Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael D. Tidwell.
Hi Michael, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My journey of music began at a young age when I became the lead drummer in the praise and worship band at Tyler Metro Church under the direction of Pastor Ray Baldwin. Not having any commercial or professional training at the time, it was an entity that grew in the development of a “learning as you go mentality.” When I became versed enough in the field of percussive instruments. My skillsets emerged a bit further by joining the 6th grade drumline at Whitehouse Junior High School as one of the head snare drum players that held a more militaristic fashion with an engaged understanding of contemporary playability. This became an amazing fortitude of my career because of the unity that surrounded playing alongside other unique talents, but also to envelop the entertainment of a much more diversive crowd. By this point, my love for music had taken a completely new art form, and I dove into it at an insane caliber in becoming the best musician that I could possibly become. When I started high school, I had transferred out of the small town of East Texas and attended Cypress Falls High School under the direction of Shawn McAnear, Frank Troyka, and Ralph Hardimon in the heart of Houston, Texas. This is was an enormous change for me because I was unaware of the big city lifestyle and the many talents that would surround me that would withstand my challenging abilities. It wasn’t until Junior year that I would hold a spot as one of the snare drum players that would march the band program into many bestowed victories. Not only that, I was honored to gain a leading role as one of the top snare drum performers in the Cypress Falls Indoor Drumline show “V for Victory,” that would grant me tremendous exposure and confidence to play not only in front of small crowds but thousands of people. During this time, I had mitigated my musicianship to a much higher degree, but something was missing to where I couldn’t express myself emotionally.
Drums and percussive instruments had allowed me to grow more intuitively on a surface level, but I also wasn’t tapping into my heart and feelings where I was able to conveniently let my emotions control my music. This is where my love for piano and stringed instruments would provide a turning point in my career as a composer. Now starting off, I was all over the place. Having a few lessons here and there growing up in the field of piano, I had never taken it as a serious endeavor. My theory and musicianship level at the time was little less than minute, but I knew that there was a side of me that wanted to convey my emotions through the music I had been creating. Before school every day, you would find me in the lonely practice rooms playing my heart out in a more improvised pattern. No keys or structure had been defined at the time. All I knew was in the depths of my percussive attributes, there was a piano player that was yet to be unfolded.
After high school, I had been graciously accepted to attend Dallas Baptist University to which I would emerge my skillsets in the world of music business, theory, and musicianship. This is where my structure of music would begin to surface, and my love for creation and production would wholesomely take place. I began to form chord patterns and drum instrumentations that would comply to form actual songs, and that’s when my production company, “Raptor Recordz,” was introduced. Mike David was my initial stage name at the time, and I had felt confident enough that in my junior year of college, I would release my first project entitled the “Best Served Chilled” EP that would comprise of lounge and chill electronic elements based around a 5-song movement that would be released on World Relaxation Day in the summer of 2015. For the mixing and mastering, I decided to go with a studio where I was interning at the time called Legacy Music Group under the direction of Matthew Medlock, who had taken my instrumentations and transformed them to a level far beyond my comprehension. It was such a magical time for my music, and I was overwhelmed by the success that this project would do for me. For a year and a half, I had held the #1 spot on Reverbnation.com for best instrumental music out of hundreds of producers, and I also got featured on radio stations in Dallas, Texas, and Houston, Texas on various platforms of credibility.
Fast forward to now, I have taken on a new rebranding of sound and stage name under the alias of Michael D. Tidwell, a composer in the arts of cinematic ambient music and eccentric meditative soundscapes. I have had the honor and pleasure of working and collaborating with award-winning singers, composers, and record labels from all around the globe. I also have attended universities to attain multiple degrees from schools like the University of Houston Downtown, Dallas Baptist University, and Berklee College of Music.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road that I have taken within the music industry assuredly has had its successes, but it wasn’t an easy journey to say the least. With acclaiming a large facet of multiple educational degrees highly concentrated in the realms of business and music from prestigious universities, it still has brought me challenges and adversities that no musician should have to go through. First off was the beginning/origin story of how my music field has come to be what it is today. With going through the Mike David stage of having spent thousands of dollars in order to proclaim my name in music was a path that was only done based around my solo efforts and not having a team sort of mentality. I thought with doing everything myself that I would never face the disappointment of a substandard product, and I have found that it takes a village to build a music career not just relying on the solo efforts that I bring to the table. “It’s a people business surfaced around friendships first.”
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In 2022, I released my debut soundscape and meditation EP project entitled “Serenity Soundscapes,” which was influenced by my love for nature and the different seasons of weather. This project will feature the music industry’s top female singers that include: Megi Angelova, Celica Soldream, Lara Ausensi, and Nelly Monk. This project will be composed and produced by Michael D. Tidwell and will be mix and mastered by Senior Engineer Chris Jordan at Barron Studios in Houston, Texas, and Benjamin Lincoln at Middle Mastering.
Currently, I am releasing music for my newest space ambient EP project entitled “Ambient Atmospheres,” which was influenced by a team of lonely astronauts traveling to a distant planet in search for intelligent life. This project features 6 of the top-rated vocal artists that include: Lily Krisel, Clara Sorace, Alexa Ray, Amy Wallace, Nelly Monk, and Victoria Gydov. This project will be composed and produced by Michael D. Tidwell and will be mastered Benjamin Lincoln at Middle Mastering.
My music is proudly featured under compilation albums from ambient music record labels like “Imaginary North” based in Toronto, Canada, and “Mare Nostrum” based in France. I continuously get radio play from Bentonville Community Radio 103.3 KOBV on ambient music radio show called “Rivulets & Reveries” that airs every Sunday at 8 pm to 10 pm.
My plans for 2024 are comprised of music projects mainly around the dark ambient genres. More news and releases are on the way, so stay tuned…
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I would like to thank all of the singers, composers, engineers, record labels, magazines, playlist curators, and radio DJs for supporting the journey that I have withheld in the ambient music community. Your faith and trust in me have proclaimed such a thriving career and I am forever grateful to hold a high level of professionalism and artistic nature around the quality that I continue to execute.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.michaeldtidwell.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaeldtidwell/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaeldtidwell2023/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-d-tidwell-30a0331a6/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@michaeld.tidwell3729
