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Who is Mike Poorman?  If you do not already know him, then now is the time to learn.  32 year-old, Mike Poorman, is the owner and head Producer/Engineer of Strangeways Recording.  Strangeways is a Providence, RI based recording studio.  Mike spent his earlier years doing some extensive touring in bands such as Hot Rod Circuit (Vagrant), Reach the Sky (Victory), and Boston indie rockers, the Shyness Clinic (Insound), before opening Strangeways in 2005.  Once he opened the doors to his “final resting place” in the biz he began working with some more notable names such as Paulson, Piebald, Tsunami Bomb, and Orange Island.

Mike has also spent time working with several unsigned bands as well in hopes of giving them the professional boost they need to be known to everyone.  Such bands include, Therefore I Am, Zac Clark, The Eclectic Collective, and The Sketches.  His love and desire for the music industry keeps him in touch with several unsigned bands today, as well as more well established bands, in hopes to bringing some of the more impressive talent to light.

Today Mike is currently residing in Providence, RI where he can be seen walking Sona, the studio devil dog.

I was able to talk with Mike about his business and plans for the future.  Take a look at what he had to say and get to know him a little better. Be sure to check him out on the links above and send him some love.

Tom Shaggy – How did you get into the recording business?
Mike Poorman – I originally became interested in recording when my first hardcore band recorded a demo tape when I was 15 years old. The guy who engineered it worked at our high school so he was cool about me asking a ton of questions and just looking over his shoulder the whole time. I went on
from that experience to recording songs at our practices on a 4 track to get a little more of a grasp on basic recording.

A few years later I found myself at Emerson College in Boston studying in their Audio Production program. I was recording band for projects at school and playing locally in my new band, so I was able to make some contacts through that avenue. After school I just kept recording at a small studio in Boston called the Small Church, where I really cut my teeth. I went on from there to work at other studios in town, mainly Camp Street (Paul Kolderie’s studio) and Q Division (Mike Deneen’s studio.) Through all of that time I was touring with Hot Rod Circuit as the drummer, and recording on tour breaks.

After I quit touring with HRC, I used my contacts through the band to move on to full time engineering, to where I eventually opened the 1st version of Strangeways Recording up in Burlington, VT. And here I am now in Providence with version 2.0…

TS – Any regrets on leaving the “playing” part behind you?
MP – I have no regrets, I toured in a band with my best friends and got paid to see the world. How can you have any regrets about that?!

TS – Strangeways Recording. What do you do there?
MP – Well, besides torture bands all day long, I help them create their art and hopefully steer them in the right direction song wise and arrangement wise. I have moved pretty much into a producers roll more than just an engineer. I like to give feedback to bands that trust that I can help shape their music and ultimately help them achieve their vision of the songs. There is no better feeling than having that trust.

TS – What is your producing style like?
MP – I don’t know that I have a style per se. I really try to approach every project differently. My goal is to envision what the band might sound like if I were seeing them live, and go for that. I push each band differently, and turn out totally different results with each band.

TS – Who are some of the people/groups you have worked with?
MP – The list of records people might know would be:
Paulson “All at Once” (Doghouse)
Tsunami Bomb “The Definitive Act” (Kung Fu Records)
Orange Island “S/T” (Triple Crown) (Co-produced w/ Matt Squire)
Hot Rod Circuit “Split 7? w/ The Anniversary” (Vagrant)
Piebald ‘Even After Thirteen Years…” 7? (Hydra Head)
Therefore I Am “Escape” (self-released)
Down to Earth Approach “Acoustic EP” (Vagrant/Absolutepunk.Net)
Embrace Today “We are the Enemy” (Deathwish, INC)

I have been working with a bunch of up and coming regional bands/artists as well, such as: Penrose (RI), the Coming Weak (RI), Me as Time (NH), Cavender (NH), Zac Clark (VT), and Jer Coons (VT).

TS – How was it going from a touring musician, to a stay-in-one-place producer for other musicians?
MP – Honestly, I love being home. I am an older guy now haha and like the stability. I feel like I had my fun and my time out there, and ultimately I got to go after my dreams. Now I really want to help other bands achieve their goals and dreams like I was able to do. It really is a good feeling to see them start to succeed.

TS – Any current projects? What are you plans for the future?
MP – I am working on a record by this guy Rob right now from RI. He had the drummer from that popular 90’s ALT band the Posies come in and play drums on it, so that was pretty cool. I was a big “Frosting on the Beater” fan, so to get to work with the drummer, who I admired, was a trip. Rob’s record is turning out to be awesome, the songs are great and they have a whole new life now with the drums, etc.

I have still been working hard on my friend Zac Clark’s full length. We have been at it for about a year now and we are really close to finishing. A couple of the Jack’s Mannequin guys are coming in next weekend to play on one of Zac’s songs which should be cool.

Therefore I Am will be in to make their full length in late October into November. Brian McTernan will be mixing that one, it will be good to work with him again.
TS – If you had the chance to work with anyone, who would it be?

MP – That is a tough question; I get to work with bands that I really enjoy now, so I can’t really say when it comes to current bands. If I were to record a band from the past, of course I’d say the Beatles. I would have
loved to be Geoff Emerick back then when they were pioneering a bunch of new recording techniques. People out there interested in recording should check out “Recording the Beatles.” It is a huge 500-page nerd guide to every piece of gear, every engineer, the studios they used, etc. It took 11 years of researching and writing to finish the book. It is quite thorough.

TS – What is the hardest part about the music industry today?
MP – For me, trying to stay current. Things change so fast, stylistically I mean mostly. I go online every day to look for new bands and to check out what everyone is doing. You really have to stay in the mix if you want to succeed as a business owner in the music industry.