User talk:Sountrax

Musical History - Mike Hounshell

Mike started playing bass guitar professionally at age 15 in 1975. After five days of playing bass and practicing with a cover band, the guys in his first band invited two guys from one of the other bands in the area to evaluate his playing. So that night the guitar player and drummer from the other band showed up at his parent's house. The drummer happened to be none other than a young undiscovered Steve Whiteman, who became the lead singer of the legendary band "Kix". They said Hounshell played too many wrong notes. He went on to play that gig and many many more.

During his senior year in high school He was selected for the Maryland 1978 All-State Chorus. He graduated from high school with the "Outstanding Music Student Award" and an accompanying music scholarship($25).

While attending Frostburg State University He majored in music. There He played bass in the jazz ensemble, trombone in the marching band, and performed in many vocal ensembles. He engineered and was an artist on both student talent association albums, "Beleive It", and "Plateu".

In 1981 He released a solo album, "Sometime, Somewhere". The single he put out was featured in the regular rotation on some FM radio stations. The album received generous airplay. Since the digital age, it has been made available for download in a bit torrent on many web sites by fans of the record. The vinyl album is now a rare collectible.

In 1984 Hounshell's band "Ten Below" made it to the final's of "DC101's Battle of the Bands". Out of hundreds of entries they were selected to compete in one of four of the semi final competitions at the Bayou (long gone now) in DC. they won their semi final round. they then went on to the finals to compete with 3 other bands at the Sylvan Theater in front of the Washington Monument in front of a crowd of 20 thousand people. Ten Below came in fourth in the contest out of over 250 original entries.

He spent the rest of the 1980's playing bass in various bands and getting to open for some national acts (Henry Lee Summer- CBS Records), and international acts at the Bayou in DC and doing studio work for other bands. He also received several Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contests awards.

In 1991 He joined a progressive rock band "Cathedral"(a registered U.S. Trademark 1991). This band is not to be confused with the Death Metal band from the U.K. by the same name. Cathedral entered a song in Musician Magazine's 4th "Best Unsigned Band Contest". Cathedral made it to the finals and had their band name listed in the magazine for being in the top 100 best unsigned bands. Cathedral opened for "Dream Theater" at the Bayou and was booked by "Cellar Door Productions" around the DC area. Later that year they signed a recording contract with Kinesis, a progressive rock label. their first CD, "Kingdom of Ends" was the first original CD the Kinesis label ever released. It was well received in the progressive rock world. After Cathedral released their second CD, "There in the Shadows" on Kinesis in 1993, the band split up. A few of the band members formed a group called "Hip Omelette" that recorded and gigged around DC, Maryland, and Virginia until 1995.

Hounshell recorded some original material by mainly concentrated on producing and engineering other bands material for the rest of 1990's. Ironically, Mike ended up mixing a post "Kix" Steve Whiteman demo.

In 1997 Hounshell recorded bass during a session at Sountrax with Roger Fisher, legendary guitarist of the band Heart. Mike engineered and produced the doom epic "Review Your Choices" CD with Joe Hasslevander and Bobby Leibling of Pentagram in 1999.

Cathedral released a remastered version of their first CD. "Kingdom of Ends 2012 Remaster" was released commercially in July of 2012.

In 2012 Hounshell joined the band "Ad Infinitum". Hounshell is recording bass with Todd Braverman and Ad Infinitum for the new "Ad Infinitum 2" CD.

In 2013 He began releasing some of his new solo material in the online digital music stores. A new album release is planned for the fall.