Zee, Michael (Michael Zweig)

Websites:  http://fabulousknockouts.com/
Origin: Toronto, Ontario
Biography:

Michael Zweig has been writing and performing for more than 30 years. He got his start in the late 70's playing guitar for such local legends as Ray Materick, Lisa Hartt, Peter Foldy, and Bob Segarini. In 1984 he signed to Ready Records under the name Michael Zee, and recorded his first record, an EP, called Five-Seven, Maybe Five-Eight, which spawned the mini-hit I've Got News For You.

Throughout the rest of the 80's, Zweig toured Ontario and Eastern Canada with The Knockouts. The Knockouts became Seventh Son, and released a self-titled album. This album contained two more mini-hits, "She's Insane", and Going Downtown. The band dissolved shortly after that.

In the 90's, Zweig wrote, played, sang jingles, moved to L.A. and back, and finally started his own jingle company. The company has written and produced spots for Ford, GM, Sears, Adidas and many others. It is also responsible for the current Home Hardware and Ontario Place campaigns.

In 2000 he joined Toronto party band The Carpet Frogs, toured Canada with Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman (including Live 8), and played on their Jukebox CD. He also played with Tom Cochrane. He can sometimes be heard Saturday night on Hockey Night In Canada as the co-writer and performer of The Place'll Be Rockin' 'Cause It's Saturday Night.

I started out as a guitar player. That lead to singing and writing. I made a few records under the name ‘Michael Zee’, and with a band called Seventh Son. (They still pop up on eBay or collector sites. Google it, but let’s not talk about the hair.)

I’ve done work for all sizes of agencies and clients, from car dealerships to car manufacturers, from local restaurants to national chains, and for all sizes of budgets.

As well as sound design, I still write jingles, including a number for Home Hardware, as well as negotiating the rights for, and adapting, popular songs, like Ontario Place’s “Kids Just Wanna Have Fun” campaign. I've done music and SFX on Facebook Apps for Honda, Kokanee,and Stella Artois, among others, video game trailers, and online ads. I'm also a freelance writer. You may have hired me without knowing it. Ha!

I scored the movie "When Jews Were Funny", written and directed by, of all people, Alan Zweig (yes my brother) which won the 2013 Best Canadian Feature Award at TIFF. The music was that good! I also did the score for the documentary “There Is A House Here”, oddly also by my brother. I may need to expand my circle of directors.

And I’m still a guitar player. I tour with Burton Cummings. Tom Cochrane introduced me to an audience as “Paul Simon’s little brother”. I played at Live 8. I had Del Shannon’s home phone number. Bo Diddley taught me how to tell when pork has gone bad. Gary Lewis caught me imitating his father, Jerry.
But enough about me.

Specialties: If I can hear an example, I can do it. I'm small, which I prefer to think of as nimble. I can work with almost any budget. I can do everything in my office or have live players in a recording studio, and everything in between, including using your studio. I'm plucky. Do people still like that?