Michael & The Pentecost

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Roberts and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Q: Hi Michael, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
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A: I don’t feel as though I pursued an artistic career as much as it pursued me. I was heavily involved in music going back to grammar school. I always had an inclination towards art in general, but music felt natural, and as I grew, it grew with me.

Q: Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
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A: For me, songwriting is everything. Regardless of genre, skill level, production quality, etc, if a song is good enough, it will shine through. I don’t consider myself “successful” by any measure, but I do take a tremendous amount of pride in someone complementarily acknowledging one of my songs. It’s an art unto itself. I like to think of songwriting as the meeting place of multiple other mediums, poetry, storytelling, musicianship, imagery, and mood, all woven together, and it’s anything but easy. Most songwriters will tell you, and it’s very true, for every good one you write, you’ve already thrown away fifty others. I tend to treat it as a practiced craft, no different than carpentry or any other trade. I realize that sounds kind of sanctimonious, but I truly believe songwriting is sacred and I try to make that the heart of everything I put out.

Q: Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
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A: Well for me vacations and relaxing tend to revolve around having good food at a comfortable spot, so my go-to’s are Two Hippies on 7th street and the Dirty Drummer on 44th street. Beyond that, I’d probably spend some time at South Mountain and take a couple of trips up north and down south (Flagstaff, Prescott, Pine, Tuscon, Bisbee, Tombstone).

Q: The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
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A: Learning to play music, I never had any interest in virtuosity. All I ever wanted was to be a good songwriter. To that point, reading “Bound For Glory” by Woody Guthrie was fairly transformative. It didn’t speak as much to the artistic process or career-building, but really laid out a road map towards living a good and fulfilling life. - Shoutout Arizona

This Phoenix 3-piece released a new 4-track EP back in June which includes this noir gem, “The Ballad of Lonesome George”. Yep, according to the band, Lonesome George was a real person with a less than stellar run in this world, but his life did inspire this brooding Americana ballad so that’s something. If you dig the dusty alt-folk of Michael & The Pentecost on “The Ballad of Lonesome George”, make sure you delve into the band’s latest EP, American Legion, which is available through Bandcamp. - Yab Yum (Music + Arts)