MEET MICHAEL
ABOUT ME AND THE PROJECT
Michael Carroll has long been immersed in the world of art and music. An avid art collector and dealer, who has often made side ventures into making music, he has finally committed to the musical side of his brain by forming the project known as The Warm Noise. The Warm Noise is set to debut a four-song EP this coming fall, grounded by Michael’s deep baritone voice and songs about love and loss, and loss again and love—the dominant themes in his work. The arrangements of instruments tend to stay out of the way. To make and share beautiful songs that connect with people is the goal. The name The Warm Noise reflects that. Confessional indie rock born out of the times we are living in. The title of the EP, Yes, There Will Also Be Singing comes from the opening to the Svendborg Poems by Bertolt Brecht. It reads “In the dark times will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.”
Born and raised in the American Midwest, Michael went to high school in Milwaukee where he fortunately discovered the left end of the radio dial and the college radio station WMSE. The students over at the station even let him and his sister guest DJ a couple of times. All this discovery of new music felt like life. The Buzzcocks, Laurie Anderson, Depeche Mode, Nina Hagen, and X were constant friends during that tumultuous time. The music scene in Milwaukee was alive and completely enamoring. By the time Michael was 15 he was a full-on habitué of the scene there thanks to a particularly good fake ID. Couch Flambeau, Dark Façade, Violent Femmes, XCleavers, The Oil Tasters, Die Kreuzen, and BoDeans brought together a select group of kids from area high schools who found each other and a community thanks to the music. This was the beginning of Michael’s journey to learn guitar with a lovely, third-hand Univox.
After attending college in North Carolina and stints studying abroad in the then USSR and New York City, his pursuit of the combined loves of theater, music, and art resulted in meeting his wife, Tonya, with whom he ran away with to Santa Fe, New Mexico. In Santa Fe, they opened an after-hours performance gallery that hosted music, and visual art projects in the evening after working their jobs. They also hosted many visits from the police for noise complaints. Not long after, Michael chose contemporary art as his career path, and he and Tonya opened Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe where he currently lives and is rasing his family.
From the beginning, the ethos of his gallery was to show contemporary artwork that mattered, told stories, and brought disparate peoples, styles, and experiences together. Travel was always important to Michael’s path as an art dealer. He and Tonya curated shows of incredible artists from Romania, Mexico, and Ireland. From the beginning, Turner Carroll championed the work of women artists, and formerly underrepresented artists. Hung Liu, Judy Chicago, Swoon, and Nadya Tolokonnikova are standouts. Michael is an avid collector, lender, and donor of contemporary art, which, as in music, is the story of our moment on Earth. He is currently putting together a body of artwork under the concept The Idea of Blackness.
Music remains his love, pipping out fine art for that top spot. Years were spent devouring jazz and classical music. Michael didn’t know who Kurt Cobain was on hearing the news of his death in 1993. Nirvana reeled Michael back in to the beautiful, tough, meaningful music being made at the time. Mazzy Star, Belly, Guided By Voices, Luna, and L7 were in charge of his heart. Thankfully it kept beating. When Michael’s eldest child went off to university, the time created to play, focus, and the feelings to express all came together in a way that words and a puppy dog face never could. He played with friends for five years, and took lessons on the drums, guitar, bass, and vocal technique. A challenge from his first instructor to add an original to open mic night led to the biggest realization of all: songwriting is the thing. That place where sharing and connecting and finding meaning with other people goes to breathe and live.
The EP came together with the help of good friend Adam Arcuragi serving as producer, and was fully recorded at Adam's Moon Recording Co. All four tracks were written by Michael, as well as all vocals and most guitar. Adam added instrumentation throughout. Lead single “He Said She Said” is a catchy back forth about enduring a relationship, while follow up tracks “The Sound of Love” and “This Morning” express love and loss in different ways. “You Don’t Need Anything” is a song about defiance and surrender. These four tracks represent a debut body of work from an artist with life experience, sung with gravity and a sage weariness.
Years ago, Michael had a conversation with Laurie Anderson where he said “You’ve probably heard this before, but I want to let you know that your music saved my life.” To which she answered, a bit astonished, “No. I’ve never heard that before.”