Mike Maimone - Broke, Not Broken

Describing the front man of Chicago alt rock veterans Mutts, Daytrotter said Mike Maimone “goes from zero to a hundred quicker than most.” Relocating to Nashville in January 2020, he moved characteristically fast. By February he was named a Lightning 100 FM Local Artist of the Week.

Then COVID put an end to his auspicious start as a Nashville performer. But Maimone quickly switched gears, recording a quarantine album and accompanying full-album music video in his bedroom studio. The former, “isolation:001” earned him a spot in Lightning 100’s Music City Mayhem competition, where he made the Top 16 of over 300 band submissions. The latter, “isolation:001:the movie,” has been accepted to multiple film festivals.

Now, Maimone and his band are vaccinated and ready to get back to performing. His new album, “Broke, Not Broken” comes out on June 18, 2021. It was primarily self-recorded at various locations in Chicago pre-pandemic. Maimone mixed the album after his move to Nashville.

The main theme of Broke, Not Broken is walking the line between following your passion and being able to function in society. It’s about how you can’t help but tie your self worth to your net worth when your credit card gets declined on your 1st date. It’s about the stress that an unforeseen expenditure will derail your ability to buy groceries. And it’s about how every minor setback seems Earth-shattering when you’re scraping the bottom of your bank account each month.

This is the 11th album that the singer/songwriter and producer has released on his label 8eat8 Records since 2008, along with 8 EPs and over a dozen singles. He has also contributed keyboards to many other recordings.

On top of being prolific in the studio, Maimone has averaged over 100 tour dates each year since 2005. As a solo artist, with his trio Mutts, as a keyboardist for Company of Thieves, Los Colognes, and others, he has performed at legendary venues from The Fillmore in San Francisco to the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, and at festivals such as Lollapalooza, Sasquatch! and Riot Fest.

Maimone grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio, not coming out of the closet to his Catholic family and friends until age 30 – three years into living with his partner at the time. He was an all-state athlete while studying classical piano. He graduated from business school, but after less than a year in auditing, quit to focus on music.

From these disperate experiences the prolific writer has published over 100 songs that are equally diverse. For example, on the one hand “God, Country, Grave” appeared in a sex scene of the adult show Banshee on HBO. And on the other, “Let’s Go” was on the Cubs playlist in Wrigley Field.

Maimone endorses Nord keyboards and has showcased for them at NAMM. He performs live streams on his YouTube channel about once a month and will be back on tour in 2021.