Mike Doughty

Mike Doughty played bass in a high school band and started writing songs as soon as he picked up the bass. "When I could play two notes, I'd yell something over it and call it a song." By the time he entered the New School in New York City to study poetry, he'd delveoped his syncopated guitar style. "I listened to Public Enemy and tried to play their rhythms on guitar; with a combination of ineptitude and persistence, I started playing the rhythms within the melodies."

Doughty's solo career started with Skittish, a solo acoustic album Doughty made in 1996. His band Soul Coughing was signed to Warner Bros. Records. At the time, the label rejected Skittish, but it leaked and became a hit on Napster. After the band spilt in 2000, Doughty rented a car and started playing acoustic shows.