"No, you can't play the drums."
"In the summer before grade 4 I was given the choice of which instrument I wanted to start learning in school band class. I picked the drums because they're loud and cool, obviously.
My mother disapproved, I protested, so she gave me to the count of five to decide or else she was going to pick the instrument.
So I’ve been playing saxophone since the age of 10 now, and it’s pretty cool I guess."
Described as a "compositional tour de force” by Discorder Magazine, “fresh, infectiously rhythmic and warming” by Vancouver Classical Music, and “loud and weird” by his friends, Mike WT Allen has been stubbornly forging his own pathway through the Vancouver music scene since graduating in 2014 with a degree in composition from Capilano University’s jazz program where he studied with the likes of John Korsrud, Bradshaw Pack, Brad Turner, and Lisa Miller.
Mike has had compositions of his performed, debuted, or commissioned by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Redshift Music, The Hard Rubber Orchestra, Ecstatic Waves, The Mackenzie Jones Big Band, Ontario's Royal Military College concert band, as well as an international debuts and performances by Lara Neuss (Colorado, US) and Jerk In The Can (2016/17 European tour)
In addition to his work as a “serious composer”, Mike performs with a number of his own groups and other artists around Vancouver such as Five Alarm Funk, History of Gunpowder, Balkan Shmalkan, and many many others, performing headlining spots at festivals, touring internationally, performing and recording across a vast range of styles from noise music to party funk to romantic clarinet ballads.
Mike also leads the 20 piece jazz-metal experimental big band Space Elevator which has been described as “...one of the most awe-inspiring demonstrations of musical prowess that I have ever experienced” by Discorder Magazine and “...a showcase for some of the best musicians Vancouver has to offer, [and] an exhibit of Allen's compositional genius.” by the Capilano Courier.
If you'd like to know more about things that he does, email mike.w.t.allen@gmail.com or just go talk to him at his next gig, he's the one with colourful hair and he's unusually friendly.
Love, Mike