Mike Doughty

Singer, songwriter

Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mike Doughty (pronounced "doe-ee") first gained recognition as the vocalist and lyricist for the 1990s New York musical group Soul Coughing, whose jazz-inflected instrumentals were perfectly matched to Doughty's grainy vocals and abstract lyrics. When the group disbanded in 2000, Doughty embarked on a solo career. He self-released two albums before recording 2005's Haughty Melodic for friend Dave Matthews's ATO Records label.

Doughty was born June 10, 1970, in Fort Knox, Kentucky. His parents served in the military and raised him in various places in Europe and the United States, including the military academy at West Point. Doughty attended Simon's Rock College of Bard, an exclusive liberal arts college in Massachusetts. He later studied poetry at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where feminist singer Ani DiFranco was one of his classmates.

In June of 1992, under the moniker "M. Doughty," he founded the band Soul Coughing, along with sample player Mark De Gli Antoni, upright bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and drummer Yuval Gabay. He coined the term "deep slacker jazz" to describe the band's sound, which featured Doughty's voice, samples of various jazz elements, cool acoustic bass lines, and precise drum work. His emphatic, muscular vocals were melodic enough to suit the band's jazz flavor, but were delivered in a Beatnik style that showed off his humor and poetic sense. At its peak, Soul Coughing opened for the Dave Matthews Band on two national tours. On the strength of these and other performances, Warner Brothers signed them to a deal and issued three albums: Ruby Vroom in 1994, Irresistible Bliss in 1996, and El Oso in 1998. Three singles attracted significant attention: "Screenwriter's Blues" from their first album, "Super Bon Bon" from Irresistible Bliss, and the catchy "Circles" from El Oso. Soul Coughing tunes were showcased in the movies Batman and Robin, Tommy Boy, and Spawn, and were featured in the television programs Homicide: Life on the Street and The X-Files. Despite the band's successes and cult status, financial and proprietary disputes took their toll, and in 2000 Soul Coughing folded. Mark De Gi Antoni took on a series of soundtrack projects, Sebastian Steinberg began working with David Byrne and Neil Finn, and Yuval Gabay formed the band UV Ray. Soul Coughing's best work was compiled on the 2002 release Lust in Phaze.

The period immediately following Soul Coughing's break-up was personally and financially rough for Doughty. He fought heroin addiction and enjoyed only modest success in concert. Operating out of a rental car, he played to small audiences around the country and sold copies of a self-recorded CD titled Skittish. The collection was recorded in a single day and remained on the shelf for several years before Doughty decided to test the market. Thanks to file sharing on the Internet, it became known to a core group of diehard fans. More than 25,000 copies later, Doughty had established enough of a following to play larger venues. "In Soul Coughing, there was always the question of whether or not I was the songwriter; whether the song was more important than the playing," Doughty was quoted in the biography on his website. "Even stuff that I really loved, songs that I wrote in a very traditional way and brought to the band, I didn't really feel a sense of ownership towards. So just to make something and wholeheartedly own it as a writer, as a performer, as a singer—that is incredible."

While he continued to perform Soul Coughing favorites like "Circles" and "Janine," Doughty used his time on the road to hone his solo act. The 2002 release Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis documented his growing abilities as a songwriter, singer and guitarist. He skillfully interacted with his audience, filling the gaps between numbers with witty pop culture references and personal observations. He followed this with a self-recorded studio EP entitled Rockity Roll, which added a Roland Groovebox to the mix. The original releases of Smofe and Rockity eventually went out of print, but a double set of Skittish and Rockity Roll was reissued.

During the period between 2003 and 2005, Doughty painstakingly recorded Haughty Melodic (an anagram of Michael Doughty) with the help of Dan Wilson, whose production work included the Dixie Chicks as well as his own band, Semisonic. Unlike his earlier work, this set was lavishly produced, with multi-tracked vocals, guitars, keyboards, and horns. Some critics found that Haughty Melodic lacked the spontaneity and raw feeling of the artist's earlier material, but most agreed the extra polish helped Doughty secure a wider audience. The album produced a hit single and video, "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well," and featured benefactor Dave Matthews's vocals on "Tremendous Brunettes." The lyrics on Haughty were more positive and reflective, possibly due to Doughty's personal growth and his recovery from heroin addiction. He described the difference in an article in the Reno Gazette-Journal: "I used to get stoned a lot, and now I don't. That's a very earthy explanation, I guess. I was wasted. Also, I've gotten older. Things change. You kinda chill out."

In 2005 he opened his "Small Rock World Tour" in Washington, D.C., and cemented the success of four solo CD's into a record contract on Dave Matthews's label. As he explained to the Denver Westword, "I was playing Bonnaroo in a little tiny tent and Dave was playing on this big gigantic stage in front of 70,000 people. I bumped into his wife and she brought me backstage to meet him. I handed him some rough mixes, he called me a genius, and he signed me to his label."

Having made the transition from hip-hop front man to solo genius, Doughty's next move was to hit the road with new keyboardist Jack Kirby, a gifted Fender Rhodes player. Doughty announced plans to perform and record several songs accompanied only by Kirby. Doughty also earned a spot as the opening act for cheeky Canadian pop group Bare Naked Ladies on their 2006 tour. In the meantime, he actively blogged on all topics and maintained a website announcing concert and recording release dates.

Selected discography

With Soul Coughing

Ruby Vroom, Slash/Warner Brothers, 1994.
Irresistable Bliss, Slash/Warner Brothers, 1996.
El Oso, Warner Brothers, 1998.
Live Tokyo: Japan 03.02.97, Kufala, 2003.
Berlin/Amsterdam 1997, Kufala, 2005.
Live Rarities, Kufala, 2005.
New York, NY: 16.08.99, Kufala, 2005.
Rennes, France, Kufala, 2005.

Solo Releases

Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis, 2002.
Skittish and Rockity Roll (reissue), ATO, 2004.
Haughty Melodic, ATO, 2005.

For the Record …

Born in Fort Knox, KY, in 1970.

Member of Soul Coughing, 1992–2000; released solo effort, Skittish, 2000; released Haughty Melodic, 2005.

Addresses: Record company—ATO Records, Publicist Little Big Man Publicist, andy@littlebigman.com. Mike Doughty e-mail: md@mikedoughty.com.

Sources

Periodicals

Buffalo News, June 14, 2006.

Denver Westword, September 7, 2006.

Reno Gazette-Journal, September 8, 2006.

Online

All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (Nov. 1, 2006).

Mike Doughty Official Website, http://www.mikedoughty.com (Nov. 1, 2006).