Local Musician Michael Shynes Shares His Inspiring Journey

The St. Cloud area is blessed with plenty of local talent and I caught up with Little Falls native Michael Shynes to be featured in WJON's My Life series.

Early Years

Michael was born in Staples, Minnesota but grew up in Little Falls.  Michael's mother was a teacher and his father was a substitute teacher before he took a job working in the sporting goods department at Walmart in Little Falls.  Michael is the youngest of 3 boys born 4 years apart.  With 3 boys in the house he recalls the breaking of multiple doors and walls due to lots of heated sports competitions.

Sports

Michael says he was really into football, basketball and baseball growing up.  He says he was pretty average at each sport but he enjoyed them still.  Michael would play sports video games and keep track stats and he aspired to be a sports broadcaster.  He says this started when he was in 4th grade and continued into high school.

Musical Interests

Michael's interest in music didn't begin at an early age but started when he was in high school.  He had friends in a band and a couple members of the band moved out of state so he started singing with the band.  The name of the band was "Tomorrow's Forgotten". Shynes recalls kind of carrying a tune but he didn't think he was great.  He enjoyed the ability to express himself with music.

Off to College

After high school Michael bought his own computer microphone, recording software and a keyboard and started layering sounds.  He also learned to play guitar.  Michael went to St. John's University for 1 year before transferring to St. Cloud State.  He earned a Business Management degree from SCSU.  Michael recalls graduating and looking at job postings but he didn't feel interesting in pursuing the opportunities in that field.

Important College Job

While in college Michael had a work study job where he worked at the St. Cloud Children's home.  He worked with kids who had been abused, were chemically dependent...etc..  It was an on-call job so he picked up as many hours as needed while he worked music gigs on nights and weekends.  Michael says he was eventually able to let the music opportunities overtake the Children's home job.  He met his wife at the Children's home.  They both worked there.

Hustling

Michael recalls being aggressive in his musical career playing many different venues and events throughout the state.  He recalls doing a paid gig playing at Minnesota Wild coach Mike Yeo's house.  In St. Cloud he played many times at Pioneer Place, the Rox, the Tavern, and the Red Carpet.  He also played at Shotgun Sally's in Fargo every Tuesday night.  Michael played countless graduation and birthday parties, and weddings.

Hynes

Shynes is not Michael's given name.  He grew up as Michael Hynes but became Michael Shynes due to a college roommate nicknaming him, Shynes.  He says song writing was something he started doing as soon as he could play music.

Michael, his wife, a daughter and 2 sons live in rural South Haven.

If you'd like to listen to my 4-part conversation with Michael Shynes, click below.