Exclusive: Mike Donehey Explains How To “Thrive” Under Difficult Circumstances

Mike Donehey is a songwriter, performer, songwriter, podcaster, and most importantly husband and father, but for Mike learning to embrace the unexpected has been the very thing that continually produces uplifting and calming music. When the world was hit by the pandemic, Donehey, like so many others, found himself in trouble. Tenth Avenue North, the band he founded and led for so many years, was amicably breaking up and planning their farewell tour when it all came to a standstill. Over the months, he realized he needed to mourn these drastic life changes as well as the unknown. The more he started to open up and feel the sadness and the sting of pain, “the more joy poured in from the other side,” he explains. As an album that shares songs full of encouragement, radical vulnerability, mourning, honesty, acceptance and recognition, Donehey takes it all in on his new record, to bloom (Fair Trade Services), available now. In this TCB exclusive, Mike explains how writing the title song unlocked a huge collection of new songs and how the to bloom the cover beautifully represents the message of the collection.

Can you talk about the title to bloom and the meaning behind the cover?
“Flourish” began with the song “Flourish”. In the midst of the pandemic, I was angry, bitter and sulky. My band’s farewell tour has been canceled. I had no idea what my future would look like at all. I wasn’t sure if I should continue the band and hire a bunch of new guys or if I should start a solo career, or if I should give up music altogether. But I couldn’t not write songs because I needed songs more than ever. As David says in Psalm 49: 4, I write songs to get by. So I started trying to decipher everything I was feeling, and the first song I wrote was called “Flourish”. It was a punch in the air – not out of defiance but in agreement with God that even though all of my circumstances seemed completely out of control, I believed that I could still flourish inside, even if I didn’t. flourished outside. And that started the process that unlocked an avalanche of songs. I ended up writing 100 songs over the next year. And the cover tries to describe exactly that. There is a song called “Standing At The Edge Of My World” and “Follow You Into The Fire”. In “Abundance”, even when songs are scarce, you can still live in abundance. Coverage is made up of all the different elements – desert, storm, flood, fire. And this belief that there is a little flower in the heart of the guy. I can thrive in the middle of anything.

So if “Flourish” was the first song written for the album, which track was the last to complete the project?
I go through all the songs in my head. The last song that made the recording was a song called “From The Start”. I felt like I needed another concert song with a fast tempo.

You wrote all of these songs during the pandemic. Looking at them now, but seeing them through the prism of the current state of the world, what lyrics do you think the world needs to hear the most, that perhaps strikes a little differently than when they were written? ?
The song that hits me harder than I thought is a song I wrote with my sister called “Unity Hymn”. I thought we saw the peak of disunity in last year’s election. And it feels like it’s gotten more intense depending on how you see certain things. So I love to sing the song “Unity Hymn” because it’s always going to be a necessary thing to sing.

After reviewing listeners’ comments since the release of Flourish, iIs there a song that seems to have more of an impact on listeners than you expected, or maybe punchy in a different way?
There is a song called “Breathe In Breathe Out”. Some songs, you write them and they feel really personal, and you don’t know if other people are going to understand them. I had written another song “Kind To Myself” which my label liked a lot, and at the very last second I felt like I had to put “Breathe In Breathe Out” instead. It’s more of a personal prayer and there is nothing else like it on file. People who follow me on social media, that’s by far the song people write me about. It was a big surprise, and I just wasn’t expecting it.

Can you share how this project was different for you in creating – you wrote during a pandemic and funded yourself through listeners?
So what I don’t think people realize is that we signed our first recording deal (under the name Tenth Avenue North) basically before YouTube existed. And so our label was great in putting us in front of people and on the radio, but the contract didn’t make a lot of money on the recordings of our music. So I did Kickstarter to fund the recording, so I could get into a very different kind of transaction structure. I could possibly take time off because my recordings help pay the bills. So I really questioned the Kickstarter. Fans fully supported my Kickstarter in 12 hours and then almost tripled what I asked for. I’m a guy who always struggles with the idea that my best is behind me. I’ll never stop – I’m wired in such a way that I’ll never retire in the traditional sense. I want to burn alive and go until the last day. But I was really wondering if I should continue with the music. So when the Kickstarter was funded, I got the wind in my sails. Let these people care. I don’t have to make a record for everyone, but for these people. So I started recording and writing and it was a more lonely process than being in a band. Each guitar part and piano part and lyrics is a committee. So being a solo artist and doing this record was a little more lonely but I wouldn’t say it was much easier. When me and a producer were working and deciding that we liked an idea, we could make it come true. So I would say from a personal point of view it sounds more like what I want it to sound than even some of the band’s records would. Because you had to sign with so many people that you had to make sacrifices, so this record is cool because that’s what I want it to sound like.

You’ve released a handful of lyrics videos, as well as music videos for “Glory I couldn’t see” and “All Together”. What do you remember most from making these videos?
“Glory I Can’t See” was pretty easy. This song is my pandemic song and my hymn of “not going back to the way things used to be”. Let’s learn from this disruption as a gift and don’t continue to miss those magical moments that disguise themselves as mundane. Let us continue to seek glory in our everyday life. The clip was simple – I just wanted to show everyone how we got through the pandemic in our own context. I have a friend that the kids are comfortable with, and she’s the one who directed the clip, so I hope it got very natural.
The music video for “All Together” was a joint effort with a director named Sean Hagwell. We made a continuous shot through a space. And we’ve put together a 12-step group – an addiction group – that all go to confession and walk through the middle of. I really like the way this clip came out – I think it’s one of my favorite clips I’ve ever done.

How will you define the success of this collection and start your journey as a solo artist?
Two ways. Emotionally, success for me is when I get a text from a friend. I got one the other day from a director. Anytime I get an unsolicited comment, especially when it’s someone I know, and they tell me the music is talking to them. They still do – they took the time to listen and it meant something to them. From a practical standpoint, the pandemic really taught me the value of what could happen if through my art I could take time. So practically, if music generated enough income that I could take time off the road, that would be a huge win for me.

Where do you get your inspiration from, whether musically or spiritually?
I still read the Scriptures. I still read books. I still watch movies. And I still listen to music. So I try to take inspiration from my own life. So all of these things. We are limited. I love the way people say they want to think outside the box. But we are a box. I can’t write something from the perspective of a Polynesian girl in the Pacific Islands – it’s not me. It is not part of my story. I can watch documentaries about it and try to figure out what it is. So I always try to expand my own box, in order to have a broader and more beautiful perspective on things.

What are you most looking forward to for the rest of 2021?
I’m just starting to see what this solo career is like. I can’t wait to see where this music goes and where I can connect with people. The music comes out in the jungle and you don’t really know which way it’s going to go. It acts as a scout and starts hacking the way – the groups of people you will be playing with and the people you will be talking to. So I can’t wait to see where in the jungle this music will go and where I will follow it.