Collegenews.com featured artist
by Adam Seidel
Todd Michaelsen (a.k.a. My Pet Dragon), hailing from Brooklyn, NY, is a symbol of what threatens the future of the music industry. He embodies the spirit of all talented unsigned artists that push the creative envelope and grow independently. The independent movement is a growing shadow in the background of commercial music.
My Pet Dragon proves two truths in today’s music world: Success doesn’t depend on the help of a record label and uncharted musical territory still exists, both in recordings and live shows.
Like the music in 2006’s First Born, Michaelsen’s live performance is nothing short of transcendent. Like something out of a surrealistic movie, Todd plays hypnotic folk rock with his electric guitar while his wife Reena visually interprets his melodies and lyrics through traditional Indian dance. “At one of Todd’s shows I was compelled to get up on stage with him and start dancing, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” says Reena. “His lyrics always tell a story or paint a perfect memory, and my dancing conveys that story into a visual display.”
Fusion of hypnotic song and improvisational dance on stage packs a powerful punch. It lulls the audience into a state of complete concentration and fascination. They seem almost shocked, “Why haven’t I seen something like this before?”
The sound Todd creates pushes music in a new direction. His songs have elements folk, electronic, Indian, and rock. But most importantly, his melodies and lyrics capture his spirit and experimental mentality. If Todd isn’t careful, he may create a new music genre.
This new unnamed genre shows glimmers of life in My Pet Dragon’s debut First Born.
As shown in “Space Love 3000,” Michaelsen can create music with layers of smooth harmonious sound. The gentle flow of melody pushes his introspective lyrics down a dream - like river.
“The Painter” is what a folk song will sound like in the future. Strongly strummed guitar gives way to electronic loops of experimental sound. Michaelsen’s voice creates the perfect apex to this song’s summit.
First Born is not just a construction of verses, choruses and bridges. It is an in - depth description of time, place and feeling. Perhaps this is the essence of the uncharted waters My Pet Dragon seeks to further discover.
“We are just beginning to discover what our possibilities are,” says Michaelsen. “I feel that this thing will be constantly evolving with how we (Reena and Todd) evolve. I am growing into this idea of My Pet Dragon more and more, and I look forward to the future and the possibilities it will bring.”
WWW.LATACO.COM By Hadley Tomicki
Perhaps the day’s best discovery (at the Artwallah Festival) was My Pet Dragon, comprised of the newly-wedded team of Reena Shah and Todd Michaelsen, who recently appeared on Karsh Kale’s new album. Reena’s dancing combines her classical training melded with a current, improvisational spirit. Todd, just a lone man with a guitar, seemed to fill the entire downtown area with the force of an entire rock band with beautiful, bittersweet songs, carried across with a stunning voice of lifting intensity, power and flexibility, reminding us of My Morning Jacket singer Jim James’ acoustic record crossed with the steady power of Coldplay’s Chris Martin (uh, but cooler, sorry for the comparison, Todd). The two are as noticably in love as their song-and-dance combination are forceful and stunning. We imagine more than a few copies of their new CD First Born flew off the tables Saturday, as TACO picked one up ourselves.
WWW.ETHNOTECHNO.COM By Sarika Dani
Five out of Five star review for "First Born"
Now more than ever, unsigned artists command a certain kind of respect. They can be experimental, inconsistent, and difficult to define. They answer to nothing but their own whim, free to develop organically and without label-imposed boundaries on creativity.
Todd Michaelsen, under the (yes, unsigned!) alias My Pet Dragon, is one such artist who is the boss of himself. He wrote, produced, and currently stars in First Born, MPD's first, self-released album. A haunting assembly of Indian influenced-electronica, psychedelic rock, and acoustic folk, "First Born" sounds surprisingly expansive and cinematic for a homegrown recording. It occupies a space between the real and the surreal, appearing more like a concept, a way of thinking, than a definable genre of music. Michaelsen aptly describes the album as "a dreamy, ethereal, layered rock/electronic record. It's a collection of tripped-out, late evening/early morning recordings, meant for headphones and late night car rides."
A big contributor to the "dreamy" dialogue is Michaelsen's soaring vocals. Comparisons to Thom Yorke and Jeff Buckley come easily and immediately, but the likeness diminishes the more you listen-and realize that the emotion in his voice stems from a place that is entirely his own. Michaelsen cites Sigur Ros, Nine Inch Nails, Karsh Kale, and Bjork as influences, noting that he likes "the sounds and emotions you can get out of blending organic and electronic elements together."
