playing guitar, keyboards, whatever…just working with sounds."
One of the tracks on Arrow Highway, "Everyone I Know," took root several years ago. While in London Chylinski went to record his friend, singer-songwriter
Simone White, reading aloud some of her writing. It led to a discussion of ideas and he left the recorder going. "I later pieced together music to go behind it", he said. (Side note: he also shot the cover photo of White's album "Yakiimo.").
Besides White, friends that contributed to the recording are Julian Goldwhite (pedal and lap steel guitar) and Chris Camacho (bass) both from the band Bell Gardens. Former Drugstore guitarist, Daron Robinson contributes a bit as does former
Wedding Present bassist, Terry de Castro (on bass and backwards vocals). The project will be released officially in October 2013, coincidentally just a couple of weeks after UK-based Cherry Records will release a "best of" record for Drugstore.
Arrow Highway is a soundscape that could be a part of a soundtrack, or just listened to on its own. Reflecting the same mood as Mike's photography, the album is slightly lonely, evocative and a little bit abstract, giving the sense of "driving through the desert at nighttime", as he describes it. "As with my photography, where a lot of the creative process begins with stumbling upon something that catches my eye", says Chylinski, "I just follow whatever starts to sound interesting to me."
