Mike LeDoux

Mike is a singer, songwriter, and producer. He is also the former host of the music-focused WoaS Podcast, a former content writer for Produce Like a Pro, and the founder of Zippgun.

Music Releases

In recent years, he has self-produced three releases: Despair with Flair (EP), Neon Lies (single), and Love Dirge (EP). He is currently working on his next few projects.

Music Background

Mike’s love of songwriting and recording began in 1994, during his teenage years, when he received a Tascam 424 MKII four-track tape recorder for his birthday. He spent days and weeks experimenting, studying the manufacturer’s manual, and learning everything he could about the device—in the days before YouTube.

During his college years in SUNY Oneonta’s Music Industry program, Mike took full advantage of the university’s state-of-the-art recording studio and live rooms, tracking and producing recordings for his own band and various other students before eventually working as a TA in the Audio Arts Production program.

In the early 2000s, Mike worked as a studio hand at NYC’s Back Pocket Studios, where he worked alongside industry veterans such as session musician, engineer, and producer Shane Keister (Elvis Presley, Billy Joel, Billy Preston); engineer Butch Jones (Talking Heads, David Byrne); singer Jaime Babbitt (Leon Russell); and film and television composer Tristan Leral.

There, he learned a great deal about commercial songwriting, tracking various types of ensembles, producing spots for radio and television, studio work ethic, and the concept of “success” in the business. He spent late nights at the SSL console alongside his mentors, occasionally tracking spec recordings of his own music with staff engineers and session players.

These formative years made a deep impression on Mike, giving him an immersive view of commercial music production within the larger industry.

Years later, while working to expand his music career, Mike began noticing a very specific shift in the modern music marketplace that ultimately led to the creation of Zippgun. [Watch Mike’s video on this topic here.]

Musical Philosophy

Mike’s approach to songwriting and production is rooted in the belief that artists are “all writing, all the time, whether we realize it or not.”

He further notes, “The challenge is learning how to access that subconscious writing and then harness it to capture the ‘magic moments,’ which often happen outside the studio.”

Mike writes about this and other topics at length on the Zippgun blog.