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The Ultimate Live Music Experience

How did Mike & Carrie get their start?

It started out with a guy, a girl, a big red guitar, a tambourine and a practice space in West Peoria. A few magical things happened in the first months. A bar owner threw a hundred dollars in one dollar bills over our heads, our Myspace friends increased by 3000, and we were asked by well known organizations to play their annual events such as the Beer Fest and the Peoria Rubber Duck Races.

We were shocked to see how well we were received. In other words, we found that the peoria local music scene really needed a breath of fresh air. That became our mission: Always offer something new and exciting at our show. In this process, we realized that Mike could beat box, Carrie could play guitar and we could create a bigger sound. We wanted to see just how big two people could sound so our next level was to use a looper. This would record Mike's Beat Box and guitar sounds. This worked and we started booking bigger clubs on the weekends.

At that point we were the only acoustic group in town that was considered a weekend worthy BAND. That's when we started thinking about putting a full band together. We knew we wanted to be really current but when we laid all the pieces out on the table we realized that we needed a 12 piece band and a small orchestra behind us to create all the digital sounds of todays music. Thinking outside of the box we decided to use our creativity and implemented a DJ who could help us fill in the missing parts. Little did we know, we would get so much more! It took us a few weeks to wrap our heads around this concept of putting a DJ with live performers and not be just cornered as a Rap group or an R&B group. We came up with a way to do it all, Rock, Pop, R&B, Dance... anything under the sun is possible. As we all know, todays music is being recycled, so all this came together at the right time. We knew we had something and we had to do run with it.

How has adding a new person to the band changed the Mike & Carrie Show?

Before we were Mike & Carrie and now we are Mike & Carrie featuring DJay E. :)

Why did you decide to add a DJ to your show when you've already established yourself as a well known group in Peoria?

Everybody that has seen us has told us that we could be playing in bigger cities. Not only did we notice local people giving us our props but people visiting from St. Louis and Chicago wanted us to play in their city. This breath of fresh air was apparently needed on a bigger level as well. Deciding to put a show together with a DJ was even unique to their markets.

What type of music do you play?

If it's on the radio, if its in the top ten right now and if it has a dance/club beat, we're playing it!

We play a mashup of todays most popular songs with songs from the past.

With a girl singer we're able to do many of the most popular songs that no other band in this area are capable of doing.

Our running joke is that if Timberland produced it... we've played it.

We are a Pop/Rock/R&B mashup group.

We demonstrate how everything that is was once was. All the samples from past songs are in the present songs.

Every age group can appreciate what we're doing because you'll know the songs for sure.

If you aren't dancing at our show then you're more or less likely an employee of the bar. (But most of them are dancing as well!)

There are ten live bands playing in Peoria tonight... Why should I come and see you?

We are The Ultimate Live Music Experience because we are a DJ and a live band in one! Groups have put DJ's on stage before, but never like this! It's something you truly have to see to believe.

Mike looks familiar... how do I know him?

Mike has been in the music scene in Peoria for around 8 years. He started out as the lead singer of Tru-Dat and for 5 years they conquered the music scene. They became the first 99X house band and opened up for a ton of national artists including... Papa Roach, Gin Blossoms and the Urge. After traveling the states Mike came back to Peoria to start a new band called Up 4 Grabs, which is best know for their laid back college feel. Now he's done it again! He has well earned the title of Mr. Live Entertainment!

How did Mike and Carrie meet?

We actually met when Tru-Dat just started. Carrie was hosting Bradley's television news program called State of the Arts and asked Tru-Dat to be on the program. We didn't meet again until five years later. It was then we recognized each others passion for music and respect to the Music Gods and decided to created an acoustic show.

Biggest Show moment as a band so far?

Playing with Too White Crew and Mike & Joe. Making those connections was amazing and has led us to bigger shows and larger summer festivals.

I heard Carrie tried out for the Pussycats dolls tv show. What was that about?

Carrie traveled to Chicago and auditioned for Robin Anton's, the creator of the Pussycat Dolls, new show on the WB. The show would choose the three girls that would make up Girlicious, her new group. Carrie made it through three rounds and was chosen to be in the top twenty. Not bad for a farm girl from Canton.