User:Panic!AtTheComputer/sandbox

Mike Carden, born in 1984, is an American talent manager and musician. He is known for his work with the (now defunct) Chicago-based band The Academy Is..., who were signed to Atlantic Records/Fueled by Ramen. Carden played guitar and was a vocalist for the band.

Work with The Academy Is...
In 2002, Carden and William Beckett came together from rival bands to form The Academy Is... In addition to founding the band, Carden and Beckett are credited as the primary songwriters.

Beyond driving the creative vision of The Academy Is, and with a knack for the music industry, Carden was also entrusted with the band’s business responsibilities. Though shying away from the spotlight, Carden worked closely behind-the-scenes with John Janick from Atlantic Records and Jonathan Daniel from Crush Management to help the band sell more than 250,000 records of its independently-released, debut album Almost Here.

After The Academy Is...
After nine years of touring and three studio albums, The Academy Is… disbanded. Carden then went on to study accounting and finance. Shortly thereafter, he was recruited to head up Business Development at Jared Leto’s tech start-up, VyRT.

On November of 2015, Carden’s new business partner Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship) announced on Beats1 Radio that in 2016, he and Carden were starting a new talent management & development company, The Artist Group.