About Ellis Michaels
Music
Ellis Michaels is a singer/songwriter (not to mention one funky guitarist) who grew up a little south of Boston. Though his solo career only began in 2022, Ellis has been playing music for decades.
His parents, both in the military when he was born, wanted their firstborn son to be a well-rounded, all-American boy. So they signed him up for several sports, church groups and, at the age of seven, classical piano lessons.
“I hated it,” recalls Ellis. “But I loved it, too. Loved the piano but hated being forced to practice – at the time. Now I couldn’t be more thankful my parents made me. It really gave me a solid musical foundation to build upon.”
Ellis’ formal musical education didn’t stop with the piano. After a few years, he switched to drum lessons, playing snare drum in his high-school marching band. Then, at the age of 13, Ellis borrowed a beat-up acoustic guitar from a friend and taught himself to play. A year later, he convinced his parents to get him a used electric guitar for his birthday.
“I loved that cheap piece of shit. I was obsessed. I’d practice for hours everyday, often skipping school to do so, sometimes until my fingers bled.”
During his senior year of high school, Ellis joined his first band. They were mostly a garage band, but played a handful of shows around New England. A year later, he joined an established, nationally touring band that’d just been signed to a NYC label. Two weeks later, Ellis joined them on what would be the first of several nationwide tours.
“It was awesome. I got to meet and open for tons of bands I’d been a huge fan of. I loved playing music every night, traveling, and so much more. But it wasn’t all good. As time went on, the more I got to see the shady side of the music business. It was so shady, in fact, that I eventually quit the band and decided to stay as far away from the music industry as possible.”
And that’s exactly what Ellis did. He worked his way through college as an EMT, then got a job working in the mental-health field for the next 15 years. His love of music never wavered and Ellis continued playing and listening daily. He even gave hundreds of hours of guitar lessons for free. But Ellis didn’t consider pursuing music professionally until this past year.
“Music had always been my first and greatest love. But I didn’t want to make it my job because of how much I hated the music industry. That industry has changed dramatically since my band days, though. Nowadays, you can have a successful music career without having to deal with soul-sucking record-label execs, wishy-washy A&Rs, and other scumbags the industry attracts. With the internet, you can literally become a rock star without leaving your house.”
At the end of 2021, Ellis did something he’d always wanted to: write and record a full-length album. It was released on all streaming platforms in February of 2022 with the title Subliminal Assassin.
“The plan was to take a month off from life, write and record the album, then go back to what I’d been doing (writing books). But I loved the process so much [more than writing books] that it made me reconsider how I felt about pursuing a music career. Ultimately, I decided I was going to go for it and give it my all.”
And that’s exactly what Ellis Michaels is doing. His days are spent writing, recording, and performing. Though his taste in music includes everything from classical to gangsta rap, hardcore punk to folk rock, and everything in between, Ellis’ own music combines elements of several genres into what could best be described as indie (or alternative) rock. He plans to continue writing and recording new music for years to come.
Personal Life
When Ellis isn’t doing something music related, he enjoys spending time with his son, going to the beach, spending time with friends and family, being out in nature, reading, and writing.
Ellis has also been living with a rare autoimmune/autoinflammatory illness called Behcet’s disease (aka Behcet’s syndrome). Diagnosed at the age of 16, the illness has cause multiple blood clots, hearing loss, partial blindness, and many other serious symptoms over the past several decades. But since his teens, Ellis has been determined to live his life to the fullest in spite of everything the disease throws at him.
In 2020, a memoir was published about Ellis Michaels’ journey living with this rare condition. It’s called Finding Happiness Through Pain and Embarrassment: My Life With Behcet’s Disease – A Memoir and can be found wherever books are sold in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audiobook formats.
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