My Bio

1956 – 1966
The Start of Music

I was born in Oshawa Canada. Here is a picture of me as a young boy of two. The other is my twin brother Allen.

My father a psychiatrist, Dr. Pos, immigrated from Holland. In no time we were quick to move to the suburbs of Toronto - Don Mills Ontario. My Dad was a work alcoholic, later to become a real one, so I only spoke a couple of sentences to him a week. My sister was a star public school athlete. No one attended watching her win bunches of stuff. We were part of the ‘kids best left unseen’ upbringing. The spoken sentences with my father grew fewer as I grew older. Alcoholism sometimes makes those who live it become intense observers and less speakers. Except my older sister who lipped off and was thrashed in response. In hindsight this was bizarre because the one thing my Dad was very good at (helping people) was left unpracticed at home.

You learn quickly that ideology is cheap if not counterfeit when not lived as a real belief.

Still, what was cool was we had a band of kids who played together. We moved from house to house. One house that was as hot spot, because it had a basketball net, was Tom Berry’s house. Tom became the executive producer of Anthem records working with the band Rush. He then formed Alert Records that worked with artists such as Gino Vannelli. He now records and works with Kim Mitchell and Holly Cole. Very cool.

During this time a neighbor, Mrs Dorthy Smythe, the church organist, asked me to sing in a choir. I agreed. I loved it. I cannot explain why, but the physical place of the church made me happy. It still does. Not a feeling procured through indoctrination, nor theology. None of that. My dad was an atheist after all who announced God was dead (Nizche) at dinner one night. I remember that night. Nope, it was not that. It was just a young person loving the feeling of being in a church. There is no logical explanation. Best to leave it at that.

It was at this same time at the age of 7 (1963) that I heard what would change me for good “She Loves You” played on a crappy record player like this. It was winter with snow outside.

With such a record player there is miniscule sound quality. No matter. I loved it. The song is so unbelievably happy. The sense of ‘amazing’ always stays amazing, regardless of the medium it lives in. I spent myriads of hours singing Beatles songs. My sister Lili bought or received the albums for Christmas or birthdays and I would listen with her.

To me the Beatles are a calibrated combination of genius like no other. The band apart? Great. Together? Epic brilliance. She Loves You, No Where Man, Day Tripper, Paperback Writer, Eight Days a Week would float in and out of my head. To sing these songs is marvelously fun. I knew then, with absolute clarity that I wanted to write music. Period. The uphill battle began.

1967 – 1975
The Waiting

I did not study music at all in my early years. This was not deemed possible. My father told me I was going to be a judge because I had the ability to talk to kids who would get into fights and get them to see there was no reason to fight.

In 1968 my father moved us to an apartment in downtown Toronto. You see, he wanted to walk to work. He made us get rid of our dog Jasper who we loved, our friends who we loved and any sense of ability to play.

No place to play? No problem. My twin brother Allen and I played sock hockey. Rolled socks with tape, bent hangers into handheld hockey sticks, and used the cupboards as goals. We howled with laughter. You make a home where you are.

Music: In the year before being sent to live in a school away from home, my father spoke to me about his long-ago big dream. A weird moment of transparency. He had wanted to be a composer. As a youngster he studied piano at a high level and wrote a piano concerto, which I remember was excellent. I loved to hear him play bits of it. He also made me listen to classical music and guess what composer and period the music was from. I failed at that.

My father told me with a degree of sadness how his father tricked him to become a doctor. His father told him he could become a musician after he became a doctor.

Checkmate. My father became a doctor. He never returned to music.

Anyway, we had a grand piano in the apartment. I would play it as much as possible. When playing, I remember receiving an interesting observation from my mother who said “For someone who tries so hard you make such little progress”.

I still howl in reciting this statement. The funny thing about her insight, no matter the candid bluntness, was that it was sort of true. I was not trying to play. I was trying to write. When studying, I had a hard time finishing a scale because there was a song already there. I would hear a chord, or a combination of notes, and my mind was racing. Inside my head it was beautiful. To outside listeners it was understandably horrible. I agree.

