Michael has been writing and recording with some relative seriousness since he was in his early teens. He remembers, reading a bio of Jim Morrison while on family vacation to Canada’s capital city. Upon return home to Etobicoke, he immediately started to grow his hair out, brooded-badly writing poetry about smoking and girls and… well, the rest is his-story.
After a few vain short lived attempts at folk n’ roll stardom in the early 1990’s – memorably, as the “Michael Stype”(Kid fears… he nailed it btw) in an Indigo Girls styled acoustic foursome called “The Chosen Few” who’s claim to fame was a live “recording ” at Bob Wismans studio, he graduated into the real world and freedom of Ottawa’s Carleton University. Day one of frosh week he joined forces with Greg Brayford and formed The Belfast Cowboys. Neither equal parts celtic nor country they were coined “REM on Horse Steroids” and managed to eek out a meek musical existence hustling gigs around Ontario and the East coast for a number of years, before (dum dum dum) major heartbreak pushed Michael out of Ottawa and on the run. A new love in his sights and a short stint playing music in Vancouver and Michael moved back to Toronto with long time friend and band mate Andrew Long to form Tilda in a sweaty storage closet in a 2500 sq foot loft in Toronto’s what was then a very gritty urban Liberty Village.
After some travel, 2006 found Michael moving back into Ottawa, married while despite the distance still playing as Tilda with old Belfast Cowboy bandmates. Tilda fizzled out shortly after and Michael started playing bass and recording as part of the Ottawa/Chelsea band The Flats ( now St. Stephens and playing bass in Thats The Spirit /orienteers.
At some point Michael remembers having a vivid fever dream, of a WWII Bomber Pilot who crash landed in an ocean. Haunted by his dream for the next two years Michael obsessively started writing and demoing before stepping unceremoniously and regret ably away from the Flats to try and record “Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor”. What was supposed to be a solo effort quickly grew into a band, with Brennen Pilkington, Tom Thompson, Andrew Long and Nicolas Dyson and poof, Tilda was re born!
Michael and Tilda took the record on the road, playing wherever any one would listen around Ontario and out east, and in between trips began recording and was on the edge of releasing a follow up record, Matter of Time in 2020, when pandemic hit hard and disrupted and destroyed any momentum they built.
They were set adrift until 2024, when finally stars aligned leading them back on stage. Not looking back Michael has plans to release and perform a tonne of new material in spring 2025, both solo and with the band telling their side of the pandemic story.
Press:
“If Michael Peterson and TILDA weren’t completely satisfied to rather quietly release albums in between bouts of “real life” he and his band would surely be in the ears of indie-folk lovers across the nation. In a music scene too often leaning toward quirk, Michael Peterson’s often-hushed velvet voice feeds us smart lyrics while his bandmates’ experience delicately elevates the story-songs with gentle panache. The trumpet is a lovely back-up vocalist on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor. Riots of 31 is a perfect example of the introspective totally sweet folk poppy perfection that is Tilda”
– Amanda Putz – CBC In Town and Out Music Columnist/ Host of Bandwith
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