Whatever Mike has a mourning, an apology, a prayer, and a celebration.

Photos by Lauren Desberg

Formerly Known as Michael Blume, They are known as whatever suits their fancy, wherever the whirlwind of their creativity blows. Whatever Mike is whatever they choose, and whatever you can make of them. They seem to want to embody the idea of fluidity, of not stepping into the same river twice, artistically or conceptually, in their ethos at most and in their image at least.

With what I believe is a play on "Word to the wise", Mike's "Word To The Trees" is a complex piece of work, an EP just shy of being a full-length, filled with pluralities and myriad shades. Their sound is a refined but thoroughly organic blend of alternative bedroom pop, rock, and some subtle signifiers that I can only identify as originating from mumble rap- there's even the phantom of folkish modes operating somewhere in the background of it all - A very rich patchwork mesh of aesthetics that ultimately works on quality, charisma and genuine emotion.

"So, what if we dared not to make sense? What if we dared to be illegible? To not know, but to be. To be whatever we are: thorny and hairy and ugly and beautiful and strange. Like trees and goats and mushrooms and bacteria."

whatever mike’s EP “Word to the Trees” is at once a mourning, an apology, a prayer, and a celebration. It's a letter to the natural world - i.e. to ourselves because WE ARE THE NATURAL WORLD - acknowledging the devastation, sitting in the discomfort of culpability, and simultaneously Be-ing the beauty and joy that is always right here right now.

Whatever Mike is Non-binary and their music seems to embrace that with more than gusto, it does so with purpose and style even "We are not fixed, we are not statues, we are not machines." They say "We flow. Blood and water. We are one of a kind – unrepeatable, never before seen, never to be seen again, magical, mystical, undefinable miracles – each one of us. "

'Word to the Trees' deals a lot with the state of nature, not just as an external agent but as an internal or integral one. W.M. even goes so far as to try and blur or outright eliminate those lines dividing people from nature and from each other.

The titular track is up first, and it encapsulates a lot of what you can expect the whole journey to be with its bubbly and oddly nostalgic synth melodies and the vibrant emotiveness of Mike's vocals, all in an upward swing towards uplifting the listener out of their delusion of division.

"we’ve been severed entirely from spirit & Love & god in an apocalyptic, burning, flooded, viral world of polluted water, forests, and minds. And our world teaches us that the only option is to force ourselves and others into a box."

There's of course, a lot of variety in the tracks. 'Forest' for instance sounds like the next logical step in midwestern emo; the song is a ghostly folk-pop song dressed in vulnerable mumble rap clothes. 'Lost Anyways and the whispery 'Be' both lean closer to a more orthodox pop sound but resting on their vibe first and foremost.

Though it is very similar to the first two tracks stylistically 'California' leaves a unique taste on the palate, largely by the stark, ominous piano that hovers over the track and raises the emotional stakes quite a bit higher.

Resolution comes with yet another left-hand turn in the form of 'Fortune Cookie, Pt.2' which starts with an elevated choir-like presentation that segways appropriately and nicely into an expanded R&B-heavy piece with a final warning to keep our loved ones close, especially as the world is warming.

"Love is not something you can know. It’s something you can be."- Whatever Mike