Mike was born and raised on the west coast of Vancouver Island. A student of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Mike started playing the piano at age 10. At the same time he began playing the saxophone in the school band program. Realizing early on that music would be his career path, he took full advantage of the opportunities presented to him - performing in jazz ensembles, concert bands and choirs throughout high school. Upon graduation, he received a full scholarship to study music at Malaspina College in Nanaimo, B.C.. Two years later he moved to Vancouver and found work in many different situations not only as a keyboardist and saxophonist, but as a guitarist, bass player and vocalist (instruments he learned while in college).
Since then Mike has been has the privilege of recording and/ or performing with many wonderful musicians including Alpha Yaya Diallo, Lisa Brokop, Tracey Brown, Jim Byrnes, Patricia Conroy, Jim Cuddy, The Ennis Sisters, Farmer's Daughter, Tom Jackson, Colin James, Angela Kelman, LiveOnRelease, Beverley Mahood, The Moffatts, Bif Naked, Aaron Pritchett, Mike Reno, Duane Steele, Rick Tippe, Amanda Wilkinson and Michelle Wright to name only a few. He has appeared on over 100 album releases as well as many jingles and countless demos.
Ron Briggs:
One of the Canadian music industry's finest drummers, he devotes time to his craft by recording, teaching, touring and more recently, producing with Plan B Productions.
A disciplined, talented and versatile professional in a variety of music genres, Ron has performed with a number of well-known Canadian artists including Lisa Brokop, Farmer's Daughter, The Brent Lee Band, Gil Grand, John Landry, Steve Fox, Kenny Hess, Bobbi Smith, Ian Tyson and most recently, Aaron Pritchett to name a few. He has also studied with a variety of renowned drum teachers over the years, most notably Jim Chapin, Don Reid and Mickey Earnshaw.
Aside from all this, Ron has toured all over the world, possesses an extensive studio background and has given back to the local music community by serving as a Director on the BCCMA Board. He has performed at and/or been involved with the British Columbia Country Music Awards, the Canadian Country Music Awards, Project Discovery, and several key industry events and drum clinics.
A high-energy player and drum clinician, Ron continues to refine his craft and maintains a busy teaching, recording, gigging and music producing schedule.
Ron is endorsed by Pearl Drums, Sabian Cymbals and Vic Firth Drumsticks.
Mick Dalla-Vee:
Mick came out west fresh out of Bawating High School from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario with the band Shama.
Shama toured Western Canada and was managed by Bruce Allen (Bryan Adams , Martina McBride ) before disbanding. From that point he became the lead guitarist of TRAMA, managed by Sam Feldman (Joni Mitchell , Diana Krall , Elvis Costello , Norah Jones ) then on to playing mainly bass for the band PARADOX with Jeff Neill from Streetheart and Bernie Aubin from The Headpins.
Currently on the live scene, Mick keeps an extremely steady schedule playing guitar, bass and keyboards with his main band 'Cease and Desist ' and the new show “Atlantic Crossing ” where Mick performs as 'Sir Elton John' and is the bass player/vocalist with Canadian Rock Legend, Randy Bachman's Band. Randy’s recent foray in the jazz world with his new cds, ‘Jazz Thing ’ and 'Jazzthing 2' has also kept Mick on board playing the ‘upright bass’. In between all of this, he works as a solo artist and produces and engineers for many clients at Millennia Sound Design.
Independent Children’s Album of the year (Millennia Sound Design)
Independent Jazz Album of the year (Randy Bachman’s Jazz Thing)
Western Canadian Music Award Nominee (Lori Paul – Vanity Press)
Mick was awarded a 'Gold Record' for his vocal work on the Trooper album 'Last of the Gypsies'