Michale Graves

In the fall of 1995 Michale Graves was nineteen and recording a demo in Lodi, New Jersey with his little known band “Mopes” when the owner mentioned that some of his friends were looking for a singer and that he might be what they were looking for. After some contemplation, Michale made a phone call to schedule an audition that would ultimately change the course of his life forever. On Halloween night in 1995 after a brief appearance on stage at The Roseland Ballroom in New York City, he became the lead singer and played his first official gig at a club called Coney Island High with one of the most legendary punk rock bands of all time, the Misfits. During Michale’s six year tenure with The Misfits, they headlined and supported tours with bands such as Marilyn Manson, Megadeth, Anthrax, GWAR and Life of Agony. During this time they released three major albums. In 1996 The Misfits recorded their first album in almost twenty years entitled “American Psycho”, which was released by Geffen Records. The Misfits next release was a live album entitled, “Evil Live II”. It was a collection of live songs taken from shows on the relentless and very successful American Psycho Tour. October 1999 marked a third studio album called “Famous Monsters” released by Roadrunner Records. That year, Japan’s premier rock n roll publication, “Burrn Magazine”, voted Michale Graves “Vocalist of the Year”. Famous Monsters went on to become the biggest selling title ever for Roadrunner Japan. Michale appeared in several films including George Romero’s film “Bruiser” and Insane Clown Posses’ “Big Money Hustlas” which was released by Island Def Jam and held the nations #1 home video sales position for weeks. Michale and The Misfits released music videos of their own including the “American Psycho” video which was listed on the Sonicnet chart at #2, book-ended by Backstreet Boys videos at #1 & #3. The videos had also repeatedly been on top of several online charts, listed as the “most downloaded videos on the net” with online outlets like Sonicnet. “Dig Up Her Bones” was premiered on MTV’s 120 minutes. Aside from his movie appearances, Michale made television appearances on Ted Turners’ “WCW Monday Nitro”, “Thursday Thunder” and a pair of Pay-Per-Views. He also appeared in “WCW Magazine”, including a centerfold and an exclusive write-up about the band along with their wrestling partner Vampiro. After his departure with The Misfits Michale immediately co-founded a new band with fellow ex-Misfits drummer Dr. Chud simply called Graves. They independently released “Web of Dharma” supported by two American tours. However the band split up and left Michale with alot of original material that was left unheard. Loki, who was a part of the Graves road crew, joined Mike and started collaborating on music for the band, but the end result was a transformation in the style of music. This change was a contributing factor to the events that would later pave the way for the new band called Gotham Road. Under the assumed name of Graves they recorded a 5 song demo in January of 2003. The demo consisted of 3 songs from the “Web of Dharma” era that were re-recorded and 2 previously unreleased songs. As the band continued to write and grow musically the decision was made to change the name to Gotham Road. Gotham Road released the Seasons Of The Witch EP and toured several times before going on hiatus while Michale was in the Marines. While in the Marines, Michale was honorably discharged for hurting his back. Soon after, he was asked by Horror High Records to record a solo album and tour in support of it. The album, called Punk Rock Is Dead, released June 2005, put Gotham Road on hold once again. After Michale completed the Punk Rock Is Dead Tour, Gotham Road started to play shows once again. It is not known if Gotham Road will become Michale’s full time project again, or if he will continue with his solo career. Graves identifies himself as a "capitalist punk, railing against the left."