Mike Varty -
(piano / keyboards / vocals)

A Brief History

MIKE started playing the piano and violin at the age of 4. In his later teens he traded orchestras for rock 'n' roll in his first band - the Somerset-based folk-rock trio, HMV. Throughout the early 90s, he earned a solid reputation around the Hampshire/Surrey border area with the band Study in Scarlet - 'progressive rock with a hint of scarlet' - playing bass. In 1993 he spotted an advert put in a local music store by Clive Nolan, and got the job of live keyboard player for Shadowland. He has since been made a full member of Shadowland and contributed to the writing of the last album, "Mad as a Hatter".

In 1996 he joined the more regular performers Credo and has contributed to their second album "Rhetoric" both as keyboard player and producer. Since then, he has gotten back together with one member of his very first band by joining folk rock group, The Mighty Rooster and can be seen regularly playing his violin around small venues in the West Country.

Mike's degree in electronics has led him to set up Gargoyle Studio where the Janison Edge album was recorded. He also has a talent for arrangement and production which draws heavily on his classical music training and natural musicianship. As well as having produced the first Janison Edge CD plus the above-mentioned Credo album, Mike has also provided the soundtrack music for the low-budget Sci-fi movie Foiled, co-produced the first Rooster CD, Gargoyles, and engineered miscellaneous other small CD productions.

Links to Mike's other projects:

Mike’s MySpace

Janison Edge

Shadowland

Mick Pointer’s Marillion / Script for a Jester’s Tour

Infinite Sunday

The Mighty Rooster

Noscaferatu (Music from the the film Buffy the English Vampire Slayer)

Gargoyle Studio (see Janison Edge)