Michael writes his own lyrics and music and performs them with class and style.
If you like Clay Aiken and Josh Groban then you'll be glad you found Michael Peace.

Michael has been making music for over 3 decades and his songs and eclectic style has brought great pleasure to his many followers. His musical style is melodic, smooth and warm feel good kind of music that seems to bring his listeners a smile. However, Michael can turn the tables and bring a tear to your eyes just as easily.

What about that voice?

His vocal style features a broad range of baritone to soprano, soft and subtle to strong and operatic that always keeps the listener interested in "what comes next". He has been compared to Roy Orbison, BJ Thomas, Michael Crawford, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Josh Groban and even American Idol's Clay Aiken.

Michael displays this vocal range especially well in live performances and has people wondering if he is lip-sinking to other artist's recordings or is actually performing live. He dispels the skepticism by changing the words and using audience member's names in various songs. Within the last few years Michael has stepped out of the spotlight a bit to work on building an original music catalog. Today his CD album count has grown to 27 and his prolific music production keeps this figure growing at an amazing rate.

In the Beginning

Michael’s musical roots date back to a boy of 5 years old who learned to play a piano at his Grandma’s house by ear. "It was easy, just listen to the melody on the radio and match the piano notes to the song that was playing." Michael thought anyone could do that.

Later he learned to play the guitar the same way and taught some friends to play guitar along with him. In High School, he had his own band and by his junior year, they had cut their first of what would be many records. Singing came just as easy. "Just sing what you hear in your head. I guess it helps not to be tone deaf but seems like anyone could do it."

Well the truth is, not just anyone can do it. Michael has a gift and he uses his gifts to make beautiful music and now beautiful artwork as well.

Mike's First Band

When Mike started his band, they were known in those early days as Attila and the Huns. "While still in High School, we played in dance halls, bars, school dances and the standard band circuit". The Huns managed to make a steady and somewhat lucrative living. One year later, the band, put up their own money and produced their first single recording. Recorded on the SARA record label, “Cheryl“ (recorded for a friend who was killed in a car crash), backed with “The Lonely Huns“ sold about 2000 copies locally in the Central Wisconsin area during the bands live performances.

A win in a Battle of Bands contest sent the Huns on the way to a national road tour, where the Huns met a Chicago/Milwaukee record producer Lenny LaCour. Lenny convinced the Huns to change their name and sign his record contract for 4, 45s and an LP recorded at Chicago's Chess Studios. The new Filet of Soul as the band became known, was about to embark on a two year National road tour and many more adventures which would cover a 20 year slice of time together.

During this time they also traveled to the continent of Greenland for a U.S.O. show, where they met and performed for the U.S. and Danish Air forces and Prince Phillip of Wales. Returning home they spent nine and a half months performing in the Chicago Playboy Club where they rubbed elbows with and got to know some of the biggest names in show biz. Greats like: Sammy Davis Jr., Mick Jagger, Sony & Cher, Jimmy Durrante, Shelly Berman, Jimmy Rodgers, Kenny Rogers, Buddy Ebsen, Gabe Kaplan, Myron Cohen, Jerry Van Dyke, The Shadows of Knight and the list goes on and on.

Michael and his band recorded 5 Albums (One at Chess Studios in Chicago) and 11 45's a few of which have become collectors items.

The Band broke up in the eighties. Mike Peace then billed as The One Peace Band, continued to perform on his own in resorts and nightclubs in the Chicago area for another 8 years. He performed as a singer/guitar player, with his own musical back up tapes. Writing a lot of original songs, he wrote and recorded 3 cassette albums and 23 CD Albums at last count, on which he plays all the instruments and sings all the lead and harmony vocals.

Michael received national exposure on a syndicated radio comedy show known as The Dr. Demento Show with 6 of his original comedy songs. The songs heard all over the country were: All I Wanna Do Is Drink Beer, The Tape Player Song, Thank you Scary Movies, The Night That Santa Claus Got Drunk, and A Man Named Joyce. Mike always keeps up to date in the music scene. He is an active, voting member of NARAS and the Grammy Awards He also enjoys writing and recording new original songs and collaborating with other songwriters from time to time.

Learning guitar

It is very hard holding those little thin wires down when you are learning to play and unless you get a really good guitar to start with you will probably quit in the first week. I don't know why I was so determined to learn but I had heard guitar music playing on the radio and I fell in love with the sound of a guitar before I even knew what one was.

My Mom was a single parent raising two boys with a secretary salary and there wasn't enough money to buy a real guitar. So, I bought my own guitar using money I made cleaning my Uncle Bob’s liquor bar on Sunday mornings. I was only 13 years old when I heard about a used guitar for $15.00 on the radio want ads. It was the first guitar I had ever seen up close that wasn't a toy. It was love at first sight. It looked beautiful. I still have it today and it really is a piece of junk but in the eyes of a 13 year old it was beautiful beyond words. The strings were about half an inch away from the frets most good guitars are 1/8 inch or less. So holding those strings down was really painful. Later I learned how to adjust the bridge lower so it would be a little easier. I would start practicing from the moment I got home from school until suppertime and then for a couple hours after that.

I had a very successful band for 20 years playing mostly nightclubs, country clubs and show lounges five and six nights a week. When the band broke up in the 80’s I decided to continue playing as a solo entertainer. Being accustomed to having a great musical background behind my vocals, I knew I needed to have that same full background when I played on my own.

This was happening prior to Karaoke in any form. I created my own musical backup tapes playing all of the instruments into a 4-track tape recorder and bouncing tracks to get more than four tracks of instrumentation. In the early days, I didn’t have a drum set so I became very creative building drum sounds with what would have been considered bizarre. Did you know that a very thick Chicago Phone Book makes a great Bass Drum when you hit it with a mallet and place a microphone pointing at the edge of the book? Tom toms or something like them can be duplicated with balloons of different sizes. I was never able to come close to the sizzle of real cymbals but I opted for other sounds like a sheet of paper played with a stiff brush, cardboard boxes, pipes and wind chimes to name a few. I did have my guitars; bass; piano; harmonicas and trumpet all to add to the tape back up.

Once I completed a catalog of cover songs and original tunes, I hit the stage once again armed with a cassette player, PA system, guitar and microphone. I continued performing into the early 90s.

More and more nightclubs were beginning to lose money due to the new drunk driving laws and were forced to eliminate live entertainment. Soon, I found myself out of work and trying to make a living with computers.

Today, I still make lots of music in my expanded recording studio but choose to keep my performances pretty much locked within the studio walls except for an rare concert or two. I have also started producing other singer’s songwriters and bands and enjoy working with these new talents. I find it sad however that they will probably never get to enjoy the thrills of performing live and getting paid the huge sums of money that my band commanded.