Mike Skill Talks The Romantics & His New Music

As a founding member of, and the guitarist for, The Romantics, who were one of the big bands of the 80’s, Mike Skill is no stranger to success or to the pressures that can come with being in the spotlight. Not content with just working on band music, his solo career continues to go from strength to strength and he recently released his latest single “We’ve Got Your Rock’N Roll.” PopWrapped caught up with Mike to find out how he’s been keeping creativity busy during the Corona Virus crisis and his plans for 2021.

For anyone unfamiliar with you and your music – both as a solo artist and a member of The Romantics – who exactly is Mike Skill in a few words?

I grew up in Detroit, Michigan. It was the early 1960’s, just before the British Invasion, with the best Rhythm ‘n Blues and Soul in the world! Motown had just started and they were on their way to stake their musical history claim.

Detroit was a noisy, smokey, grimey factory town. A big, hard-working class city. Everyone worked or had family that worked for one of the auto company giants. They were building cars 24 hours a day, four shifts a day! My music is everything the city was — gritty, loud, and high energy! The same for my favorite mid-60s Detroit bands: MC5, Iggy & the Stooges, SRC, Grand Funk Railroad, and so many more. I can’t leave out guitar players Jimmy McCarty, Wayne Kramer, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Dick Wagner, Steve Hunter, Ron Ashton, and James Williamson. After high school, I was off to Art School just when music and band took precedent. A few years later, the Romantics formed… 

What ultimately inspired or influenced your decision to strike out on your own?

I’m always writing songs, coming up with stuff, filling notebooks, pieces of paper notes everywhere, and I fill my phone with verses, choruses, titles, song ideas. Out of high school, we had our own storefront rehearsal space, we would go there every-day to jam and write songs.

In this current music, I had a good number of new songs going back a few years that I composed and felt I would do them on my own. The time just felt right for me to sing and play them myself. With a bit of luck, I finished, recorded, mixed and completed them at my studio in Portland OR. I was just holding onto them for the next move and when to release. Finally, I sent them over to Producer Chuck Alkazian at Pearl Sound recording studio in Detroit for remixing and that was the icing on the cake. 

First “’67RiOT” was released in 2017 on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Detroit Riot, followed by my other songs “Dark Side of your Love” and “Carrie Got Married” two years later. “Not My Business” was released in April this year, then “My Bad Pretty”. I asked one of my guitar heroes, Wayne Kramer from the MC5, if he would play on “‘67RiOT”. With guitarist Wayne Kramer guesting, the song stepped up to another level! It was released this past July on a vinyl 7-inch single, with “My Bad Pretty” on the flip side. It is still available at mikeskill.com. Lookin’ back, it’s not all been luck but hard work!

With The Romantics, I had been constantly touring every year since 1980 from early Spring to Fall. When COVID-19 hit, I had to increase what I had already been doing, couldn’t just lay back. It seemed just the right time to expose my identity, to up my visibility outside of the band which shows the amount of contributions I’ve made as a major songwriter in the band.

How does the music you make as a solo artist differ from that you made with The Romantics? How important is it to you that you can differentiate those two parts/sides of yourself artistically?

I do have a very distinct guitar style and sound on songwriting and the way I play guitar!!  Can’t be helped. Well, alone or with studio musicians, it’s wide open for anything to happen. I don’t have to think consciously to myself, “now I need to leave some room in the song for others’ input to my songs.” I’m freed up artistically, and it feels like there are no boundaries.

But there really aren’t strict limits with The Romantics. I love playing, jamming, throwing ideas off of each other, with the group. But it does have a history, and a distinct sound and an expectation. But it really naturally feels freer on my own! I’m connecting on another level within myself. However, I always do bring in four or five new song ideas to start when getting together with and for the group.  My sound really does come through anyway…it’s inevitable! 

What is the story behind your latest single “We Got Your Rock’N Roll”?

It’s about a time in Detroit when I was with friends/bandmates rehearsing in our little storefront all evening and then going out to clubs in Detroit in the early 1970’s. Detroit, especially downtown, was bleak, empty, sometimes dangerous, like a forgotten city. We, the artists, the musicians still hung out there. When David Bowie, the New York Dolls, Mott the Hoople, Queen, Slade, and Iggy and the Stooges came back & all came to town, we were the only ones hanging out and into the city, like still believing it was still the Rock n Roll city of the mid to late 60’s. We were keeping the history alive, just hoping we could be next to make it! This was all during the oil embargo and crisis, long lines with gas rationing, the auto industry in a downturn, Japan auto rising, plant closings… All we had was the music.