Then it was to Ridley College. Allen, my twin brother, and I were 12. From that point I sort of lost contact with home. Christmas and summer vacation was it. The first memory to this school was being beaten with a shoe for talking after the lights were out. Corporal punishment lived back then.

During the first two weeks at school there was a boy I liked. We laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. Not to be. You see, he came from an established family. I did not. His elite protector friend threw me into a bush and then read me the rules. The stay away message was received. Don’t get me wrong it was a good school, but in the early years it ebbed and bobbed in the manner of the Lord of the Flies. You watched, kept your guard, and fought when required.

One rewarding benefit during this period was I acted in plays/musicals a great deal, winning awards and such. Anything creative I could get my hands on. I loved to perform. I still do. It makes me happy. I also rowed competitively. Our coach Neil Campbell who coached the Canadian team to the gold medal in the Los Angeles Olympics coached us to win the Prince Elizabeth Cup, which is sort of the World Schoolboy championship of high school rowing. It was a big achievement. Massive physical work requiring an overcoming of pain with relentless persistence.

After we won, and when I was back in Canada, my father came out of his home office and said something that stuck. “You have set the standard son, now live by it.”

Where was I musically? I had no theory, could play no instrument. I sang in the schoolboy’s choirs until my voice broke and then dropped out. In my last two years of high school I listened to Neil Young, Supertramp, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Traffic, Led Zepplin, Cat Stephens, The Beatles (they broke up in 1970), Bruce Cockburn, Cream, Elton John etc. I leaned more to folk music back then. But I did, and still do, love rhythm and a dragging beat. A dear friend also introduced me to Billy Joel in my final year. I think he is a brilliant songwriter.

I still knew, for a fact, that I needed to write music. And yet the battle was still uphill.

One significant influence on me was Ross Morrow. He was my literature teacher. He was witty, and brilliant. His biggest gift was that he rallied every belief in me that I could be a musical artist. He told me “Michael, you think in a way deserving to be heard”.

Today, I still see him as the greatest influencer of my ‘wanting to try’.

1976 – 1987
The Trying begins – Progress is Made

I was to go to university of Toronto: Victoria College. I tried for two years, then I dropped out. All the Pos children dropped out. My sister dropped out of architecture. My brother dropped out of science. We dropped out of everything. My parents were on the path to divorce. The family was buckling. My dad was an operative alcoholic. My mom, in trying to tolerate him, steered in that direction as well. This made things much worse. One autumn I visited my parents’ house in Northern Ontario just before the divorce. With sudden determination, midst the feeling of being trapped, I thought it best to leave the world and so I ate a pile of sleeping pills and laid on my bed - drifting of. To die. The unexpected occurred. A voice told me to get up. I did. With legs bobbling I told my father what I did. He asked me to show him the bottle. I had it in my hands. His face was white. He rushed me to the hospital, resuscitating me a couple of times along the way. My stomach was pumped out.

Still, after this my father pleaded with me not to quit university because he had paid into a fund. He did not want to lose the money he invested.

I did not recite the remembered story of how his father had tricked him. I did not need to. My mind was made up. I altered my course.

Being out of school, and having no financial support, I became a waiter. I bought a guitar: A 1975 Yari acoustic that cost me piles of money back then. This guitar I still play. I love it. It is a handmade beauty with pearl inlay. I string it with the heaviest of gauges because all other strings break under my style of playing.

I was writing a song a day. I still write prodigiously. The first song I wrote was written from the perspective of an old man. It’s not bad. Not great. But not bad. Very funny to think of it now. I am 65. I will release it one day. If not only from a nostalgic perspective.

I knew my beginning was late, so my intensity to learn was high. I studied piano and theory with Darwin Aitkin and classical guitar with Ivan Miracle. Both were well known teachers at the time. Darwin studied with David Saperton. It took me a while to convince both teachers to take me because, well, I was not good, but they recognized determination and so granted me their attention because of it. I paid for it all. I learned quickly.

