Top photo by Callie Bauer at the Star Day Tavern, 2024.

Bottom photo by Sarah DeMello at the Shady pines Festival 2024, Bull Frog Stage, built by Michael DeMello

Michael DeMello received his first acoustic guitar from his dad at 14, took a couple lessons and then basically taught himself how to play with help from friends. The first song that he learned was “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd.

At 19 he bought his first electric guitar. Mike’s roots were in metal and in 2004 started a metalcore band, “Dead by Sundown”, DBS recorded an EP/demo and played around Portland for a couple of years.

Mike continued to play music but on the back burner while he went to school for construction, got married (2007), started his own business and started having kids (2010). He started to sing to the kids at bedtime and realized that he could sing in addition to playing guitar and he started writing his own songs.

In 2018 his wife, Sarah, encouraged him to go to an open mic at a local coffee shop by their house (Jan 18, 2018 to be exact), he was hooked! After the first one he decided to write a song each week, up to that point he had only written 2 or 3 songs with lyrics. He was also motivated by another participant, The Sunfish Duo, to start playing the mandolin. He was able to keep that going for about 15 weeks, about half of the songs were on the mandolin and most of the songs turned out pretty good! 

During this time Mike also played in a cover band called "The Other Guys". Ultimately he wanted to have a band of his own to play his originals with a couple covers here and there, which is how Wood Butcher was formed.

In the fall of 2018 Mike came upon the Eastburn open mic where he met the host Brian Bauer, creator of Shady Pines Media/Radio. In 2019 Mike recorded his first 6 song EP with Brian which was released in the spring of 2020 but his dream of a big EP release party was quelled when Covid-19 hit full force.

As soon as quarantine regulations permitted Mike was back at it with attending shows around Portland, different events hosted by Shady Pines Media and especially to note the Atlantis Underground at Mississippi Pizza in N Portland (a somewhat curated listening room open mic), the amount of amazing musicians and support for musicians helped push Mike’s goals of performing around town and writing new music. 

As of now Mike is still pursuing his goals to perform live music with his band Wood Butcher as well as finish recording an album, which will be released in the fall of 2025. Once this album is released Mike plans to focus on writing more music and to record a solo album. Mike also is in the band Grumble, which is starting to record in the spring of 2025.