Michale Graves

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Not to be confused with Michael Graves.

Michael Emmanuel (born March 21, 1975), better known by his stage name Michale Graves, is a singer/songwriter. He is most famous for singing for the late 1990s re-incarnation of The Misfits, from 1995 to 1998 and again from late 1998 until late 2000.

1 Career
2 Discography
3 External links

[edit] Career

Graves was recording a demo with his then band Mopes in Lodi, New Jersey, when the engineer Bob Alecca told him the Misfits were auditioning singers. He had never heard a Misfits song before, so he immediately bought the Collection I album to learn them.

New Misfits drummer Dr. Chud quickly took Mike under his wing and a friendship was formed that lasted years.

Mike's singing can be found on American Psycho, Famous Monsters, backup vocals on the 1999 single Monster Mash and Cuts from the Crypt. He also wrote original songs for the band, including "Dig Up Her Bones", "Saturday Night", "This Island Earth", "Fiend without a Face", "Shining", "The Haunting", "Witch Hunt", and "Fiend Club". He co-wrote many songs as well. During a break in touring in 2000 Michale and Dr. CHUD formed a band called The Lost Boys. They only played 2 shows before the Misfits regrouped to embark on another tour, which was their last together. The first Lost Boys show consisted of Michale Graves on an acoustic guitar and vocals while Dr. CHUD played drums. They played Misfits songs they had written while in the band as well as songs which later came to be songs used for the band Graves which Michale wrote. The second show was the same music played as the first show, only this time the lineup consisted of Michale Graves on vocals and electric guitar (he used Doyle's old Ibanez Iceman which has been used to record such Misfits albums as Walk Among Us and Earth A.D./Wolfsblood and was given to Michale as a gift upon joining the Misfits back in 1995), Dr. CHUD on drums and J~Sin Troxin on bass. Later on as an encore set, JV Bastard took the stage and joined the band to play guitar as Michale sang. The 4 played "classic" Misfits songs from the 1977 to 1983 era of the band.

After Michale and Dr. CHUD's split with the Misfits on October 25, 2000, they formed the band Graves which made one album called Web Of Dharma (drawing a parallel with the original Misfits singer Glenn Danzig, who disbanded the band to form Samhain, which later became Danzig). Before the band finished writing songs, recording, touring and even solidifying a lineup, Michale rejoined the Misfits, but only as a guest vocalist for a month during the M25 kickoff tour. He would perform Misfits songs written during the time of his tenure with the band to raise money for the his new project, Graves. After two successful U.S. tours and the verge of a breakout record contract, Graves dissolved due to differences between Graves and Chud. Michale then formed Gotham Rd shortly after with Loki, JV Bastard and Paul Lifeless. Under the assumed name of Graves they recorded a 5 song demo of redone Graves songs. 3 which were releasd on Web Of Dharma and 2 other songs which had been written and demoed with the original Graves lineup, but not officially released. After a few months they descided to change the band's name to Gotham Rd. They released one album before going on hiatus so Michale could join the U.S. Marines. His last show ever was to be on December 31, 2004. Right before his leave for the Marines he was approached by Horror High Records to do a solo album as his final goodbye to the music scene. Michale recorded his his debut solo record Punk Rock is Dead. He wrote and recorded the entire album with fellow friend and band mate in Gotham Road, Paul Lifeless on drums in only one month. The two also recorded the follow up to Web Of Dharma simply titled "Web of Dharma 2," which has no plans for official release as of yet. Along with this month long writing/recording session, Michale also laid down vocal tracks for the band Summer's End's debute self titled release. He wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals for the song "Headwound."

After being honorably discharged for hurting his back, Michale went to embark on a tour in support of his album Punk Rock is Dead. With Loki, JV Bastard and Matt Johnson. Most recently Michale wrote and sang on the album The All-Star Sessions made by all the bands which reside on the Roadrunner record label. His vocals can be found on the track "I Don't Wanna Be (A Superhero)".

In August of 2005, Michale's guitarist for both the Gotham Rd. and the Michale Graves solo project abruptly quit after a cancelled U.S. and UK tour, leaving Michale scrambling for a new guitarist. He is currently touring with J-sin Trioxin of Mister Monster. The touring lineup featured Graves, Trioxin, JV Bastard, and Matt Johnson on drums. During downtime and at home shows, Michale would sit in on bass for I Hate The Color of Your Skin (which had usually consisted of members of Gotham Rd/Graves solo band and crew).

In March of 2006, Michale began a tour in support of Damien Echols and the West Memphis Three. Matt Johnson was replaced with Quincy Smash, who has played bass guitar for one of Michale's bands, The Mopes, before the Misfits.

Michale Graves commented on one of his 2006 performances of Misfits material, "Jerry Only is a TERRIBLE singer, come and hear these classic songs sung correctly by a REAL singer". Concert footage circulating on MySpace video [1] shows Michale wearing a shirt that reads "Jerry Only Thinks You're Awesome!", and sarcastically dedicates "Descending Angel" from the Misfits' "Famous Monsters" album, to Only.

Graves is a vocal conservative and a founder of the Conservative Punk movement. He was featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for his involvement in the conservative punk scene. [2]

To coincide with the 2006 Halloween/Almost Home 2 tour, Michale's second solo effort titled "Return to Earth" will be released on Halloween day of 2006. On October 20th, the remainder of the Almost Home 2 tour was postponed due to his tour bus breaking down. A handful of post-Halloween dates in the Midwest were rescheduled, only for Graves to cancel again on the eve of the St. Paul, MN show on 11/27/06. [3]

Graves is writing an album with Echols as of now. the album will be short (from 7 to 10 songs) and be done unplugged. the lyrics are all written by Echols, and Graves shall be singing and playing the music. the album is expected in early to mid 2007.