Founding
Loud House Records is a natural evolution for musician, producer and
entrepreneur Booka Michel. A professional musician since his teens,
Booka has been integrally involved for more than two decades in the
world-renowned Austin music community and industry. His skills as a
percussionist have graced over 30 albums and countless performances
by Austin artists in the blues, jazz, rock, singer-songwriter, roots,
country and progressive music scenes. He has produced or co-produced
more than a dozen albums by a variety of artists. And his musical associations
include some of the finest artists in Texas music: Townes Van Zandt,
Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Angela Strehli, to name
a few, along with Austin-based musical legends Jimmy Carl Black (Mothers
of Invention) and Arthur Brown.
Mr. Michel's equal flair for the business of music led him in the early
1990s to open one of Austin's first professional rehearsal facilities,
River City Rehearsal, as well as represent Hancock and Ponty Bone & The Squeezetones for booking and media relations throughout the 1980s.
His wide-ranging artistic and entrepreneurial vision has also found
him involved in numerous film, video and theater projects as a musician,
producer, composer and performer, as well as public service ventures.
Booka displayed a gift for music and performing early in life growing
up in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, not far from Hibbing. Although his sure
sense of rhythm led him to percussion, his unerring pitch prompted his
school band instructor to recruit Michel to play trombone. At the age
of 14, Michel started playing professionally in show bands that toured
throughout the northern states and Midwest.
Following a stint studying theater at Moorehead State University, which
boasts one of America's leading drama programs, Booka traveled and lived
in Central America and the Caribbean, where he pursued self study in
the folkloric and ethnic roots of percussion instruments and playing.
During that time, he met a number of travelers and musicians from Austin,
which convinced Michel that the Texas Capital was an ideal locale to
pursue his musical career.
Soon after landing in Austin, Booka co-founded The Creative Opportunity
Orchestra with Tina Marsh and Alex Coke, the city's long running, acclaimed
jazz and progressive musical ensemble. He also fell in with some of
the best musicians in the city, playing in Macumba Love with Jesse Taylor,
Mike Kindred and Smokey Joe Miller from the Joe Ely Band as well as
with legendary Austin guitarist John X. Reed. Throughout the 1980s and
'90s, Michel was the city's leading percussionist, working with the
artists cited above as well as being a member of Ponty Bone & The
Squeezetones and recording with Austin rockers D-Day for A&M Records.
He has also played with everyone from noted Texas singer-songwriters
like David Halley and David Rodriguez to such top Austin jazz talents
as Coke and Tomas Ramirez, among many others.
He has appeared at numerous festivals and venues across North
America as well as on "Austin City Limits" and the popular
"Live Set" radio show on Austin's KUT-FM.
Over the years, Booka's unique combination of musical gifts and business
acumen led him to working in record production and opening River City
Rehearsal (a key element in the regeneration of Austin's now thriving
downtown Warehouse District). His social concerns prompted him to produce
and coordinate "When The Music Stops," an annual concert event
benefiting victims of violent crime that has won a number of public
service awards.
Booka was prompted to start Loud House Records when the record deals
for albums he was producing for Ponty Bone (Fantasize) R.C. Banks
(Conway's Corner) fell through. Inspired to promote the work
of artists of note and quality, Michel has already garnered international
attention and acclaim for Bone and Banks with the first two Loud House
releases, and added Nashville songwriting icon David Olney, Austin singer-songwriter
Troy Campbell and Texas piano master Mike Kindred. Based in one of the
most musical cities on the planet, Loud House Records promises to make
music heard around the world in the years to come.
Booka is a member of The Americana Music Association; Folk Alliance; Blues Music Association; American Federation of Musicians Austin Local 433; National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences; and Austin Film Society.
