MIKE CYRIL MUSIC

Narrating a backroom conversation between avant-garde and pop, with an honest baritone and distinct lyricism, Mike Cyril pits maddening beauty against genre. Ranging from minimal to extravagant, imbued with brooding intensity and flourishing emotions, his music is inherently cinematic.

Born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Cyril was blessed with a naturally artistic childhood – days spent drawing, learning photography, and taking an unusually heavy liking to original motion picture soundtracks of the early 90s. The beautifully orchestral kind that would inexplicably come with one new-age artist or band, to be precise. However, it was his first time hearing Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ “Red Right Hand” as a teenager (a la Dumb and Dumber, of all films) that would permenantly shift his years of adolescent self-discovery towards seeking out the rebellious and askew.

It’s through these earliest influences that we begin to understand the tone of Mike Cyril’s debut release, Goodbye My Maze.

Having left Philadelphia for New York City to focus on music, Cyril would meet producer Jarret Wetherell, whose work with Boots and Deva Mahal, daughter of Taj Mahal (the latter of whom Cyril was performing with at the time), would inspire the two to begin working together. In doing so, they would build a world out of Cyril’s home demos. The first song to be completed in these sessions, lead single “Alone,” is about feeling lost in the crowd. As Cyril explains, “This was the first time I was approaching a song with such honesty, allowing it to fall out of me. I was in a place where I felt like I was disappearing, in a city filled to the brim with people,” adding, “it's almost as if “Alone” came to me to say; you are still of the earth and still powerful.”

With additional contributions from violinist Manami Mizumoto and backing vocals courtesy of Marlon Saunders (Lauryn Hill, Nine Inch Nails), Goodbye My Maze at times plays out like its own movie soundtrack. Opener, “Cold Vision,” greets you like a western noir, while “The Oracle” takes you for a late night ride up Mulholland Drive – it’s dark turns pulling you further into the depths of Cyril’s vision, never settling into any quantifiable space. On the title track, Cyril selflessly offers forgiveness, while bidding farewell to failure. Rising like a beacon after the dark night has passed, Goodbye My Maze shines its brightest with the EP closer, “Morning Sun.”

Perhaps what’s most impressive about Cyril, as an artist, is his discipline. Over the last 20 years, he’s learned to sharpen his focus through a love for boxing. In many ways, it’s as personal to him as the music he writes. Currently residing in New York’s Catskill Mountains, Cyril spends his time working as a boxing instructor by day. “When I look at Boxing and Martial arts in general, I feel most connected to the art of it, to the questions it poses, and to the physical embodiment you need to access,” explains Cyril. “Your opponent's movements can be looked at as questions and answers. I feel like the best art does this as well – it asks you questions, not that you always need answers, but the questions are what get you moving. Art for me at it’s best should be physical, you have to move, even when I’m singing a slow and low line, my body has to be fully connected in order to channel the content and get the best performance.”

Cyril will begin recording his debut album in 2022. If the brief glimpses we are shown on Goodbye My Maze are any indication, it’ll certainly be a vision worth waiting for.


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In high school he would squirrel away his lunch money so he could go to the local Borders bookstore and buy albums. He was able to order albums that weren't on the radio… he would read magazine after magazine describing albums and buying them based on the description.  He fell in love with acts such as Sigur Ros, DMX, John Zorn, and King Tubby among many more.  

After graduating high school he tried his hand at community college with a major in art, he lasted one semester and felt unconnected to the schooling process, he was “tired of drawing bowls of fruit.”  

After years of Barbacking and Bartending in Philly and Atlantic City he decided to move to NYC to pursue a life in the Arts.  He often says NYC was his first real learning experience, and the amount of musical knowledge he would gain there was unparalleled.  

He would go to the New York public library and take out CD’s, Learning about Leonard Cohen, The Velvet Underground, Nina Simone, Jacques Brel and a Slew of other musicians that would paint the world he would live in for the next decade. Not really sure of his direction, he finally started making music.  

After years of hearing music in his head and recording Ideas into a tape recorder he finally got a computer with the program Garageband.  Learning that he began writing music, without any formal training. The early demos ranged from noise to simple songs, they were not full ideas, but this was his way of learning.  

In 2008 he and friend A Cee began a group named Agent Strange, Mike was the singer and lyricist and A Cee was producing beats and mixing.  They recorded an album, played many live shows and toured throughout the country.  That act has been shelved for years but as the two are still close friends, they have not ruled out making more music together.  

Mike continued on to a solo career going by the pseudonym Cy the Monster, an alter ego based on his alcoholic Grandfather. “He was sort of a gutter prophet who preached to an empty room.”  That project lasted a few years, it toured through europe and some of the US but was stopped for a more honest approach. 

In 2014 he started a project with musician Deva Mahal called Skylines after building the sketches for six songs they played a show and immediately received love and attention for the project and began fleshing out the songs.  After playing shows for a year or so and touring the project they called it quits, Deva wanted to work on her solo record and Mike his.  

In 2018 Mike began working with Producer Jarret Wetherell on a New crop of songs, these songs would go on to be recorded and are what make up the Goodbye My Maze EP.  Alone, the first single was their first song completed together and would create the foundation for the rest of the EP.  

At the forefront of the record is a vocal ensemble led by Marlon Saunders, giving the songs a choir feel.  The orchestral arrangements open up the Album and keep it from settling into any quantifiable space.  

Mike plans to tour the record extensively and has written the next album which he will begin recording in 2022.  The single Alone will be released with a music video on November 19th and the EP January 4th.  

Mike works as a boxing instructor as a side hustle.  He began boxing at 17 years old, fought a handful of amateur fights and  since then has studied everything from Kung Fu to Muay Thai.  He’s taught for the last 5 years at Overthrow Boxing Club in NYC’s Noho neighborhood.  He’s currently residing in New York's catskill mountains in the small town of Roxbury teaching privately at a local yoga studio.