To help pay for it I planted trees in Northern Canada, the remotest areas like Fort Nelson invested with heat and mosquitoes. My friend Chris Porter, whom I went to school with, rowed with, and who Introduced me to Billy Joel’s music, was my foreman. Planting was a life in the world of dirt.

During these years. I contacted Tom Berry who told me of Paul Marshall who had a home studio. Paul took an interest in me as a songwriter. I was progressing quickly and was staring to perform at universities. Paul gave me free time at his studio, and eventually got me a gig at the El Macombo. The first night I bombed and was booed. Why? I was scared and mousy. Not good. The organizer said “Dude, I will still pay you if you do not go on again”. This would not do. With absolute rage at myself for buckling under pressure, I said ‘No way man I am going on. I received a standing ovation. This is a picture of that night. Guts and anger baby. Guts.

The person playing bass is Dave Smith. He became one of my dearest friends. He was a plumber and an amazing musician and an elegant composer. I loved him. He died of cancer a few years ago. I miss him.

Eventually I garnered interest from industry folks like Sam The Record Man‘s son Robert Sniderman and David Prichard. David wrote, “This fellow strives for the best in himself and in others. I believe he can write songs as well as anyone today in contemporary music, but few can match his drive. If all goes well and with some luck, Mike Pos will be a creative force to be reckoned with.”

I was encouraged.

I put a demo kit together to impress Record companies. It was premature. Too much of a rushing attempt that did not work. What did work was it enabled me work at Morgan Earl Sounds for a while. A high end studio that produced Radio and TV commercials. It was clear I was out of my league with the likes of Paul Hoffert who worked there because I did not have the required chops. I remember Paul asking me to assist with the copying of charts. It was clear I sucked at it. I did not know how to professionally sketch a note. I was so enraged at myself at this embarrassment that I decided to take care of it and go to serious music school.

So, with much study and hard work, making coffee, cleaning toilets, all the while practicing serious composition musical scores, and harmony with a dutch musical teacher, Wiggert Van Hardeveldt, I was accepted at Peabody Conservatory. It was not an easy accomplishment.

Before I left for Peabody, Morgan, Paul & Brenda Hoffert with the others sent me off with this memento. They thought I was going to NY. I was not. I was going to Baltimore. Notice the ‘Do the dishes before you go’. I keep it as a polite dig, an incitation that prompts me to not give up.

At Peabody from 1982 to 1987, I obtained 3 degrees. A bachelor & masters degree in musical composition, and a bachelors degree in recording arts and science (orchestral recording).

I initially slaved to pay for school on my own, but I was collapsing with exhaustion. My Uncle, George Peterich saved me. Literally. He paid for it. Something I will never forget.

During this time, I took off.

I wrote music for dance, garnering a Canadian national honorable mention award in the Satori Festival in Winnipeg. The dean of Peabody Conservatory, Robert Pierce who was the former first chair of the Baltimore Symphony, wildly shook my hand after the premiere of the dance.

The applause was raucous and lasted for 15 minutes. It was a surreal experience. Two powerful, beautiful dancers performed it. Amazing, sensuous physicality. Mr. Pierce in a letter to me wrote “It is both a musical and dramatic success and displays well your considerable ability as a composer’ (Robert Pierce)

I wrote the first student Opera ever to be performed: Voices of Mira. Many renown professors encouraged me: “I was greatly impressed by the musical and dramatic insights of the composer” (Fredrick Prausnitz). “I was not only moved by the mystery that the text exhibited, but the beauty in his musical writing. Mr. Pos shows tremendous sensitivity in his treatment of voices and instruments” (Phlyis Bryn-Julson)

Then, as Mary Poppin says “The wind shifted”. I met Lisa. On first seeing of her, my breath was captured. I remember asking someone how old she was. Eighteen was the answer. I was twenty seven. No way. I turned and walked in the opposite direction.

