Michael Vincent and You Know Who

Michael Vincent and You Know Who provides lively, entertaining music in 45-minute sets, with a 10-15 minute break in between sets. Generally we do two to three sets for an event, which often includes inviting audience members to dance, or to sing along, or shout out the "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" of our song, In a Whisper. Each member of the band enjoys performing, so you'll see lots of smiles and movement on stage to engage the audience in a positive way. We are an excitable bunch, and want to communicate just how much fun we're having with our audience so they can have just as much fun, too!

Michael Vincent is an indie rock artist who performs in the Bay Area from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, whether solo in house concert settings, or in clubs and bistros with his full band, You Know Who.

Michael began writing and performing in his early 20s after teaming up with friends and an older brother making music in some of the folk-rock haunts in 70s San Francisco, striking out on his own and eventually opening for and recording with nationally known artists such as members of various incarnations of The (Grateful) Dead (Mark Karan of The Other Ones, and Jeff Pehrson of Furthur).

“When I heard The Beatles I wanted to be a pop star; when I heard George Harrison solo, I wanted to be a songwriter; but when I first heard people react positively to my performing my own songs, I decided ‘that’s it’ – and I’ve been incredibly excited about doing it ever since!”

Michael has received kudos from fellow local artists like Dave Matthews opener Ruth Gerson, citing his prowess for “great hooks,” and for writing in more than one genre. “You don’t listen to just one kind of music – I don’t listen to just one kind of music – why in the world would I only want to make just one kind of music?” So when you hear Michael perform, while his songs will have that signature Michael Vincent ‘feel’, one might be a Blues number, or something influenced by a current Power Pop artist, or be a song deeply imbedded in Root Music. “I have one song about people returning from war in the Middle East that’s totally Pop Punk. Why? Because when your nerve-endings are frayed from horror stories about a war, the song has to have that edge in order to communicate your sense of outrage – it demands it!”

Michael is influenced by long-in-the-tooth artists of his youth, from The Beatles (“who never wrote the same song twice”) to newer artists like Snow Patrol and The Fruit Bats, “who bring some exciting new energy to pop music. Lyrically I’m influenced by every human experience known to man – or woman – and how our deepest selves are shaped by those experiences. I’m still the occasional volunteer at a drop-in-center for the homeless where I had a career as a social work chaplain. I still have both that abiding sense of faith that somehow manages to see people in destitute poverty through their despair and helps get them off the street, along with being well acquainted with what it means to share bread with people who are personally so vulnerable they’re virtually stripped naked of every pretense imaginable. All of these experiences inform my writing.”

“I also write pop songs.,” Michael says without being glib, since, “while I’m committed to the cause of those living on the margins, I’m not fixated that this is the only thing worth communicating about in music. Pop music in particular carries a great release – no matter what your economic situation - to be able to take a breath of fresh air and actually infuse something positive into it all is a great thing.”

Michael has released 6 solo albums, his first, done with Contemporary Christian rocker, Ken Medema in 1993, Lines and Wonders, and his latest, For the Record, a compilation ‘Best Of’ CD to be released soon on Angel Blossom Records – a small indie label Michael and his wife Janet formed two years ago to help other locals artists get their music off the ground.

Michael has appeared on radio in the Bay Area, from KRSH in Santa Rosa, to KCPA in Petaluma, to KHMB on the coast in Half Moon Bay.

We generally expect the venue to provide their own sound-system. We have direct-in links from all 3 of our guitarist's amplifiers; our lead singer has an input for a wireless ear monitor so he can hear himself sing better; we generally require that the stage include one monitor for every two people on-stage; and room enough to put our amplifiers in a reasonable proximity. We require 3 mics for vocals - lead and two harmony vocalists - for Michael, the lead singer, and one for the bassist and drummer, both of whom sing harmonies. We require a sound-check be accomplished no later than one half hour before doors open to allow customers/guests into the venue.