The inside story of my new release, “We Got your Rock’N Roll”, is Detroit always had – and always will have – the Rock’n Roll. Some imagery from those times include the clubs, the Rainbow Room downtown, Sexy Sadies eastside. Bowie played a week of shows at this point in time and wrote “Panic in Detroit”. Now all of us Rockers were reading about Bowie, Reed, & Pop at Max’s Kansas City, and the movie stars and Rockers at the Roxy and Starwood In L.A. There was a co-opting of a 1940’s Hollywood glamour look to the new Bands coming out–Marc Bolan, Mott, New York Dolls, Runaways–that soon became Glam or Glitter rock. And on it, there’s a nod to a few Detroit musicians of the 60s and the 80s underground. My take is represented in a short song from the dark sometimes dreamy city and bubbling under Rock Scene from, and always saved by, Detroit because we always “Got Your Rock’n Roll”!

Who or what most influences your songwriting and is creating a song something that comes easy to you, or do you still find certain topics and issues hard to put down on paper?

It’s a long list of influences, and not just musicians or bands. It’s usually a title or melody or chord progression. For lyrics, an issue, or response to a view, or about truth, hypocrisy, pain in love, a news article or stream of consciousness. I write down the first thing that comes to mind – I don’t throw any ideas away! It also could be painters or artists. For instance, I have a song demo influenced from a painting by Salvador Dalí.  Or I need an Iggy/Stooges groove, or what would the MC5 or the Kinks do? If I get stuck, I think what would Buddy Holly, John Lennon, Elliott Smith do? All forms of music – Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Jack White – I use all great art and music as inspiration all to keep the process moving forward. And you can write what you know or not. Brian Wilson never surfed, his brother Dennis was the surf punk!

What, to your mind, makes a song truly great, and of all the songs released over the years, which might you say is the greatest or most iconic and why?

That is really a personal opinion. For me something that doesn’t sound overworked…the melody, lyric, and music fit just right together. Some of the most popular songs ever written were finished in 10 or 15 minutes. The good ones tend to write themselves..any of Bob Dylan’s songs…“The Times They Are a Changin’’ “All Along the Watchtower”. Ray Davies’s “Waterloo Sunset” and “You Really Got Me”. Joni Mitchell’s “Circle Game” – her answer to Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain”, any Lennon/ McCartney, any Buddy Holly. “Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay” Otis Redding/ Steve Cropper, any Jimi Hendrix, any Beethoven. Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon….These artists were the road map for us, for me, taught me how to do what I now do! Their writing is just right, it’s connected, a connection to all of us, to our Soul…from their life to our lives…

You and your fellow Romantics achieved considerable fame in the 80’s, at a time when social media didn’t even exist, and few bands and artists – certainly compared to today – had lengthy, memorable careers. With that in mind, what, if any part, does social media play in your life now, personally and professionally? Do you think there’s perhaps too much of a reliance on it, and the need to be constantly ‘connected’ to everything and everyone?

Social media is as important as the writing and performing, photos, music. They all go hand in hand, and it’s takin’ the place of the big promo departments of the record labels and informs fans, especially newer fans, on a path to what you the performer, the songwriter, the artist is all about. Much of that social media network involvement is now the artist’s responsibility, to stay connected with past fans, new fans, distribution or work, photos, design, artwork, zoom, radio/ tv interviews, the list goes on… We never had that depth of involvement before. It was really only answering fan mail, meeting fans after shows, radio or tv, and doing a photoshoot…back in the day – ancient times! We also use social media as we are recording in the studio as promo, after mixes during recording all of that. It’s fully immersive for me.

Too much of anything can spoil the party, but I don’t feel overwhelmed from it. I just go right to my guitar, or mess around on my son’s piano. Walks are great for getting lyrics, pulling in ideas, words, melodies, or just for the quiet and calm.

