Michael Hedstrom--Bio??
MUSIC ROOTS
My Mother was a high school music teacher who played violin in The Peoria Symphony until 2 yrs ago when she retired at age 79.
My Father was a metallurgical engineer at Caterpillar who judged the state science fair, played french horn in his youth and sang in the church choir.
Soooooo...
I grew up in a home where mandatory piano lessons began in 2nd grade.
After the basics were mastered it was STRONGLY recommended that additional instruments be learned as well.
So, in 4th grade, I began trombone lessons.
Everyone else in school started band in 5th grade so I was always a year younger
and 6 inches shorter than my peers.....Good times.
In 5th grade I took up the string bass as well, eventually dropping it after 2 years
(Did I mention I was one of the shortest kids in school, my arm still aches.)
Stayed with the trombone through college, won a bunch of awards, best in state...blah, blah blah.
I have 2 brothers who followed similar courses,
Steve plays tuba, string bass and pipe organ and
Bob plays trombone and violin
and all 3 of us were ever so gently prodded into singing in our Methodist Church choirs.
Steve even directed them for a while. He had no idea how bad life could be until he got stuck directing me in a choir.LOL.
After school I put the trombone in the attic (where it calls me from time to time to make beautiful elephant sounds)
and turned to local rock bands, U. S. Steal, The Cause, The Deception and Boys With Toys
as lead-vocalist/frontman/keyboardist occasionally moving behind the drums just to mix things up a bit,
even played bass once on Mony Mony.
Hey, it's only got 1 note.
A couple special moments were opening for The Elvis Brothers "Fire in the City" and Elvin Bishop "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" and
playing for the cast party of "Grandview U.S.A."
I finally retired from that life in '92.
HALLOWEEN ROOTS
My Father was a huge sci-fi and murder-mystery fanatic.
My memories are of him sitting in front of the tube watching some sci-fi series of the 50's or 60's while reading a Nero Wolfe in his lap.
But while I shared his love of sci-fi,
I discovered that horror blended better in my little brain than murder-mysteries.
I couldn't get enough of the old Hammer films and the like. Pretty much anything that involved special fx.
I still remember mother being called in by my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Barth,
who was worried for me since I would only write stories about monsters,
Dracula and Frankenstein were my favs.
Well here I am 40 odd years later and haven't killed anyone yet. (That you know of)
Sometime during my youth we started holding Halloween parties and Spook Houses in our basement for the Methodist Church groups,
THE MOST FUN I had growing up, I really envy all the pro haunters out there.
Those spook houses were completely my Mothers' idea, by the way.
Odd, since now she refuses to play on my cds cause she doesn't want to be associated with Halloween.
What will I be like when the dementia kicks in?
.....or has it already? OOH OOH HAHAHA HAHAHA!!!!
Anyhoo,
Tamara and I started doing this home haunt thing which I always wrote the music for
and along came some guy on the internet, Jon,
looking for creepy music suggestions to use in his haunted attraction "Midnight Circus."
We suggested Danny Elfman and also asked if I might try writing something for him.(I'd just gotten a new Korg and couldn't wait to try it out)
I ended up writing all the tracks for his haunt and liked them enough to try selling them on a home-burned cd,
expecting to sell 1 or 2 just for fun.
The next thing I know I was getting a call from Jon, who was working as an actor at Knott's Scary Farm,
telling me they wanted to use my music in their new "Carniverous Clowns" maze.
After I bounced off the walls for about 3 days I called Knott's and said
"uhhh okay." DUH!
That gave me the push I needed to sit down and finish "Clive Manor"
after which Kevin of "Gore Galore" invited me into his booth at Transworld.
I could not believe how quickly the cds I brought disappeared.
That did it, I was hooked.
So I have Jon, Knott's and Kevin to blame for my current state of mania.
Where I go from here, who knows.
I might just join a cult.
Catch a passing star.
Where are my red high-tops?
-------------------M. Hedstrom