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by Travis Duncan

Mike Clark's performance of his song, "Hey Daisy" on Tejon Street last Sunday captured the attention of a lot of people this past week. As of Saturday morning, the YouTube video of Clark playing a guitar and riding his bike no-handed for 3 minutes and 18 seconds while also singing and playing his guitar was at 2,657 views ... and the video was only posted on September 5, just five days ago. I talked with Clark on Friday about how he decided to make this video.

Where did the simultaneous singing/cycling idea come from? Was it just a spur of the moment thing?
I had the idea for a long time. For over a year, actually. The filmmaker, Kevin Ihle, and I had this idea to make another video on a reservoir with a boat and stuff. We talked and I told him that I had this other idea for a quick video instead of a big overproduced thing. He said, “I want to make that immediately." A couple weeks went by. I sent him a message last Sunday saying, “You wanna make that bike video tomorrow?” He wrote me back on Monday saying, “I’m free at four,” and we just went for it. 

How did the shoot go? Was the video on YouTube your first take?
Kevin was riding in the backseat, shooting out of the open hatch of a Volkswagen Golf. We did it in a single shot – in one straight take. We didn’t cut away or do any edits. It's just a single take take from start to finish. The video on YouTube was our second take. During the first one, we had to figure out how fast the car should go to keep up. Then we got it right on the second time. 

Why’d you decide on North Tejon?
I drove around in the few hours before we met up. We were going to do Corona because it’s nice and wide. But there was way more traffic. There weren't too many intersections right there on North Tejon and it happened to work out.
 

It says on your Facebook page that you love bikes. Are you just into human-powered transportation or are you a competitive cyclist?
Not so much anymore. That bike in the video is just for riding around, for going to coffee and breakfast on the weekends. Five years ago I was a professional trials rider. I did that from age 22 to 27. I rode trials constantly. I even got to the pro level and competed. I actually ranked number one in the expert class one year in the United States as a trials rider. There are pictures on Facebook under the album "Young Me" doing that stuff. The young me used to ride trials all the time. Mountain biking, downhill riding and ridge riding. But my knees and back don’t like all the years I did the trials so I don’t really do it anymore. But that’s really where I probably got the balance for riding no-handed. I can go no-handed indefinitely. But it (the shoot on North Tejon) was actually a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. 

I heard you grew up locally in Calhan. Did your love for bikes start there?
Yeah, that was my only means of transportation for lots of years as a kid. I might have hit some sidewalk jumps, but I just rode around, really. I didn’t pursue competitive bicycling until my twenties.

How'd you get started in trials riding?
A friend of mine that I actually went to high school with said, "I think I’m going to try mountain biking." We went and got some good cheap-looking bikes – a  Mongoose for both of us from Wal-Mart. We went to Palmer Park every weekend for six months and just destroyed those bikes; we broke the shelf, the gears, the brakes off of them. I got hooked and really liked riding the more technical areas. I just really like rocks and trying to go over them. I met this guy at a bicycle shop that showed me a video of trials riders and that was it for me. I sold all my other bikes and got a trials bike. I bought one of those and did it every single day for years and years and years.

What makes a good trials rider?
Trials riders are different kinds of people. Overall, they’re really persistent. It takes lots and lots of patience to be able to do that sport. And it’s really hard to get past a certain level, but some people are really dedicated. If you’ve followed it at all lately, the sport has just gotten ridiculous. People jumping from building to building, going up eight-foot-tall walls from a standstill. I can’t imagine even trying some of that stuff.

What are some of the craziest tricks you’ve done?
I don’t know. I’ve ridden on a cable for twelve feet. Ridden down rails, jumped across buildings, up the side of a car. I've jumped off 10-foot-tall buildings right down to the asphalt. I've jumped lots of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.

Did you start playing music growing up in Calhan as well?
No, actually. I started playing music when I was 27 years old, when I was about done with bikes, one of my trials rider friends had started playing the guitar. It seemed like something fun to do. We went on a trip riding bikes to the Northwest. I bought a harmonica in a store up there and I learned how to play it a bit on the way back. We got home, I got a guitar, and I’ve been going at that as hard as I can ever since. There for awhile, there was an overlap with bikes and music. But once my knees started to give out, I took on the music scene full time.

Part of the appeal to me personally about this video is that I have a recurring dream that always combines sports with playing music. Like I’ll be running in a football game, but there will be a guitar in my hands and I’ve got to hit the right note to keep from getting tackled.
I have a recurring dream where I can fly, but I have to flap my arms really hard to keep them going. I can only go a few hundred feet at a time, so it’s kind of a curse, you know. Oh and zombie dreams, when I’m stressed out. I'll have dreams where I’m just in a world of zombies that are overwhelming.

Do you think you'll make any more sports/music mashups like this?
No, I’ve got no other projects like that on the horizon. It just happened to work out the way it did. Right now I feel like it’d be hard to make a video to keep up with that one. I feel like if I’d have crashed, the video would have had a million hits! Last I checked, it's at about 2,000 views. I sure hope it keeps going.

I asked you a lot about cycling, but where can folks come watch you play music next?
I'll be playing with The Haunted Windchimes at Swallow Hill in Denver on Saturday night. Then on Sunday night, I'll be playing a show at the Black Sheep with my band, The Ghost of Michael Clark. It's a gypsy folk thing. The Ghost of Michael Clark has a new album coming out October 28. It's called "Bound to Break."