Romeo Spike

Brought together through mutual friends in 2006, Mike Kunz (then living in Chicago) and Donn Aaron (Atlanta) began their relationship with a weekly songwriting challenge designed to trigger each other's creativity. Each Saturday night they would email each other a new song, and enthusiastically stay up late into the night reworking them over the phone. Romeo Spike materialized almost by accident as the pair quickly realized their chemistry had a life of its own. They soon ditched the song-writing competition to start work on the full-length album "For the Cause," and began calling themselves Romeo Spike. A majority of the record was recorded partially in Chicago and partially in Atlanta as the two sent tracks back and forth across the internet. After several small trips South during the recording of the album, Kunz made the move to Atlanta to make Romeo Spike a full-time realization. During production of "For the Cause," Romeo Spike caught the attention of Grammy-award winner, and long-time Elton John mix engineer/producer Matt Still who produced, mixed and provided back-up vocals on almost half the album. "When Matt got involved, we were extremely honored and excited about working with a guy who was asked to remix Elton's 'Rocketman' [and most of the rest of his 70's era catalog]. It was clear the project had grown beyond our initial expectation, and it became necessary for us to be in the same city." says Kunz. Romeo Spike's refined rock is led by Kunz's vocals and Rhodes electric piano, and Aaron's atomic pedal steel (which has been described as "playing lightening"). These staples of their sound are supported by a standard rock rhythm section, and methodically chaotic soundscapes. In addition, a large fiber of the continuity of Romeo Spike is found in the accomplished guitarmanship of both Kunz and Aaron. Aaron was featured as a teen prodigy in both “Guitar Player” and “Guitar World,” and was a contributor (guitarist/songwriter 1991-1994) to seminal alternative group Mary My Hope. In 2003, Aaron was the only southeastern recipient of a grant from bourbon maker Jim Beam’s national Benefiting Emerging Artists in Music, or B.E.A.M., program. In 2005, he released the acclaimed solo album “Unfinished Symphonies" which was picked by Performing Songwriter magazine as a "Top 12 Independently Released Album of 2006." He also played guitar on a track from Ludacris's "Disturbing The Peace Vol. 1" which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Top 100 R&B/Rap album charts. Aaron has also left his fingerprints as a digital editor on over 8000 records ranging from "of Montreal" to "Shawn Mullins" to the who's who of Atlanta Hip Hop. At the age of 16, Kunz was already a professional guitar teacher. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from DePaul University where he studied jazz and classical music while co-founding the funk/hip-hop group Treologic. Later, as a member of Zzaje, he performed as a sideman with popular acts like hip-hop legend MC Lyte, R. Kelly and grammy winners J. Torae. Kunz and Aaron not only complement each other's unique talents, but also share the belief that no matter how slick and finessed their productions can become, "It's all about the song." "Songwriting is this weird form of magic where if you happen to be in the right headspace," Kunz said. "You just have to play one note and listen for all the music that is already there." Aaron describes his approach to songwriting as an exploration in complete mystery: "I liken it to Tarot Card reading, or playing with a Ouija Board. I find this whole thing to be a fragile mystery, and I leave it at that." Recommended if you like: Coldplay, Pink Floyd, Ben Folds, Electric Light Orchestra, and Daniel Lanois.