About Solo Artists

Michael Yurich has been involved in music all his life.

He was first inspired to take piano lessons at the age of eight years old after seeing his friend Jimmy Barkley play piano.

“[Jimmy] was taking piano lessons and he was playing quite well,” says Yurich. “And I just went ‘Wow that’s really cool.’”

From that point on, music became a key part of Yurich’s life. Now, a masterful singer, guitar and piano player, he has been a staple of the Sault music scene for many years, both as a member of bands and as a solo performer. He himself became an inspiration and mentor to countless local aspiring musicians.

Yurich has been on numerous albums and recordings over the years. His last album was 2010’s Catching Up with the News.

But who is Michael Yurich? His latest album Identity gives us a glimpse.

Interestingly, the title was partially inspired by people not being true to themselves.

“I basically find that a lot of people are not themselves. The songs on this album say something about that. [Additionally] all the songs are different and every one has a different identity,” says Yurich.

“I feel schizophrenic about music. There’s one side of me that plays the piano and one side that plays the guitar. It’s a duality that I work off of … one side of me is like Mozart and the other side of me is like Hendrix. So what am I going to do?”

Writing music is one of the aspects of being a musician that has continually kept him engaged.

“If I’m inspired, I write,” says Yurich. “Writing lyrics is the tough part and singing. I write a lot of instrumentals.”

Outside of the Sault, Yurich has played music in many “local” scenes, including, Windsor, Detroit, Toronto and Sarnia.
“Throughout the years, I’ve been influenced by a lot of different people,” he says. “Musicians are like nomads. We travel through different things, go to all different places and we accumulate inspiration.”

For many of the original songs on his new album, that inspiration comes in the form of lyrics first.

“It sounds really weird when you try to make the lyrics happen after. Sometimes you work off a hook or a lick,” says Yurich, using his track The Cold Gray Day as an example.

“I had a vision about that song. I was travelling through Blind River and you know the rolling river how it is there in the winter time? I’ve gone through that area plenty of times at 25 below zero and I just thought about that feeling [and that scene]. It’s those sorts of details that can inspire me.”