What happened?

2020 seemed like an awakening for me. As many artists were and are suffering due to loss of live gigs, my situation was different. I had actually stopped playing live gigs because I was too busy with my day job, my teaching job, private lessons, marching band, and my composition and recording projects. Therefore, once some of those things like private lessons and marching band essentially went away, I had more time for my creative output.

Let me try to summarize 2020, but inevitably I will leave things out. The first big thing was being named a Marimba One Educator Artist! Wow, what a dream come true. I had been thinking about applying for this for many years and never took action. I never had the confidence. I went for it. It happened! Am I starting to dream? ;). (here is the artist bio on their website!

https://www.marimbaone.com/community/marimbaoneartists/mike-neumeyer

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7KWzZinWus/

Memories of… (commission)

So, the year started with that initial MEGA MARIMBA MOTIVATIONAL boost! Right away, I am moving on to the commission I wrote for Chandler White this year. Memories of…  was commissioned by Chandler White in memory of his mother Kelly White.  While I was very inspired, I was also afraid of this task, but my father passing away recently helped me relate to Chandler and we worked together to make a beautiful dedication piece that anyone can use or play to think of their own loved one playing vibraphone in the next life.   (full story over on product page)

Modern Marimba

The next thing I think of is when I was then invited to be interviewed on Modern Marimba! Here I am thinking, why me? There’s that confidence thing. Little did I know, Tihda loved my works and my style! She played “Feels,” live on IG and we had a GREAT time! This will always stay in my memories as a special moment. Check out Modern Marimba! It is a wonderful all inclusive community.

Guest Appearances

Well, once COVID isolation started, the guest appearances started happening on albums. Some are still in preparation actually, but one in particular was release during 2020 with a great sounding band called “Conundrum.” This is so excellent and what an honor to be able to have a vibraphone solo featured! Check it out!

Desperate Housegeek

Another interview that happened was on Desperate Housegeek, where I was asked about my whole adventure to where I am today. This was so cool and made me feel like another step in the career had been taken. Check out this awesome write up!

GoPro Sessions

I’m probably already skipping a bunch of things, like right now I think of saying goodbye to seniors that I had worked with. I remember getting a PHYSICAL letter from one specific student, Kian. I think this spoke so much to that students character and maturity that it hit deeply. I think that is something we have lost over the years with our youth, but Kian, thank you for that letter. It remains in my inspiration folder to remind me that there are awesome people in the world.

I had heard about twitch from students that I teach and started watching my good friend DJ NARC on his twitch channel. This is a gaming and DJ channel, sometimes music, sometimes video games. He encouraged me as well to start my own channel and since then he has played my music on his stream for intro/outro/commercials and I have used his video game footage in some video game covers I did!

https://www.twitch.tv/djnarc

So, I started my twitch channel and started this series called “GoPro Sessions.”

https://www.twitch.tv/neummusic

I just set up two GoPro Cameras, and go to town on the marimba and vibraphone for 20-30 minutes, then edit the videos and post them on YouTube!

GoPro Camera Link:

https://www.pntra.com/t/TUJGR0pHR0JHR05NR0ZCR0dFRUdK

Summer

Summer brought on the community that was always there, but we have always been so busy. Now, all of us passionate musicians have been meeting for conferences, social gatherings, and podcasts or streaming shows! Check out my blog from August that talks about how that developed with Malletlab, vibesworkshop.com, and Sharing Music!

https://mikeneumeyer.com/neu-news/

Sharing Music

And then that does bring me to Sharing Music, which I co-hosted with Gabriel Galvis, innovative percussion artist from Bogota, Colombia. This was an amazing experience that we plan to continue starting in February. We each invite a friend and sometimes guest artists (new friends) and we all just play and share live music! Jokes are made, friends are made, and music is made. All kinds of styles and uses of percussion, vibraphone, marimba, guitar, saxophone… let’s see where this goes! 🙂

We invited artists: Felipe Rey, Thomas Mackay, Juan David Forero, Jerry Tachoir, Diana Melo, Rossana Bribo, Juan David Rey, Jordan Kamps, Maria La Marimbera, Kana Omori, Julian Rulo, Tihda Vongkoth, Miguel Cruz Mestanza, Chase Jackson, Alejandro Castillo Lopez, Juan David Rey, Santi Esteban Saurez, Dan McCarthy, Olivia Kieffer, Angela Tapiero, Anthony DiBartolo, Fede Cardona, Jake Chapman, Raffa Ochoa, Patricia Ann Islas, Linalab, Rosie Cerquone, Laura Danielle Clavijo, Keeghan Fountain, Henry Quitora, Karen Tatiana Bravo, Hauke Renken, Andres Florez, Clayton Stroup, Virginia Alcarria, Jose Martinez, Caelum Chester, Palo E’ Rosa, Jen Martinez-Bre, Pauline Roberts, Steph Davis, and Matt DiBiase (PlexusPlay). Finally, Heinzel Kunsmann and his kids joined me for a Christmas episode! WOW!!!

As you can see, it has been a great growing community of Sharing Music and I hope it only grows more!

Marimba Maverick

It finally came out! Wow, has it been fun presenting the video footage and having people enjoy some of this music. It has been used as background music for Wisconsin Music Ventures and also I had some music used by Marimba One! It was played on the radio twice, and possibly more times! It has been used for church services! I look forward to making more music that has a commercial use beyond the intended academic use!

Wisconsin Music Ventures Podcast Theme Song

WOW! I submitted my tune for consideration to be the theme song for a new podcast put on by Wisconsin Music Ventures called “The Musician’s Venture.” And it was selected! Now, you hear a bit of a song called “June” as the opener of the podcast. What an honor to be picked and my mother and I always talked about how that might work well in a theme song scenario. Here I am folks, I love writing jingles and hooks. Hire me hire me!! lol :). I do hope to contribute more to the music industry through licensing and having music for film or music for commercials. Jingles, melodies, and catchy hooks might just come out of me more!

Another cool thing we have done is I’ve appeared on Wisconsin Music Venture’s Sunday Brunch Zoom Hang and we designed an virtual assembly and have had a successful music assembly where we presented to over 45 classrooms at once for the Port Washington-Saukville School district with the help of founder and moderator Alison Em! Check out WMV here:

Marimba and Voice, New Songs and Videos

After, or really during Marimba Maverick promotion, I was bit by an INTENSE creative bug! I had a realization that I should be using my training in singing again. I had written for marimba and voice, so I played some of these on Sharing Music.

Then, one day, I just wrote a song after one of our episodes. The delay was on, and I wanted to keep playing this groove I heard. Do I write songs? Lyrics? OF COURSE! I’ve done it before, and now I have stories and motivations to tell them. I also started on a spree of video game transcriptions as well. Here are two examples, but my YouTube channel is really full of a huge spurt of projects. Santa even played in one of my videos!

This also evolved into making many more videos that I will be releasing in the upcoming months. Here is a video teaser of what is coming…

Believe me, there were definitely other things that happened and the last year feels like two years of development and community building. Thank you reading, your support, and I’ll see you soon!

Mike