Micah Walk, a native of Girard, plays acoustic
guitar, and writes and sings songs. He recently graduated from the
University of Illinois in Springfield, as a communications major
(“I’m just trying to get a degree, make my dad happy,
and get the heck out”). The 23-year-old musician answered
some questions via e-mail last week.
Influences: When
I was in junior high and in early high school I was into that whole
grunge scene and I wanted to rock. Then, during my junior year in high school, I
bought my first acoustic guitar and I fell in love with the
acoustic tone, the portability, etc. That pretty much became all I
played.
CDs: I have two
recordings almost ready. One is full length with a band on all but
one track and the other is a five-song solo disc. The next CD is
pretty much written and I plan on recording it with the new band
(see www.micahwalk.com).
Meeting the guys of Public Display of Funk: Darin [Holthaus, the drummer] got a job at Samuel
Music, where I’ve worked for about four-and-one-half years.
Eventually he asked if I’d want to start a band. He knew a
good bass player from Champaign [Dan Hartman] and asked his guitar player from PDF if
he was interested. We rehearsed a few times and it sounded really good
right away.
11 West weekly Tuesday night show: I got that from playing open mics. Jim [Wavering,
owner 11 West] stopped me as I was walking into Floyd’s one
night and asked if I would be interested in doing it, and so we
did.
Church gigs: The
originals I wrote seemed to not really have a place there. I still
play at church on Sunday mornings but I just sit back and strum
some chords, you know.
Heading out of town to play: Mid-June I’m taking off for Chicago, Michigan,
Ohio, and Indiana. Then I’m heading south in early- mid-July
to Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and St. Louis.
Dream come true: I don’t really have a dream for life, to be honest. Or maybe
I do and don’t realize it. I guess I’d like to just be
able to live and do what makes me happy, but I know that sounds
incredibly cliche.
Micah Walk and band perform Friday, May 13 at Mojo’s (225 E. Monroe St.) from 10 p.m.
to 2 a.m. Eric Welch opens the show at 8 p.m.
This article appears in May 12-18, 2005.
