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Mike Mettler

Mike Mettler

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Mike Mettler is the music editor of Sound & Vision, where he also served as editor-in-chief for 7 years. His writing has appeared in Guitar Player, Palm Springs Life, Car Stereo Review, Technology Tell, and UniVibes (a Jimi Hendrix quarterly published in Italy). He also interviews artists and producers about their love of music and high-resolution audio on his own site, The SoundBard (www.soundbard.com), and champions the merits of high-resolution audio as the chief content officer of Hi Res Audio Central (www.hiresaudiocentral.com). In his alleged spare time, he dreams of owning a fastback 1967 Mustang.

james mercer the shins pointing

Embracing the ’80s and flipping the script with The Shins frontman James Mercer

The Shins completely reworked all eleven songs on their 2017 album, Heartworms, for The Worm’s Heart, and band mastermind James Mercer thinks the Flipped versions are better overall.
Music Features
starsailor press

Naked but never nihilistic, Starsailor charts a course for indie soul

Starsailor’s fifth album, All This Life, connects all the right sonic dots, ensuring each of its 11 songs convey all the honest emotions soulful singers must share in order to reach their audience.
Music Features
nick heyward

How new wave legend Nick Heyward transformed his musical doodles into songs

Stalwart singer/songwriter Nick Heyward discusses how he turned his “musical doodles” into full songs, and why editing is crucial to the creative process.
Music Features
Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold is down with Beach Boys covers, but not with going to Mars

M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold tells us how to know when certain songs are the right ones to cover, and the key differences between being an opening act and a headliner.
Music Features
joss stone light pattern

Joss Stone tossed the script (and recorded her dogs) for ‘Project Mama Earth’

Singer Joss Stone and her four collaborators improvised some exciting new music around a pair of Cameroonian rhythms, Mangambe and Bikutsi.
Music Features
slowdive neil halstead orange light

Pop a cork and sit down. For Slowdive, vinyl is all about the ceremony

Slowdive pioneered the sound of turning up the distortion, blaring the feedback, and distorting vocals beyond recognition, and bands like Beach House have taken this post-rock vibe to the next level.
Music Features
Silverplanes filter

Silverplanes jet into the ‘Gulfstream’ of modern listening, one EP at a time

Silverplanes’ Aaron Smart on modern audiences wanting to consume music, working with legends, and the differences between digital and analog.
Music Features
Barenaked Ladies ed robertson tyler stewart jump

Barenaked Ladies cut loose and show it all with ‘Fake Nudes’

Rather than get themselves worked up into a hot, dense state of indecision, the four main men of Barenaked Ladies decided to once again work with producer Gavin Brown on their new LP, Fake Nudes.
Music Features
The Bloody Beetroots Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo dj

For the Bloody Beetroots, sometimes building bridges means tearing down songs

Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo of The Bloody Beetroots is the ripped masked DJ who lays down some of the sickest beats around while also performing a punishing, physically demanding live set.
Music Features
audiophile cut chemist

How deep is your crate?’ DJ Cut Chemist digs down on ‘Die Cut’

Cut Chemist resides among today’s top turntablists, who have forged their own identities via the sound and vibe from the records they spin, mix, sample, and create.
Music Features
cheetah chrome dead boys now grimace

As loud and snotty as ever, the Dead Boys are keeping punk alive

Punk icons the Dead Boys defined the genre’s look, sound, and attitude -- and they’re still at it four decades later
Music Features
the audiophile lee ranaldo violin guitar

From early Macs to vinyl, Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo digs his tech relics

Lee Ranaldo and Sonic Youth took open guitar tunings and off-kilter rhythms and timbres to their absolute limits like no other experimental no-wave alt-rock bands had ever done before.
Music Features
Gord Downie suit

Friends, admirers, and collaborators remember Canadian rock legend Gord Downie

Gord Downie leaves behind a recorded legacy with The Tragically Hip that is based in the grit and groove of the finest rock has to offer, along with his beyond-vivid songwriting.
Music Features
Dhani Harrison guitar

His father did it with sitar, but Dhani Harrison proves EDM can heal, too

An EDM-tinged aura that expands on his film and TV compositional work permeates all throughout Dhani Harrison’s first full-fledged solo album, IN///PARALLEL.
Music Features
GREG NICOTERO & ANDREW LINCOLN & LENNIE JAMES & TOM PAYNE AT TWD PRESS CONFERENCE

Rick Grimes and team ready to wage ‘all-out war’ in ‘The Walking Dead’ season 8

The Walking Dead’s next big arc finds Rick Grimes' group and other factions joining forces to finally strike back against Negan.
Entertainment Features
Tom Petty bw coat

Remembering Tom Petty with an unreleased interview on gear, recording, his legacy

The late Tom Petty discussed the sound he was going after in the studio, what makes for a good engineer, and what his vision of The Heartbreakers’ future was.
Music Features
Neil Finn drama shot

