Forming the band Collapsis with drummer Scott Carle (Dillon Fence), guitarist Ryan Picket and bassist Chris Holloway (both of Queen Sarah Saturday), they released an EP and full-length for Universal in 2000, but though they managed to sell more than 20,000 records, soon discovered the fickle downside.
"There's no street cred, it's all major label stuff. So once it got to the end of its natural life with the label, we didn't have the infrastructure to keep going," he says. "It's a bit of a misnomer that you can go from being a major label band to having street credibility with the fans. It just doesn't work that way."
After being dropped, Garrigan returned to the solo recording that earned him his first deal. He released his third solo album, The Promise of Summer, in 2002, then joined his friends Athenaeum, who played on the 1999 solo album, The Lessons of Autumn, which earned him his label shot. They too were dropped by Atlantic, a few months later. They back Garrigan in the new MG4 (as in Mike Garrigan Four) and just finished a four-song EP, Gravity Affects Me, at Garrigan's home that was mixed by John Plymale.
Gravity is a rock album with a tinge of the Southern pop sound Athenaeum draws from, melded to an introspective singer/songwriter sensibility. It's available online at www.mikegarrigan.com.
Like a lottery ticket, the promise of a major label deal often far outstrips what the opportunity actually delivers. Singer/guitarist Mike Garrigan discovered this firsthand. Snatched up at the tender age of 21 by Universal Records, he had a deal before he even had a band, and bypassed law school for a spin at the major label roulette table. "In retrospect, I was very young," Garrigan says. "To be in the situation where you're a songwriter and an artist at that age is scary. I realize now that I had a lot more responsibility than I thought I did to a lot more people."
Archived by J. Hodge
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