This week • 02 February 2003

What a week!

Ramona Depares talks to Wayne Micallef, one-third of the group The Mics, who will be making their debut at this year’s Song For Europe festival

Monday: Woke up latish, which is normal, and did some work in my production studio. I form the producing-songwriting part of The Mics trio and I also play the guitar and sing – all three of us sing, we do not have a lead singer which is what distinguishes us from the rest.

We’ve been around for some time as a band, although we haven’t done any festivals yet: we are two brothers and a sister: my brother Richard sings and Michelle does too.

Late morning had to go down to Ta’ Qali, which is where the Song For Europe festival is being held next week. Got given a tour of the place, saw the stage and afterwards – for some mysterious reason – we were all asked to run towards the camera in all that mud (it was pouring with rain).

So far the festival experience has been great. We’ve met the other singers and they’re all nice people. Michelle is really open and was immediately making friends with everyone, while Richard and myself are quieter, so we tend to stick together. There are rumours about the cut-throat competition there will be on the night, but we’ll see. So far, so good. My brother is being very relaxed about it, while Michelle tends to panic more. As for me, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. But I am worried that Richard is slightly too chilled about it. Still, we are used to playing in front of a lot of people.

After Ta’ Qali went to Pieta, where we appeared on Clare Agius’ TV show, Siesta. Great fun.

Tuesday: Woke up, had coffee and picked up my sister from her place. Off to the studio, after Richard sorted out a couple of things for the retail business he owns. What with the festival and other musical commitments, my father will have to fill in for him more than usual in the upcoming weeks!

At the studio worked a bit on the album that we will be releasing shortly. We are all full-time musicians: music takes up the most of our day and we all like it that way. And we get on really well together, maybe being family helps. Of course we do argue, everyone does, but nothing too serious and at the end of the day we always come to an agreement. The funniest part is when we are trying to co-ordinate what to wear: this does not mean that we all have to wear matching clothes but there has to be a certain amount of co-ordination. We can’t wear clashing colours, for instance. So you can just imagine how lively these sessions get!

Wednesday: Morning down to collect my sister and on to appear on the TV show Sellili. Had a fun morning, although we did not actually sing on set. I must say that we all love singing live on air, it’s so different from playback somehow!

Afterwards, back to my sister’s so as to rehearse our Song For Europe entry. My mother, who used to be a dancer, is taking care of the choreography for us. I can’t believe how complicated dancing and singing contemporarily is! It’s the first experience for us, normally we just sit behind the instruments. However, we are keeping the moves as simple as we can, nothing too complicated for now!

Late afternoon played some football with my old mates. Football is my major passion, after music naturally. Of course, I can’t play or train as regularly as I used to, given the fact that nowadays most nights I end up working. We play five-a-side mostly, in the Paola ground and we always enjoy it tremendously.

Later on, a mate of mine came round to my house and we went out for a drink. Met some friends at our regular bar in Paceville and then went bar and club hopping from then. We don’t like to keep to one place or one scene, we go all over the place. Wednesday night is a good night to go out: had a great time.

Thursday: Up rather late. Worked a bit on the album, which involves a lot of work on the producing side given the fact that all three of song and we all have a different pitch. Like I said, expressive voices are our trade-mark. My fourteen-year-old brother joined kept me company for a while – although he’s not in the band yet, he will be in the future for sure. He’s already studying drums and is great at it!

Afternoon, rehearsed some more. Our entry is a great one: rather poppish, not slow but moder. I wrote it together with Alfred C Sant and the music is my own. The Mics don’t normally enter festivals, although our father used to organise some of the bigger ones. In fact, I remember singers like Fabrizio Faniello singing when kids at these festivals. Up till now our festival experience has been great – in fact, now that we’ve got to know all the other singers we might even end up taking part regularly.

Friday: Rehearsed the whole morning. Because on Friday we have evening commitments, we try not take anything up during the rest of the day. We’re professionals after all, and being late or even looking tired is not on!

Worked a bit in the studio in the afternoon. I love this part of the job: I wrote my first song when I was only thirteen: my father bought me a mixer, a really good synthesiser and some more equipment and that was it! From then on, the studio went from strength to strength, I kept adding equipment and today it’s a really great home recording studio. One day I would love to be involved in producing on a full-time basis. Not that I do not enjoy performing, but this part of the music is so exciting.

At about six we started getting ready for our gig at The Coastline Hotel. Relaxed with a hot bath, rested my voice, had a nice cuppa… And then it was off for a straight three hour performance, which we all love. In the Summer things are more lively but I wouldn’t change this job for anything!

Saturday: Had an afternoon game today. And then Liverpool, my favourite team, were playing. We won too – which was a bit of a surprise since we’re unfortunately on a losing streak at the moment. Which is why I’m getting a lot of grief from my brother, who’s a United fan.

Evening off to the Coastline again. We’re the resident band there. There was a Maltese group, everyone was set to have a good time with dancing etc so it was a great evening.

Afterwards went out with a mate of mine: I don’t normally, but it was his night off and I couldn’t say no. A great day all in all, crawled back home at about eight in the morning.

Sunday: Up really late, at about three in the afternoon. Knackered. Had rehearsals but did no studio work today – took it a bit easy.

Evening some friends came over and we all went off to Caeser’s in Bugibba, where DJ Ruby was playing. We’re fans. Stayed out late – Sunday is my real day for going out and I make the most of it.