Hey, how's it going?
MY LIFE IS SOOOOOOOOO WEIRD!
Hello,
I'm Mike D'Amato: A multimedia maniac! What does that mean exactly? Well, it just means I like to do a lot of things really! I grew up home schooled! Became one of those millennials in college that loved learning but had no idea what he wanted to do career wise. (Believe it or not I gambled between doctor and plumber very briefly. VERY briefly) I've had a love for making videos and video series since I was a young lad! I am also endlessly fascinated with what's called Flash animation. In case you don't know what that is, it's a lot of what the internet had before social media and video took over. Flash animation was a big part of online entertainment from the late 90s to mid 2000s before youtube. I was deeply influenced by some prominent artists. Most of all by a long-time animator and flash game artist: Jeremy Lokken who is (Maybe was by now?) also located in my state of Washington but unfortunately, on the east side in Spokane. I've never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, but we have talked online plenty and collaborated on one project that never really took off but was fun nonetheless: Christian Bale Shorts Part 1 (newgrounds.com)
Unfortunately, in 2015 I had to accept the fact that animation was just too difficult for me alone. I had many ideas for some disturbed bizarre flash shorts and series, strongly influenced by the amazing work Jeremy had done, but I simply lacked the skills and patience for animation. All my illustrating throughout my content should be an obvious example of that. So, while I might still do some basic simpler animation from time to time in my videos, I would definitely not put "animator" on my resume anywhere because that market is not where I shine even a little.
Regardless of animating, I still love to create videos a lot! I also fell in love with creating what some may arguably call: Audio Art or Sound Art/Noise music. Around 2012, I became obsessed with this culture, the span of artists from the early 20th century to present and its different genres that deeply fascinated me throughout much of my young adult life. I eventually started a project called 0Hamwich0 in the summer of 2012 and simply worked organically, creating sound collages and burning them to CDrs, thus starting my own pitiful label: Droid-Tunes which never took off with much momentum but is still running to this day:
Droid-Tunes Label | Releases | Discogs
Q&A:
Do you have any family in the industry?
Unfortunately, no. Not that I know of. Most of Mom and Dad's family check out. I have one sister, 2 that are in-laws and 4 brothers in-law and am quite confident that they do not live a double life in film. Until now that is.... Nah, JK! I am being the funny man! It's just weird old me!
What are your thoughts on cancel culture?
Umm.... It sucks! It's there! But it's not bothering me too much and as long as I make fun of it, I consider that a worthy form of protest! So, yeah! Now is where I'd make a face and go PFFFFFF! Or something... Wow, it's nice to offer some fresh frame of mind isn't it?
What can we expect from a show like yours to bring to the internet in this bizarre time of the 2020s?
Basically, a shit-take on the times, but specifically in thought experiments given the unrealistic nature that my content contributes to. I find that trying to relate in the real world is a bit dull and warn out of a concept. It's a lot more fun to just create content where one is waking up to pure nightmare fueled nihilism every day. It just seems more like the concept a weird internet world demands at this point. WOOOPY!