By Dave Decrescente
Mihali Savoulidis
Alexander Graham Bell once said, “When one door closes, another door opens.” That quote rings true for Mihali Savoulidis, whose band Twiddle just ended 18 years of touring with their three-night Frendsgiving celebration at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, last month Nov. 24-26.
Mihali is now turning his attention to his solo career, which he’s been doing alongside touring with Twiddle. He’s kicking it off with two nights of “Mihalidaze” at the Pickle Barrel Nightclub in Killington, Dec. 28-29. Night 1 features a rare “Gubbulidis” set with Twiddle bassist Zdenek Gubb and Mihali. That’s a looping show where they do a lot of Twiddle songs, but in a different style. Night 2 welcomes back Mihali for a jam-filled evening of Mihali and friends, including Gubb on bass, Adrian Tramontano (Twiddle) on drums, Scott Hannay on keys with special guests G. Love and Brandon “Taz” Niederauer. That show will be a little bit of everything: covers, Mihali’s originals and possibly a super jam.
After Killington, he’ll jump to The Met in Rhode Island on Dec. 30, but is back in Vermont the next night, Dec. 31, for an early, family-friendly, New Year’s Eve show at the Middlebury Town Hall Theater 7 p.m.
His 2024 starts with the Winter Sessions, a four-week Wednesday residency at the Pickle Barrel, starting Jan. 3. Each show will be different, with friends and special guests. He’ll be announcing those details soon.
In February he goes on tour with The Movement.
Adrian Tramontano on drums and Scott Hannay on keys are part of Mihali’s band. Mihali said, “I’ve been listening to Adrian since I’ve been 14. It’s been a real blast to play with him for these past however many years, on a regular basis, so I’m looking forward to continuing that. Scott is a fabulous piano player, guitar player. We go way back with him, he’s toured with Twiddle. For the past two years, he’s been my guitar tech with Twiddle. We’ve been hip-to-hip for a minute.”
Mihali is really looking forward to night two of “Mihalidaze.” He said, “Garrett (G. Love) is the man. He’s like my big brother, I definitely look up to him a lot, he’s always got the best advice. What a guy and what a player. That man can freestyle over anything, it’s so dope. I don’t have enough good things to say about Garrett.”
They have a song together, “Strongest of our Kind” off Mihali’s first solo record, “Breathe and Let Go.” Mihali added, “Taz can literally play any song on the face of the planet. He’s the greatest guitar player I’ve ever heard. I haven’t met anyone with that much raw talent before. I’ve known him since he was 12 (20 now) when he started playing with Twiddle and he’s played with us almost every year since that. Every single time I play with him, he’s so much better than the last time I played with him. It’s fun watching him do his thing, and he’s got an amazing voice too so I’m looking forward to the music he’ll be putting out in the next few years. It’s going to be amazing. I was stoked that they wanted to come up and play. It’s going to be pretty fun.”
Mihali has been working on some new material and will be releasing it throughout the next year. He said, “I plan on touring as much as I can and getting this music out to the world.”
He has two solo albums out now, the aforementioned “Breathe and Let Go” produced by Eric Krasno and his latest album “Effection” produced by Nathan Feinstein.
Mihali said, “He’s an incredible reggae producer out of California. I have some singles and features I did in the past year that have been put out more recently.”
Mihali did “Light it Up” with Collie Buddz on his album “Cali Roots Riddim” which has been nominated for a Grammy. He added, “It’s funny I wrote a song about weed and there you go.”
When talking about Red Rocks (which is on my bucket list) Mihali said, “It’s incredible. It’s the best place I’ve played in the country. It’s special, there’s no doubt about it. It’s pretty sacred to all musicians who’ve played there. I’m very fortunate, I’ve got to play it five or six times and I’m looking forward to going back.”
Mihali was born in New York, moved to New Jersey when he was 3 years old and attended Castleton in 2004, where Twiddle was born.
He’s visited Vermont almost every summer growing up. He said, “I feel I always knew I was going to end up here.”
He started on guitar and sang in the church choir when he was younger. He said, “Guitar was always my secret passion. I started playing seriously when I was 12 and then slowly on my own got good, basically playing Dave Matthews songs and stuff like that. My mom recognized I was at least pretty good at it and I liked it so she invested in some lessons and pushed me to focus on that. I wasn’t a very studious person so she invested in my music, supported it, encouraged it. You know, it worked out.”
Mihali has written about 90% of Twiddle’s songs. He dedicates time to writing music. He said, “It takes so much focus. I consider myself the middleman. I don’t really know what I’m going to be writing about. For the most part I write some chords and the words just sort of come to me. A lot of times I don’t know what the song’s about until the first verse is over and I have a hook. It’s interesting, it all sort of comes when it happens. If it’s not coming, I don’t try and force it. I’ll take a break and come back to it. I just let it flow, as they say.”
Mihali, who has three kids ages 8, 5 and 2, is looking forward to his New Year’s Eve show. He said, “It’s a lovely show in my hometown, I can bring my kids, it’s over by 10 and it’s right down the street. I don’t have to go far.”
Mihali feels the stage is sacred for him and said, “It’s like church. The hour I’m up there is the only time I can completely turn off, just be really in the moment. Not have to think about bills or kids or anything, really be there in a sharing situation because you’re sharing the energy with the crowd. I love writing songs and recording them, that process has been fun and I’ve been getting way more into it the past few years but it will never replace what it’s like to play one of your songs and have someone sing along or be in it, in the moment.”
For more information, visit mihalimusic.com. He’s on Facebook under Mihali and Spotify, Soundcloud, Instagram and YouTube under Mihali Music.
