Mike Vial

Michigan-based singer/songwriter Mike Vial first surfaced in 2008 via his opening EP, Three Men Make a Tiger. Born in Dearborn, Michigan, Vial picked up the guitar early on, yet his songwriting only gained momentum once he enrolled at Western Michigan University. Drawn to the rising wave of contemporary singer/songwriters in the early 2000s, he launched a solo career with polished folk-pop material positioned between the styles of James Taylor and Ari Hest. After moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, he kept performing and tracking new work, issuing the follow-up EP Burning the Boats while supporting himself as an English teacher. In 2011 he took a leap by leaving that job to focus on music exclusively. The songs on his subsequent album, the hopeful Where the Sand Meets the Tide, reflected this shift, prompting extensive tours across the U.S. and Canada. In the years that followed he issued a series of fresh singles, among them “Love Birds” and “Burning Bright.”