+ Romeo Spike Bio +
Brought together through mutual friends in 2006, Mike Kunz (then living in Chicago) and Donn Aaron (Atlanta) began with a weekly songwriting challenge designed to trigger each other’s creativity. Each Saturday night they emailed each other a new song, staying up late into the night reworking them over the phone. The band materialized almost by accident as the pair quickly realized their chemistry had a life of it’s own. They soon ditched the song-writing competition, and drawing on their diverse influences ranging from Elton John to Daniel Lanois, and Steely Dan to Radiohead, began work on the full-length album “For the Cause.”
A majority of the record was recorded partially in Chicago and partially in Atlanta as the two sent tracks back and forth across the internet. After several short trips South during the recording of the album, Kunz moved to Atlanta to make Romeo Spike a full-time realization. During production of “For the Cause,” the pair caught the attention of Grammy award winner, and long-time Elton John mix engineer/producer Matt Still who produced, mixed and provided back-up vocals on almost half the album.
Romeo Spike’s refined rock is led by Kunz’s vocals and Rhodes electric piano, and Aaron’s atomic guitar and pedal steel (which has been described as “playing lightning”). Will Brown (former F’n Heartbreaks) is from Milledgeville, GA and is the machine of Romeo Spike on drums. The band line-up solidified in mid 2009 with the addition of Skyler Ross from Atlanta as bassist/vocal harmony. In addition, a main strength of the band is found in the accomplished guitarmanship of both Kunz and Aaron. As a teen, Aaron was featured in both “Guitar Player” and “Guitar World” magazines. In 1991, he was the lead guitarist and co-songwriter for the group “Mary My Hope”. He recorded guitar with Ludacris on a track that was featured in the Martin Lawrence motion picture “National Security.” In November 2005, Aaron’s solo album “Unfinished Symphonies” was chosen by Performing Songwriter magazine as one of their “Top 12 Independent DIY Releases.” Aaron’s role in the mastering side of music production in the last several years has allowed him to work with over 10,000 records with hundreds reaching multi-platinum, platinum or gold sales awards from the RIAA.
No matter how slick and finessed their productions can become, “It’s all about the song,” Kunz says. “Songwriting is this weird form of magic where if you happen to be in the right head-space, you just have to play one note and listen for all the music that is already there.” Aaron describes his approach to songwriting as an exploration in complete mystery: “I liken it to Tarot Card reading, or playing with a Ouija Board. I find this whole thing to be a fragile mystery, and I leave it at that.”
