Open Mike Eagle

Right off the bat, as a father, how many times in the course of changing diapers have you in fact gotten your sons shit on your fingers?

C’mon man…there’s no good reason that I would keep count. I’d never be able to eat finger food again. I also deleted the entire first year of childcare out of my memory.

The new album is called Dark Comedy. You have a very thick and awesome relationship with the comedy world, but I take it that there is more to the title outside of your love for the laugh. Explain the heart and thought process behind the new record.

The heart is dark and twisted and hopeful. The heart is sweaty and sweet and muddy. It’s a collection of songs mostly about things that bother me and/or things that make me laugh. I tried to take out the things that leaned too far in either direction.

You’ve been a bit of a drifter on the indie scene moving labels from Mush, to Hellfyre, to Fake Four and now on to Mello Music Group. What do you think makes you so versatile and likable that all of your albums fit, but stood all on their own, in those rosters?

I don’t know if I’m super versatile. I think I’ve developed a weird wide range of song approaches for myself but they’re all pretty overtly indie so I think I fit in well on most indie rap rosters. I can’t speak on likability. I can’t get outside of myself far enough to assess that in a significant way.

As a husband and father, what’s the hardest thing about incorporating your art and work into that roll?

The hardest thing is being away on the road. It’s a tired old cliché but it’s true. It sucks to see anything child-related when I’m away from home. There’s a part of me that wants to kick over other people’s strollers.

I listen to several podcasts, and you are a frequent guest on Shots Fired, but have recently announced you are venturing out and creating your own podcast. What’s the theme behind it all?

It’s called the Secret Radio Hour and it will focus on people’s internal experience of public life. I’d like to give people the chance to talk about issues that the deal with internally but don’t often have a chance to express.

You are a member of Hellfyre, Swim Team and were apart of Project Blowed for a long time. As a solo artist, what do you think the group/family dynamic ads to you and your process in creating? 

It gives me some context to define myself by and a little bit of cultural history to connect to. I’ve always been the type of person that likes to choose his own family if that makes sense? So having these sorts of entities to connect to and exist within give me a sense of connectedness.

What about the Cosby Show inspired you? It’s in your newest video (which is dope by the way) and I think we’ve had twitter convos about episodes as well. How much were you impacted by comedy growing up?

My brain is 65% full of TV comedy. When cartoons went off that’s the only other thing I ever wanted to watch, and with the cable boom happening alongside my adolescence I had a lot to choose from. Humor is all in my body, lolz, everywhere. The Cosby Show was a touchstone for my entire family, we were broken, but we were built like the Huxtables.

You completed college and worked as a special needs educator. What was the point in teaching that made you choose your art vs continuing on with the full time day job?

I got laid off, and my wife told me not to bother trying to find another job.

What are the future plans for you this year in support of this album? Is here a tour scheduled? Anymore awesome videos coming out? 

I’m gonna play everywhere out of order. Just taking bookings as they come because I don’t feel like managing a tour for myself at the moment. Things are looking pretty ok though, and I am getting booked pretty much everywhere I wanna be so that’s super cool.

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@Mike_Eagle
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