And yet through a subsequent, dancing effort of conscious avoidance, it still happened. She thought me wildly peculiar. I thought her fascinating. You see in a musical school there is a wide differentiating taste of preference, and in this world, I observed her to be centered, gracious, herself, with no insult to others. She laughed. She was confident. This was incredibly magnetic. And she was beautiful. Yes, of course, she still is.

We married. We have been married for 34 years and have 3 amazing children.

In world of one, I am willing to suffer any inconvenience for the garnering of a goal. But in a world of two, I had this intense pull on my heart to give Lisa the chance to be secure. I needed to make a steady and dependable income. A musician’s life is sinusoidal, and often does not bode well for couples. I knew this.

The Y in the road did not immediately present itself, but after one year of running out of money, complimented with an ill attempt at the USC film score program that initially was horrendous (half the class quit) but now is a great program, I postponed my opportunity as a musician for the opportunity to ensure my future family’s well-being.

The Y in the road asked me to postpone, one dream for another. Did I give up the dream of writing music? No. I did not. I postponed it.

1988 – 2020
Service to those I Love

For the first years in the corporate world, I became a ‘catch me if you can’ sort of person. Taking on responsibilities and tasks with no skill but convincing others I was the perfect bloke for the job I faked it. So out of the need to succeed before being found out, I went community colleges, took law courses, accounting courses and asked many, many questions on topics I did not understand.

I initially started working for a metal brokerage company and then ended up rising to a good degree in Nestle which to me, having been with this company for 27 years, has been honorable.

32 years passed. 13 years in the USA and 19 years abroad in Switzerland and China. Did I stop writing music? No. The dream to write songs lived. The intense desire to consolidate music into a form for an audience to hear, has never left me. It lives.

My children are now all grown up. All are on a good path. My daughter Calen is a singer, a teacher, a ravid reader, and an inspired children’s story writer. She is taking a sabbatical to write her first children’s story. My son Andrew is a songwriter, a software engineer and entrepreneur at heart. He won every Monopolgy game when growing up. My son Lucas is a songwriter and a professional football (soccer) player in Europe. My wife Lisa , after being a successful mom has , with a partnered investment, launched a successful mercantile business.

Each of them are cheering as I work to complete the circle.

It is time.

2020 – Today
Rhythm and Chords –
Stories and Questions

I needed to pick a city. I researched this 2 years before leaving Switzerland. It would be either LA, NY or Nashville. I was surprised to find Nashville as the place. In 2018 on a week tour of the Nashville area, and with a spreadsheet of pros and cons, we made an offer just before the housing boom took off. We bought a house on Lake Hickory, the same one that Johhny Cash lived on. I did not know this at the time.

Like many times before, but this time for a dream, we moved to a place where we knew no one save a lovely family we met in China.

My progress thus far? In the past 1.5 years, I have done the following:

• I Have built a home studio where I can produce my music
• I Have taken a Hybrid course with Musician on a Mission to learn the production of music in a home studio. An amazing learning adventure. They are great.
• I Have worked with Blake La Grange from Mastering.com to understand the end game, the final product of mastering. This has revolutionized my approach to writing with the sensitivity to a balance frequency spectrum. I will work with 11 others in the next year on Mastermind program visiting NY, San Diego and Nashville. We will pour into each other.
• I Have performed wherever I can. My eyesight is on the Bluebird Café in Nashville.
• UPDATE:
  I have performed at Nashville's famous "Bluebird Cafe" 3 times now! The first time I performed my origonal song "That Walk That Strut".
  You can see all my live performances on my Youtube Page
• I continue to release a new song every 6-8 weeks, so far I Have released a total of 10 songs on Spotify and all other streaming platforms.
• I am garnering support from a team of people who believe and want to help. They think this story is marvelous. I agree. It is.

This is a story, like many of yours, asking to be completed. Wanting to exist. So… we take a deep breath of good air, and go for it.