Michael Behm

 To call Michael Behm a music industry renaissance man is actually something of an understatement. As an artist, he’s equally comfortable working under the spotlight or behind the scenes or in a studio, while he has found significant success as an entrepreneur in many different facets of the music business.

Twelve years of touring through North America have established Behm as a compelling live performer. To a rapidly growing number of fans around the globe, he is best known as a singer/songwriter of real melodic and lyrical intelligence. His versatile take on pop-rock has been showcased on seven albums, including 2008’s acclaimed Saving America.

Through 2009, Behm has released a series of meticulously-crafted singles that have generated serious traffic on internet radio stations and music websites. Total plays of Behm tunes on numberonemusic.com now stand at 1.6 million, while 12 songs on the popular Jango site have notched 270,000 plays. Such singles as “If I Could Learn To Fly”, “Love’s Like Numbers,” and now “Where I Belong” have topped charts in Australia and Canada on such sites as mp3.au.com and Reverb Nation.

As a music business entrepreneur, Behm’s credentials are equally solid. He formed a sound company “Premier Productions” in the 1990s that provided live sound and lighting to 22 music clubs in Canada. He owned five successful live venues / clubs, including three in the Caribbean, and he still owns and operates popular Vancouver Island music club, Voodoo Lounge. He has promoted over 100 concerts, including such major-name acts as Nazareth, Nickelback and Default.

Behm’s first recording studio, Premier Studios, located in Vancouver, hosted recording artists from the U.S., U.K., and Europe, Australia and Japan while his current home studio, right on the ocean in Qualicum, British Columbia, is recognized as a true state of the art facility. Michael also is home at top-notch Vancouver studios The Warehouse, Mushroom, The Armoury, and, working closely with such highly-regarded engineers as Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica), Mike Puskas, Delwyn Brooks, Brian Gardner and Ray Harvey.

On the songwriting front, Behm’s talent has been recognized by songwriting guru Ralph Murphy (Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Cliff Richards). A recent Murphy-Behm co-write, the gently pensive pop song “Where I Belong,” has quickly become a fan favourite. Behm and veteran songsmith Ron Irving recently collaborated on “It’s My Time,” a track that is now on hold with American Idol.

Michael Behm’s versatility as a songwriter, producer has certainly brought him attention in the world of music publishing. He has published 15 songs in the last two years alone, and highly notable movie and TV sync placements are coming his way each day. Thanks to a collaboration with affiliates in the U.S. and Australia, a Behm track, ‘Living In The Moment,” will be featured in upcoming Disney feature A Fairy Tale. He was also recently commissioned to provide four songs for the soundtrack to a film biography of AC/DC singer Bon Scott.

“The instrumental aspects of those tracks have already been licensed to several U.S. network’s,” Behm reports. “Once you create something that’s great and that encapsulates a certain genre, there will always be a use for it. My music is available in many different platforms. The advantage I have is that I can quickly come up with music for any application. I can create it myself or commission it from other producers-that I work with.”

Behm has expanded his reach for 2010, developing and producing international artists, “Chaps”, and “Dead Eyes Open”.  Behm says, “I have been producing this amazing U.K. country band called “Chaps”. We just signed two songs “One Straight Road” and “Pensacola” to a list Publisher Rex Benson to be pitched to Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts. The songs were picked from 2600 song submissions validating Behm’s production team and his hard work.

Michael Behm just returned from midem and is a frequent panelist at music industry conferences and seminars, continually expanding and refining his diverse skills and worldwide contacts.