Michaelsen does this skillfully on the moody, hypnotic "New York Underwater," and the meandering but rhythmic "Space Love 3000" and "Dreamer's Despair," which both layer guitar and vocals with scattered beats into lush, spaced-out soundscapes. But on tracks like "Born on a Sunday," "The Painter," and "First Born King," Michaelsen tones down the production and favors a simple, acoustic folk sound. It's these variations that reflect the versatility of his talent. "My sound is always evolving and changing because that was the original purpose of creating this outlet for myself," says Michaelsen. "If I want to sing a simple, sweet folk song like 'Born on a Sunday,' I will. If I want to make a heavy, tripped-out dance tune with electronics, guitars, and tabla, I'll do that too. It's all within the 'rock' realm."
Listeners across genres have already responded to the album. Michaelsen says DJs are spinning dance track "Dragon's Breath" in clubs, and meanwhile, the acoustic "Soldier's Lullaby" was featured on Neil Young's website. But Michaelsen notes that "the future of (his music) will lie somewhere between these worlds."
"Holes in the Sky," the album's epic, final track, is a good representation of MPD's almost paradoxical sound: melodic but haunting; ambient but also intense. For now, Michaelsen not only gets away with the paradoxes, but forges new territory in blending disparate sounds and influences together into a novel experience. "I enjoy music that becomes visual to the listener. Drones, tribal beats, and reverbs all give that feeling to me," says Michaelsen. "I really love music that takes you to another place. Sometimes reality is not the best place for your head to be."
See the full Review at Ethnotechno.com
Review's of Todd Michaelsen's work with Karsh Kale on Broken English
PROPERLY CHILLED
"Dancing At Sunset"… I couldn't get it out of my head. The strongest element is the voice of new band member Todd Michaelsen, who sings in what I can best describe describe as a Peter Gabriel styled delivery (although I'm no Pete Gabriel expert, so the association may be a bit abstract). The music behind his voice is a mix of near eastern 2 step with some nice tabla breaks and rich Indian strings.
Ernest Barteldes from the Greenwich Village Gazette
"The strongest track (on Broken English) is definitely "City Lights", a rock ballad which features beautifully played acoustic guitar, sitar solos and heartfelt vocals by bandmember Todd Michalsen, who draws inspiration from Bono without necessarily becoming an imitator."
www.indianelectronica.com
The voices strike you first. Whereas in earlier projects, a single well-placed vocal melody might suffice to carry Karsh's core idea, here he intersperses multiple voices in careful counterpoint, weaving together harmony in overlapping lines that demonstrate a well-developed compositional maturity. Vishal Vaid's gorgeous ghazal-rooted tenor returns in fine form, and new band member Todd Michaelsen contributes the most distinct new voice to several tracks, projecting an urgency and atmospheric yearning that calls to mind the melodic work of Maynard Keenan of Tool.
WWW.ETHNOTECHNO.COM By Sarika Dani
Meanwhile, the stunning rock epic "Dancing at Sunset" marries heavy beats with otherworldly strings from Mumbai Cinematic Strings, as newcomer Todd Michaelsen's angelic, expansive vocals soar throughout like a soulful instrument. The softer, lo-fi "City Lights" achieves a powerful synthesis between sitar and guitar as gentle rhythms and searching vocals from Michaelsen (and Kale himself) lead the track with entirely English vocals.
The skillful use of dual-language vocals throughout the record reflects a culturally criss-crossed generation, but also creates composite sense of identity. "Beautiful" juxtaposes hushed, lush English vocals from Sophie Mitchalitsianos (Sparklehorse) with vivid Hindi vocals amidst a backdrop of skittering beats and aching, lucid bansuri. The track also includes a vocal sample from the MIDIval PunditZ track "Dark Age." "Louder than Bombs" brews with dark electronic undertones as Vaid's and Michaelsen's vocals are tightly woven into a sonic protest against the unjustified madness of war. The mood of the album flips to lightness on the hopelessly gorgeous "Innocence and Power," as piano notes and Dierdre Dubois' (Ekova) pure vocals swim with Kale's broken beats and Vaid's tender vocals.
Alt.Culture.Guide 2005 review of Michaelsen's previous work with Cetacea
By Kena Sosa
" Todd Michaelsen belts out sincere words that carry you along with him over the waves of guitar and pulsating drums. If Bono is the rougher, more playful sea, then Michaelsen's voice is the sea at sunset when it sneaks in a few last tickles on your feet. Collaborating in a tale that will drift with you in dreamland… "