As someone who’s been a part of the industry for decades, how do you feel about the state of the business now? Do you think, on the whole things have improved, particularly in terms of artist rights etc, and where do you see the industry going in the future?

I think the industry, meaning labels, folding and going out of business and musicians too, are in an ongoing transition still. There’s, what, only a handful of major labels left, and they’re only just getting back into lightly pumping out vinyl L.P.’s, which is really taking off. I think some of the best stuff coming out are the Independent bands from Indie Labels. Their albums and EPs are produced with little or not much of a budget, just a ton of love for the music!  And now it’s so sad…this pandemic is what will likely hurt most, and cause the shutdown of so many clubs, where a band can get their first taste of playing live to a crowd, learning to be with, face and confront an audience, try out their newest songs. Sadly, hundreds of venues will go away, and many bands won’t survive either! 

I’m doing a video benefit – a video of two of my newest songs – that’s all in support of Clubs in Detroit to assist in their ability to make rent, mortgages, pay laid off workers etc. We do what we have to do to help them survive. Airing New Year’s Eve @ 8:15 PM, on YouTube and other social media platforms. You can find information at GoFundMe.

We artists, musicians, entertainers and its work force are so important to existence, our being, the culture, here and around the world!  Other industries in America receive government payouts and huge tax breaks. Once and for all, we need a grant system, or some stream of funding to fill the huge gaps, stop the bleeding and support the Arts – from the poet, blues and rock ‘n roll artists to the jazz players and actors in theater. It takes representation in D.C. Like F.D.R. did with the New Deal in 1935, he funded the Arts with the Federal Art Project, which was funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 until the middle of 1943. Employing writers, composers, visual artists, and performers via Art, Music and Theater projects. I feel like I did 10 years of college on the road performing in clubs, theaters, high schools and colleges before getting signed to a record deal, learning the ups and downs in my career of life’s hard knocks in music.

What advice would you give to a band or artist just starting out? Is there a piece of advice you were once given that stayed with you, or perhaps certain traits you had to develop and strengthen as you made your own path and mark in and on the business?

Just stick with it, and write songs, learn to write, alone or with someone. It’s great to bounce ideas off of someone, and be spontaneous in your creativity. And READ! Books, poetry – it all helps in writing. Don’t be afraid to explore other forms of music. If I’m stuck or just not open creatively or mentally, or the mind is racing, I listen to another kind of music. I go to jazz, just maybe 50s jazz, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon and those guys, whatever, some early Blues, or any classical too. I’ve often been inspired by the melodies in a Beethoven Sonata or Segovia for instance, not lifting or taking phrases but just freeing up the mind…it always helps come up with melodies of my own.

Don’t overwork an idea, just keep the raw skeleton of a song moving forward. Write little notes of lyrics and save them, you just never know! Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t make it; follow your own path, always. Keep it enjoyable! And when you get a manager, the pay goes through the band accountant, not the managers. Don’t sign anything without counsel or an attorney.

This year has been hard on everyone, with the music industry and those a part of it hit particularly hard. How have you coped with not being able to get out and play live shows etc., and enjoy the life you’ve been used to, artistically at least, for so long?

Yes, with COVID it’s a mess, that’s all I can say! No shows, venues are folding, no one’s getting paid…. It will be broken for a while, a few years maybe.

Despite the hardships, what have been your highlights of 2020?

I am home more and off the road. Most days I play guitar, spend time with my son and wife. I have spent time finishing more songs and writing more songs. Keeping healthy.  Having enough material – songs – finished to release. I was able to stream 5 new songs this year. I put out a 7″ vinyl ’67 Riot’ featuring Wayne Kramer, my first solo Vinyl.

Finally then, are there any plans or projects in the pipeline for 2021 you can tease? What are you most looking forward to in the coming year?

In the new year at some point…hopefully some shows that we can play these new songs again, live! Also, I plan to put out a “Long Player” on Vinyl to be released in the first part of the year containing four or five of the songs I streamed this year including a handful of additional new tunes. Another vinyl 7 inch or two would be nice. I’d like to keep releasing new songs by streaming every three or four months, like I have in the past.

Give “We Got Your Rock’N Roll” a listen below and for more information on Mike Skill, give his page a like on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

We Got Your Rock'N Roll by Mike Skill