h Mike Ayley, best known for his role as bassist for multi-Platinum selling Vancouver pop-rock band Marianas Trench. Mike is stepping into the spotlight under the moniker MIKEH with his debut solo project, an EP titled Golden Hour: First Things First on October 18 via 604 Records and all streaming platforms.
Golden Hour: First Things First was produced by Mike and Pedro Dzelme, and together, the pair explored the line between full-on rock and pop effortlessly, capturing the kind of beginnings, endings, and uncertainties that lay between them when anything can happen in a manner that’s relentlessly hooky, richly textured, and leans heavily on Mike’s soaring, often chill-inducing vocals.
Aptly titled, the five-song EP is inspired by emotional gray areas Ayley often found himself pondering during his favourite times of day while the pandemic put his musical career on hold. The songs are highly personal, while leaving plenty of room for listeners to see their own lives and the kind of uncertainties so many of us have experienced over the past two years and change reflected in them.
Mike credits much of his musical inspiration to the creative world that Marianas Trench exists in, lead singer Josh Ramsay’s approach to vocals as instruments in their own right, and the band’s ability to up their game and push the envelope with each successive record; things that opened his mind to endless musical possibilities.
Ultimately, Golden Hour: First Things First is a celebration of the kind of daily victories we too often take for granted that’s compellingly honest and immediately relatable, musically, and lyrically.