Michael Lloyd Vick, aka Michael ATONAL Vick, is an artist, a multi-instrumentalist, a promoter, a music instructor, and, as Guitar Player magazine dubbed him recently, the Ringleader behind the Fretless Guitar Festival. In Asian circles, he is also known as VVV, often with Free-Bananas. He is an accomplished musician on both fretless and fretted guitar and bass, among many instruments in his music arsenal. Although his music education began with the classics on the piano, he quickly discovered and pursued his passion for the guitar, and the rest is history in the making. Some of his major music projects include the Michael Vick Trip band and the WIT’S END group. The last time I checked online, he has 7 albums available for purchase on CD Baby, and that doesn’t even include his numerous contributions to other artists and projects, of which, most notably, is the release of the 2-CD compilation album called “Village of the Unfretted”, featuring music from 35 of the world’s most prominent fretless guitarists. In addition to recording music, Michael also gives master classes, performs at charity events and various live gigs, such as Bass Fight, is an activist for stem cell research, and is heavily involved in the promotion and organization of the annual NYC Fretless Guitar Festival. Along with Jeff Berg of unfretted.com and other talented musicians, Michael has been instrumental in pushing the fretless community into the limelight.  

Although one can easily spend a long time listing all of Michael’s accomplishments, it’s much harder to describe Michael and his music in conventional terms because he is ATONAL! He is the kind of musician who will unfret just about anything and everything in his experimentations with sounds, and, in doing so, he creates music that transcends boundaries of traditional genres. For him, it’s not enough just to play music; what’s more important is to create. Technically, I think Michael has the aptitude to outplay many indie musicians and make tons of dough from it, but in my opinion, he chose the more solitary path because a true musician never compromises his creativity and individuality, and, in the end, that’s the most important thing one can have. For the average Joe out there, experimental music will probably never gain the same status as the more generic and easily digestible songs that often populate the charts, but then again, Michael is anything BUT generic. Listening to Michael’s music is a liberating aural experience because his music challenges your ears to hear beyond what is conventional. (Yes, this experience can be both exciting and dangerous.) To me, Michael embodies the spirit of a true indie musician, the one that is always free and unfretted! I