Michael Brian Oliva just released his first CD, but said he's forgotten about it already. Oliva said he has gone off the "creative deep end," already generating and recording new songs for his next CD.

"Most artists do that when they make a transition," Oliva said. "They forget about their past stuff."

However, the 19-year-old 2004 Milford High School graduate is taking some lessons from "Expressions," his first recording experience. He said he better mastered the art of recording, learning how to filter out background noise. Also, he narrowed his focus.

His debut CD is an "eclectic mix" of hard rock, reggae and "folky" music, but he now knows he excels at acoustic songs that sound more like two of his influences, Radiohead and Coldplay.

His CD is available for $15 at www.michaeloliva.com.

Oliva recorded and produced the CD in his basement, using his acoustic, electric and bass guitars, a drum machine and keyboards. He then could lay one track over the other using his computer.

He took his disc to Guitar Center, a store that helps artists release their CDs.

Guitar Center owns Disk Faktory, another company that duplicates the CDs, said Micah Hoosier, Guitar Center operations manager. Guitar Center allows artists to come in and for $385, make 100 copies of a CD. Guitar Center helps the artist with the artwork for the jewel case, the art of the disc itself and the distribution.

"It is really great, I just don't think many people know about it," Hoosier said.

Oliva seems to do anything he puts his mind to. He said music has always been "a love in my life, but I couldn't play anything."

So he taught himself to play a guitar his parents bought him his freshman year in high school. Then he began taking lessons at Buddy Roger's Music in Montgomery to hone his skills.

Then he joined a band, Something Real, with some people from his church, the Cincinnati Church of Christ in Deer Park. However, they did not have a singer. So he taught himself to sing.

Then, he taught himself the bass.

Now, as a solo artist, he taught himself to record to get his name and music out in the mainstream.

"He is following his dreams and his parents are there to support him in any way we can," said his mother, Janice Oliva. "We told him, 'We know if you are doing something you don't want to do, you will be unhappy, but this is a business. Learn everything you can so that if this doesn't pan out, you will have something to fall back on and will still be in the industry you love.'"

So this winter, he will head off to The Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio, for a five-week course in how to operate professional equipment. The program is one of the best in the nation and has graduates who have gone on to work with everyone from the Backstreet Boys and Amy Grant to the Smashing Pumpkins, Kenny Rodgers, Gwar and Bruce Hornsby and the Range.

Then, Oliva said he will probably attend UC Clermont College to study more of the technical end of recording.

"But that is just to get my foot in the back door," Oliva said. "I want to go for it, be a rock star."

mwilliamson@communitypress.com

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