Dear You,

I’m writing this to you in a letter. I just can’t think of any other way to explain to you where I’ve been, and where it is that I’m trying to go. This whole thing all started a few years ago when I was coming out of a too-serious relationship and decided I needed to travel. At that point, and still today, I was Pittsburgh through and through. I had immigrant, coal mining, steel mill working great grandparents; coal mining and steel mill working grandparents; and “first kids to go to college” parents who worked two jobs each when I was growing up. I can’t imagine that my upbringing was too dissimilar to many other kids growing up around Pittsburgh in the 90′s. I thought I would marry young, have kids young, and ...

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Dear You,

I’m writing this to you in a letter. I just can’t think of any other way to explain to you where I’ve been, and where it is that I’m trying to go. This whole thing all started a few years ago when I was coming out of a too-serious relationship and decided I needed to travel. At that point, and still today, I was Pittsburgh through and through. I had immigrant, coal mining, steel mill working great grandparents; coal mining and steel mill working grandparents; and “first kids to go to college” parents who worked two jobs each when I was growing up. I can’t imagine that my upbringing was too dissimilar to many other kids growing up around Pittsburgh in the 90′s. I thought I would marry young, have kids young, and break my back all week to raise my kids, just like everyone else that came before me. And then I ran away one summer to Australia, and my worldview fell to pieces. I couldn’t believe how big and beautiful the world was. I felt like my life had gone from a prescribed one track route to “wow, you mean I can work as an immigrant farmer for 6 months and live on the Great Barrier Reef?!” It was at that point that I tried to conceptualize how beautiful God’s creation was through the only means of expression I had: music. So I started writing my own songs.

aboutSix years went by before I felt like I could be a real musician. Between Australia and now, I have been extremely blessed. However, I also feel like I have worked tirelessly for every accomplishment. At St. Vincent College, I played basketball and I was captain of one of the most winning teams in history. We won a conference championship and we were undefeated at home for two years. I moved on to play professionally in England, where I was blessed with great friends and teammates from all over the world. We won the league title my first year and I was named to the All-England team. I went on to help England win a gold medal in an international tournament against Northern Ireland, Scotland and Whales. All the while, I never stopped writing and playing music. I would book gigs on our off days and play in pubs in England whenever and where ever I could. I recorded a single called “All I See is You” that went to #3 on the iTunes singer/songwriter charts in Luxemborg. I continued to enjoy success as a professional basketball player and life was good. And then I decided to walk away from basketball. I still think I did the right thing. My body was breaking down after a few surgeries and I felt like my time was up.

I moved back to England for a third year and I picked up two residencies playing music in pubs and I was also teaching Sociology, Psychology and Law at a high school. I was gigging pretty consistently and I began playing with a band that we called the Redcoats. As “Mike Medved and the Redcoats,” we filmed a music video and we were playing some great gigs. Everything was going well. Then one day I got a phone call about a job back home in Pittsburgh. My parents are getting a little older and I was feeling like an absentee son. All of the sacrifices they made for our family were really weighing on me and I decided that I wanted to enjoy more time with my mom, dad, sister and the rest of my family. When I was awarded the teaching job in Pittsburgh, I packed my bags and left everything behind. I think about that decision, and the people from my life in England, a lot.

I still miss Leeds everyday. And the crumbling of the two year relationship I was in there is something I don’t let myself think about, although it emerges in almost every one of my songs, in some way, shape or form. I have a day job, a career most would say, and I could easily live out my days stress and worry free. However, I can’t stop playing music. I can’t stop writing. Music feels like it lives at the very depths of me. I couldn’t locate it if I tried to, but I can channel it from time to time, and when I do, I write a song. The band and I have worked very hard, because hard work is the only thing we know. We have a live album, and what I think is an optimistic future. Our past details a lot of fun shows at places like Stage AE, the Hard Rock Cafe, Club Cafe, The South Side Works Stage, the Three Rivers Arts Festival and many many others. I’ve also had the privilege of sharing the stage with some fantastic artists from all over the world. I can only hope that our future is promising and that the tireless musician inside of me continues to dream big. Lastly, thank you for reading this letter. You are the biggest piece to this puzzle. I hope our paths cross in the near future.

All the best,

Mike

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