artist

My Life As A Bird

San Jose, CA

My Life As A Bird is the DIY project of Mike Keller. Keller grew up in the SF Bay Area and played his first show at his school’s junior high dance when he was in 5th grade. He played in punk bands through high school and college before joining Bay Area Mathcore fixtures NAME. After recording and touring with NAME, Keller was hired to join Technical Death Metal powerhouse The Red Chord (Metal Blade Records) from Boston. After packing a duffel bag and relocating to the east coast Keller toured the world opening for bands like Slipknot, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Cannibal Corpse. When that ended, Keller played some coffee shops under the My Life As A Bird moniker but mainly focused on Meek is Murder- a solo project turned Brooklyn “whatevercore” mainstays, opening for the likes of Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, and Periphery. They toured across the US and Europe and released 3 full length records produced by Kurt Ballou (Converge) and 2 EPs. Keller moved out of the big city and back to California in 2018 where he began living a quiet life with his family in San Jose. He made occasional My Life As A Bird demos over the years and contributed a cover of OLD CRAP for a Jeff Rosenstock tribute album before deciding it was time to make a full length album of emotional, guitar-drenched, 90’s power pop. This proved difficult with a full time job and a 2 year old but he recorded in his garage in 30 minute increments every day while his son was in the bath. He released “Sunflowers” in 2025 and both “The Cabana” and “Willow” in 2026. Both were written by, performed, recorded, and mixed by Keller in true DIY spirit.