Michael Bradford

The late 1960s and early 1970s were also a remarkable time in Detroit for music.

The Motown Sound was sweeping the nation, but also local bands like The Rationals, Bob Seger and The Frost were getting constant exposure on local radio, along with rock from bands like The James Gang, Sly and the Family Stone and Vanilla Fudge.

Many of these bands performed at a local concert venue, The Eastown Theatre, on Harper Avenue.

The theatre was a converted movie theatre, and was a short distance from the Bradford home.

Due to the influence of the rock crowd, the theatre had gotten a reputation for being "one of the city's most notorious drug-infused rock venues".

Michael's early exposure to rock music made him want to pursue a career in rock, rather than the more obvious choice of R&B.

Michael Bradford (born 1961) is an American musician.

A native of Detroit, Michigan he is known mainly as a bass guitarist but also plays guitar and keyboards, and has done extensive work in music production and engineering.

Among others, Bradford has worked with Madonna, Youngstown, Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker and in music for films.

He is currently the guitarist for The Felons Club and can be heard on their debut album Welcome to the Club.

He was born and raised on Detroit's East Side, an area that was once a stable working-class neighborhood, but quickly deteriorated into decay after the city's tumultuous riots in 1967.

In 1973, Michael was admitted to University Liggett School, a private school in Grosse Pointe Michigan.

Classmates included Jeffrey Eugenides, who would go on to write The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex.

Michael stayed at ULS, graduating from the 12th Grade in 1978.

Eventually, Michael started playing with local bands, and getting work in local Detroit recording studios, such as United Sound, Sound Suite and Ambience Recordings, in suburban Farmington Hills, MI. Ambience was a premiere studio at the time, and many records, commercials and industrial film soundtracks were recorded there.

At Ambience, Michael met engineer Gerard Smerek, a local whiz who had production and allowing Michael to assist him recording sessions.

Gerard's work ethic, combined with his reminder to become "necessary and useful" to his clients by anticipating their needs, inspired Michael to want to work behind the scenes, at the side of the artists who came into the studio.

In 1981, Michael met jazz guitarist Earl Klugh, while working at Ambience.

Earl was extremely successful at the time, making albums such as Crazy For You.

Earl was one of the most successful of the new instrumental jazz artists, and his compositions were heard on radios all over the world.

Earl is still considered to be "one of the finest acoustic guitar players" on the music scene, but what also impressed Michael was the income that Earl was producing from his album sales and the royalties from airplay and TV and film licenses.

Earl tutored Michael in composition, using examples from composers like Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Earl also educated Michael about the mechanics of publishing, copyright and licensing.

This information inspired Michael to become serious about songwriting as a career in which he could make a living.

Another artist who recorded at Ambience was Anita Baker.

Gerard Smerek was her engineer as well, and Gerard brought Michael into Anita's camp to help with keyboard sounds and drum programming, using drum machines, samplers and recordings of percussion instruments to spice up the sound.

This eventually led to receiving a production credit on Anita's 1994 album Rhythm of Love.

The album went double-platinum, getting great reviews and opening more doors for Michael.

After the success of Rhythm of Love, Michael was faced with a small dilemma.

In 1994, faced with the choice between New York and Los Angeles, Michael chose Los Angeles, for the more agreeable climate.

Upon his arrival, Michael was introduced to Paul Buckmaster, a legendary arranger for artists such as Elton John, Carly Simon and Train, and composer for films such as 12 Monkeys.

Paul hired Michael as his programmer and engineer.

Once again, a mentor relationship developed, and Paul taught Michael about arranging for orchestras, as well as giving Michael a basic understanding of film score techniques.

Paul enlisted Michael's sound design and programming skills on independent films such as The Maker, starring Matthew Modine and Murder In Mind, starring Mary-Louise Parker.

Released in 1997 Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too was a critical and commercial success, going Platinum in the U.S.A., and gold in several other countries.

These sessions began a friendship and collaborative relationship that lasted until Buckmaster's death in 2017.

While working with Paul Buckmaster, Michael was introduced to Gregg Alexander, whose band New Radicals had recently been signed to a record contract with MCA Records.

Michael was hired to be an engineer for the album, specializing in editing the dense and complex tracks in order to yield a cohesive set of songs that sounded live and spontaneous.

Michael's inspiration for this technique came from reading about the production of Rolling Stones albums, such as Some Girls, that were edited performances that sounded live.

Another influence was Paul Buckmaster's stories of Miles Davis and the edited nature of his albums.