Mike Viola

Mike Viola

Michael "Mike" Viola (born September 26, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter best known as singer, songwriter and "musical architect" of a team he called the "Candy Butchers", a pop-rock band from New York City that recorded three critically acclaimed albums for Sony. A native of Stoughton, Massachusetts, Mike began his musical career in the 1980s. No recordings of his earliest musical work, however, were known to have been officially released as of September 2009.

The success of the Candy Butchers in the 1990s led to multiple appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly. It also found the group touring alongside the likes of Ron Sexsmith, They Might Be Giants, Robyn Hitchcock, Semisonic, Sparklehorse, Barenaked Ladies, and Ivy.

Viola simultaneously began a career in film work as the co-producer and lead singer of the Oscar-nominated title track from Tom Hanks's That Thing You Do!. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, a film collaboration between Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow that starred John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox, featured nearly a dozen songs written by Viola.

Viola joined the ranks of "indie," or independent-record-label artists in 2005 when he released an album of new songs on his own label, Good Morning Monkey Records. Recorded live at Largo in L.A., Just Before Dark showcased Viola's abilities as a live performer. Once made available on his official website, the album, released as a long-playing vinyl album with a CD copy included, sold out in three months.

His album, Lurch, employed classic pop elements, and incorporated storybook imagery, such as Viola’s fans had come to expect by this time in his career. Lurch was also released internationally, with such selections as “Maybe, Maybe Not” (the first selection on the album) and “So Much Better” (the first single Viola released from the album) receiving radio airplay in Denmark. "So Much Better" was a Danish chart selection.

After signing a contract with EMI Music Publishing for worldwide distribution of his own material, Viola remained a songwriter and/or producer on a multitude of projects. His work could be heard on Amanda Leigh, the most recent of Mandy Moore's albums as of September 2009. In addition to being Moore's musical director, Viola has collaborated with Dan Wilson, Inara George, Tim Christensen, Dan Bern, Steve McEwan, Kelly Jones, Ryan Adams, Drake Bell, Bleu, Adam Schlesinger, John C. Reilly, Mary Wood, Sam Bisbee, The Gentlemen, John Wesley Harding, Ben Romans, and Noam Weinstein during this period.

He has taken part in a compilation album released on November 15, 2011 by Engine Room Recordings. On the album Mike covers Round and Round by Ratt.

In 2012 Viola recorded a version of Andrew Gold's "Lonely Boy" for a fund raising cd titled "Super Hits Of The Seventies" for radio station WFMU. He also recorded a cover of The Silver Beatles' version of Ain't She Sweet for the pilot of TV show Bunheads.