Hello Melbourne!

Well, after 15 years of being based in Sydney, New South Wales, I finally decided to make the move to the place of trams, laneways and AFL, Melbourne, Victoria. Sydney is certainly a great home base for touring and recording but as they say, a change is as good as a holiday, and it was time to get amongst Melbourne's live music scene which I've found to be very diverse, active and exciting. I've also always had a bit of a love affair with the food and wine here - not to mention the fact that it's almost impossible to get a bad coffee!

So Mike Pensini Music has a new home base - the studio (Mad Scientist's Keyboard Laboratory) is in the process of being re-set up after its little road trip down the coast and there are already some live and studio projects in the works, so don't hesitate to get in touch for those custom keyboard tracks!

Look forward to seeing you at a gig soon (keep an eye on the 'Gigs' page for upcoming public performances - but right now I'm off to sneak in just one more coffee on this gorgeous autumn day...

Welcome 2018!

Happy New Year guys! Hope you all had an enjoyable and safe holiday period.

Straight back into recording sessions and gigs here in Sydney after a very relaxing 5 week break up in Cairns, North Queensland. Check out the gigs page for upcoming public gigs - hope to catch you at one soon!

Here's a little video montage and tune I put together while I was up in Cairns. The "wet season" was just starting up there and it was so beautifully refreshing and relaxing I was inspired to capture it.

All the best for 2018!
Mike

Recording Piano & Keys for Joel Sena & PHOEBE

Just spent a fantastic day in A-Sharp Recording Studios in Sydney, laying down acoustic piano and keyboard parts for the new recordings by Joel Sena and PHOEBE. Keep an eye out for these EPs guys, they're going to sound great!

Just picked up Spectrasonics Keyscape

10 years in the making, Eric Persing and the team at Spectrasonics (the company behind the well known and loved Omnisphere synth) have released their Keyscape Collector Keyboards software collection and it sounds incredible. Here's a first impressions video that I put together:

A bit of Solo Piano for you...

Seems like a good day for a solo piano rendition of some Antonio Carlos Jobim. Here's "Wave" - Enjoy!

Jamming with Marian Petrescu & James Morrison

I recently had the opportunity to meet Romanian piano virtuoso, Marian Petrescu and hang out with him and jazz trumpet legend, James Morrison, at the launch of the new Roland LX17 digital pianos.

Many laughs were had and much great music was enjoyed! Here's a clip from the evening of the three of us jamming on the Dizzy Gillespie classic, "A Night in Tunisia":

Thriller Live comes to a Close!

Well it's been a roller coaster few months with Thriller Live! - getting to perform some of the best material from Michael Jackson's catalog of hits. After a couple of really exciting weeks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the tour has sadly come to an end and everyone has gone back to their respective home bases.

It was such a pleasure working with such an incredible team of people on this production, from the band, singers, dancers, crew and producers - everyone was one big family and pulled together even through some of the more challenging times - which inevitably occur on any touring production.

Audiences in KL were fantastic and amazingly enthusiastic - some of the most engaged we've encountered and it's great to see MJ's music is still thriving in all parts of the world.

I've posted photos of the tour online at both my Flickr account and on Instagram.

For now it's back to Sydney - but not for long - more exciting news coming soon!
 

QLD - Toasty one day, scorching the next!

Hi all! Firstly, apologies for being a bit quiet on the blogging front - touring life has been keeping me busy! I've been managing to keep up to date with Twitter and Instagram though so make sure you check those out if you haven't already.

The tour's going really well - after playing two weeks to pretty much packed audiences in Adelaide, we're now in sunny Brisbane and enjoying this QLD weather! It has been a tad warm though, with the mercury rising and setting records many of the days that we've been here! Oh well, we're off to Melbourne next week, so we'll surely have a change then!

I've been embracing my other love of photography while I've been here, and although I'm relatively new to it (compared to music) I'm having tonnes of fun - it's also a great way to keep track of all the great places we visit and things we get up to on tour.

I've been uploading many of my DSLR shots to my Flickr account, so head on over to:

www.flickr.com/mikepensini

to check them out! There's a dedicated "Thriller Live" tour album as well as a bunch of other shots from my travels and different gigs. For the fellow photography nerds out there I'm using a Canon EOS 70D and mostly the Canon 50mm f/1.8 and Canon 24mm f/2.8 prime lenses - not overly expensive lenses but can yield some great results.

If you're into photography, leave a comment or shoot me a message - always love to have a rave to fellow photography nuts! Also, same goes if you have any questions for the tour or requests for what you'd like to hear me record/do next musically!

Well, that's all from here for now, time to go have a cold shower and chill out in the air-con! Ciao for now! x

Thriller Live arrives in Perth!

So we've arrived in sunny Perth and given Australian audiences their first taste of Thriller Live!

After 2 well-received previews, we're gearing up for the official opening night tonight, which is going to be a blast. The show is looking and sounding great. The band is cooking - so glad to be on the road with some of my favourite Aussie musicians - Darryn Farrugia on drums, Tony Azzopardi on percussion, Victor Rounds on bass and John Bettison on guitar. Great blokes and great players.

Also a shout out to my local cafe Pinocchio's in Bardwell Park for looking after me on a pretty much daily basis when I'm back home in Sydney! When I told them I was going on tour they gave me this little guy:

to take with me so I started the #pinocchioontour series for a behind-the-scenes look at Thriller Live. It's also fitting as Pinocchio was Michael Jackson's favourite cartoon character. Poignant!

Off now to enjoy the awesome Perth sunshine - stay tuned for more Thriller Live updates!

Mike x

Welcome & Michael Jackson "Thriller Live" Tour

Hey guys - welcome to my new website! I thought it was about time for a refresh so I could update things on the road etc, so here we are!

Speaking of being on the road, I've just been asked to join the Michael Jackson "Thriller Live" tour of Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia, so will be starting rehearsals next week here in Sydney before flying over to Perth and commencing the 3-month tour.

It's shaping up to be an exciting show. Being a huge Michael Jackson fan, getting to play 2 hours of his music every night with a killer band of some of my favourite players in the country is going to be a real treat. I'll be sure to post updates about exciting stuff that's happening on the tour here so stay tuned!