Micheal Pacheco and Pete Compton, formerly of The Slants, have been through a lot together, including five prior bands, before bringing their long-time, studio-only side project into the limelight. Lakeshore Driving is the musical manifestation of their longtime friendship, with nostalgic beginnings in an elevator at a New Orleans goth music festival in 2000. Though their music has changed styles since then, the way that they create music has not. Admittedly selfish and made to please no one but themselves, the 1980’s influenced elecro-pop sound takes two forms ? the brooding band with shoegaze and new wave influence, and the DJ name Micheal uses in Tokyo’s mega-trendy club scene. At first, they seem like two completely different sounds, but after listening to a couple tracks it is evident that the sounds are merely different personalities produced by the same entity.

Lakeshore Driving has been the musical foundation between Micheal and Pete since recording their first track together in 2001. Now, solidified as an official unit they produce, remix, and write music without compromise.

Describing their niche as part of an alternative electro-pop movement, they produce tracks heavily influenced by the new wave and post punk sounds of the late 1970s and 1980s. When asked about their opinion of conforming to popular music, Lakeshore Driving feels that “if the music dictates conformity, we’ll conform,” showing how genuinely raw their music is.

In recent years, Lakeshore Driving finds themselves on different continents. 2009 saw Micheal move across the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo, Japan while Pete remained in their hometown Portland, Oregon. Micheal found the fast-paced Tokyo lifestyle both inspiring and motivating, and any initial concerns about the change of location were proven to be unnecessary. Through many years of friendship and practical use of the internet as a means to communicate and collaborate, their music has not suffered the distance. The current state of Lakeshore represents this new stage in their friendship.

Lakeshore Driving has DJ residency at Emotional Signal, a club in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. In addition to playing at some of Japan’s trendiest nightclubs, Micheal and Pete have played throughout the United States, as well as in Germany and Canada. Lakeshore Driving also performed at three feature venues for the 2nd Annual Japan Music Week (2010). Although Micheal DJs alone, the produced sound is still recognizably Lakeshore.

Micheal’s love of what Lakeshore Driving represents can be summed up in a few words that carry so much meaning: “Music in Lakeshore is so easy.”

iFLYER