Ever wonder how an album is made? Neil Finn live-streamed the process

Out of Silence shows Neil Finn in the moment as a live-streaming music creator, and he plans to continue to utilize the platform to launch new music.
Music Features
Kaki King acoustic

Backed by an orchestra, Kaki King shape shifts yet again on ‘Live at Berklee’

Avant-guitarist Kaki King discusses the philosophy behind Live at Berklee, how to bring classical performance and composition into the modern era.
Music Features
Deer Tick logo

Deer Tick returns from hiatus with a double-barreled dual album release

Deer Tick is stronger than ever, as evidenced in their two new albums. Acoustic songwriting dominates Vol. 1 and punk-like abandon thunders forth on Vol. 2.
Music Features
audiophile living colour vernon reid 2017 photo by karsten steiger

Furious times call for furious songs on ‘Shade,’ Living Colour’s righteous return

Living Colour’s new genre-defying album Shade examines a constant dialogue about what it’s like being an American in today’s topsy-turvy modern times.
Music Features
Michael Cudlitz living dead

Interview with ‘Walking Dead’ star Michael Cudlitz

The Walking Dead actor Michael Cudlitz talks his role as loyal solider Abraham Ford, his Southland days, and more.
Entertainment News
Brownmark of The Revolution point

The Revolution carries Prince’s purple flag forward … with a little more bass

The Revolution discusses the Purple Rain band’s studio techniques when recording with Prince, the missing bass on When Doves Cry, and what’s next.
Music Features
Corin Tucker light

The party is the show for Corin Tucker and her Filthy Friends

Guitarist/vocalist Corin Tucker discusses how her new band Filthy Friends keeps their songs feeling current in today’s ever-changing socio-political climate, the current status of Sleater-Kinney, and how to challenge yourself as an artist whenever you play live.
Music Features
Steven Wilson dramatic color stage

On ‘To The Bone,’ Steven Wilson crafts accessible songs that transcend time

Steven Wilson discusses his new album To the Bone, the secrets of post-modern sound construction, and how to make music feel timeless.
Music Features
the audiophile vok interview band guitar getty

Vök drummer Einer Stef on the ‘Icelandic sound,’ Björk covers, and their first LP

Vök drummer Einar Stef discusses the band’s process, and which Björk covers it should do.
Music Features
the audiophile black grape 13889

Mellower but still a madman, Black Grape’s Shaun Ryder is all about the music now

Black Grape frontman Shaun Ryder talks ‘Pop Voodoo,’ signing vinyl the “right” way, and how his kids currently view his musical legacy.
Music Features
charles spearin broken social scene interview flickr

Broken Social Scene’s ‘Hug of Thunder’ brings 18 artists together for sonic harmony

Broken Social Scene reconvenes every few years to make beautiful music together, just as they’ve done on their new album, Hug of Thunder.
Music Features
Audiophile Battle Tapes Josh Boardman on a couch

From floppy disks to $500 music videos, Battle Tapes did it their way on ‘Form’

Battle Tapes mastermind Josh Boardman wanted to flip the sonic script while working of Form, the genre-busting EP that follows up 2015’s Polygon.
Music Features
Styx Tommy Shaw pose

Styx crosses solar systems and generations on ‘The Mission’

On their new album ‘The Mission,’ Styx revisits the space optimism of 1977’s ‘The Grand Illusion’ with a new mission: Mars.
Music Features
Matthew Sweet in home studio black and white

‘Tomorrow Forever’ is a long album for an impatient era, but Kickstarter loves it

Matthew Sweet turned to Kickstarter to record Tomorrow Forever, a 17-song forward-thinking melodic riff-fest that somehow never feels long.
Music Features
shannon mcnally black irish interview 2017 5 head

Shannon McNally busts borders and opens minds on ‘Black Irish’

Shannon McNally straddles the line between songwriter and song interpreter on ‘Black Irish,’ and isn’t afraid to state the obvious.
Music Features
Matisyahu reinvents his beatbox reggae style.

‘Undercurrent’ isn’t a Matisyahu album, it’s a soundtrack for life

Matisyahu, the noted Jewish reggae/hip-hop beatboxer who’s taken live improv to another level with his new album, Undercurrent.
Music Features
audiophile magpie salute rich robinson 3

Oh, the inhumanity! Rich Robinson of Magpie Salute on the tragedy of autotune

The Magpie Salute, led by Rich Robinson, founding guitarist of The Black Crowes, grooves along like the best jam-masters do.
Music Features
giles martin on sgt pepper at 50 the beatles feat

Finally in surround after 50 years, ‘Sgt. Pepper’ is getting better all the time

Released on June 1, 1967, Sgt. Pepper instantly turned the record album format into an artform that still holds merit to this day.
Music Features
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