Mike Lepond started playing the bass guitar at the age of 13.
There are certainly many paths to a career as a professional musician, but Mike seems to be doing it exceptionally well, as he made a name for himself, gained the respect of the entire music industry and established himself as a front-man without being a vocalist. I had the pleasure of having a quick chat with him. I was originally planning on doing my short and sweet 5 Qs interview but you know me…if things get too interesting I will go with the flow.
Without further ado, I present you 5 +1 questions with Mike Lepond:
How difficult is it to have a solo career as a bass guitarist?
It’s definitely a big challenge! It’s difficult to have a career as a guitarist let along a bass guitarist. The bass players are not usually known too much, it’s usually the singer like you said. But I had all these songs that I wanted to get out there and I wanted to share with my fans. And even though I am the bass player for Symphony X, I love classic heavy metal, and I wanted to put that out there to my fans so that they know where my inspirations come from in my life.
What’s your definition of success as a musician?
I guess my definition is just to be able to get a record out to the word and have people listen to it, I don’t have to be a millionaire, I don’t have to rich I just want my music and the stuff I write to get out to the people and that to me is the best reward and the best kind of success.
Do you have a personal slogan or a set of words you live by?
Let’s see… I just try to do the best I can in life and go to bed with no regrets and that has pretty much worked out for me in life.
How different is the job you have today from what you dreamed of doing as a kid?
Well, when you have that dream the one thing that you don’t realize is that there’s also the business side of things. It’s a business. When you are a kid and you go to concerts and you decide that this is what you want to do in life you don’t see all the stuff that’s going on behind the scenes, you just see the glamorous things. But then you realize that there are record labels and there is management and booking agents and there are not always the best people in the world. They might not always have your best interest at heart, so you learn and when you finally get to the professional side of the music business you just learn and you try to deal with it. But if someone gave me the chance to do it all over again and pick again I would still pick music. It’s a dream that came true and U never thought I would have achieved all these when I was younger I never thought I could do it. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and it just happened.
This question was not planned but since you mentioned all these trust issues in the music industry I have to ask. How do you know who to trust and how do you build a team that you know they have your back?
Well, it just from experience. No one really teaches you how to deal with the people in the music industry. You know, you write songs with your band, and then you get contacted by a record company and you get signed. At first, you will get taken advantage of. And I am no different. I got taken advantage of in the beginning, but I’ve learned from it and then after many years, you can just tell when someone is not being real, or being deceptive. It really comes with the experience.
So what’s new with you? What are you currently working on?
My solo project, Mike Lepond’s Silent Assassins is coming out June 26th 2020, and it’s a brand new album and I hope everybody will check it out. It’s a classic heavy metal album with some folk elements thrown in there, I hope you’ll like it! Other than that we’re just waiting for things to get better.
Until the next one,
Chelf
