Michael stangel

Growing up in Geelong Victoria, Michael began his musical career playing in local bands, at festivals and school events. Michael progressed into more professional bands in his early teens and was earning more money than his school teachers from his music by the time he was 16. This mix of artist and entrepreneur would become a common theme throughout Michael’s career. At age 19, Michael received his first real opportunity overseas when he signed a deal with a European label based out of Spain. Michael moved to Europe to begin working on his new deal. After a few minor successes, it was decided that it would be best for Michael to return to Australia to focus on his writing and production skills. In 2001, Michael teamed up with well respected producer, Paul Wiltshire, to work on projects for Sony Music and Universal Music Australia. During this period Michael met ARIA winning producer and engineer David Nicholas who had worked as a producer and engineer with world famous artists like The Pretenders, INXS, Elton John, Brian Adams and Shakespeare’s Sister and also locally with Cold Chisel, George, and Delta Goodrem. Michael began as a Pro Tools operator for David and went on to become a writing and production partner. Michael and David also went on to form Jellyfish Records and signed many up-and-coming acts at the time. During his time at Jellyfish Michael wrote songs with the likes of Nikki Chinn, Steve Booker, Bridget Benenate and Kevin Savigar (who between them have credits including Tina Turner, Duffy, Kelly Clarkson and Rod Stewart). Locally Michael has written, produced and played on tracks for songs for artists such as Shannon Noll, The Veronicas, Dean Geyer, Human Nature and The Androids. In 2005 Michael produced and mixed an album called “Loss of Signal” by the Melbourne band “Borne”, that rose to #14 on the USA Billboard album charts. From this and his many other achievements Michael became high in demand from major labels to work on up-andcoming projects. He worked on projects with Sony/BMG , UMA, Festival Records, EMI and Warner Brothers. In 2011 During a performance Michael experienced a small seizure which he thought nothing of at the time. However it turned out to much more serious than first thought. Michael was told he had a tumor lodged in one of his heart valves and would need to have emergency surgery to remove it or risk imminent death. The tumor, although rare, was not thought to be an issue moving forward once removed and Michael soon returned to normal life until another bout of double vision and stroke like symptoms revealed six tumors in his brain that were thought to be aggressive melanoma. Michael was told to get his affairs in order as his life expectancy was not thought to be very long. However, after 2 months of living with this reality a new diagnosis was made. The tumors were now believed to be of the same matter as the one in his heart. This was extremely rare and there was no known prognosis for treatment for this as there had only been only 20 or so known cases documented that had no common thread. Michael then endured a number of brain surgeries to remove the tumors in his brain. During the recovery from one of these surgeries in 2012 a friend suggested the he should try out for The Voice as a distraction from the operations. With much persuasion from his family Michael decided to try out and became a member of team Delta after the Blind Auditions. He lost his battle in the Battle Round but was saved by all of the other judges and decided to join with Joel Madden. Michael and Joel had a great kinship that was well documented in front of the entire nation and the pair’s friendship grew. Michael ended up making top 3 in Joel team and received adulation for his attitude towards life. Joel would tell the nation that “Michael you represent Australia well, you’re a fighter and a good man, the kind of man I would like to think I am to my family”. Michael’s success on The Voice has been amazing and he has had many opportunities since. Michael suffered another seizure as the result of an aneurysm 2 weeks after The Voice finished, which required further surgery, but again has recovered well. He went on to sing the national anthem in front of 40,000 people and to over a million viewers live at the EJ Whitten AFL Legends game, only 8 days after his operation. Michael is currently working on his forthcoming Album “An Aussie Spirit” due for release in late 2013. Producer Musician Singer Songwriter.