About Mike Gao

Mike Gao was only a child when he witnessed the bloodbath of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and escaped China. His grandfather, a leading voice of Constitutionalism in China, was jailed for sympathizing with the movement for democracy. He left for Japan, learning the language and soaking in the culture before immigrating to the United States. A music technology researcher with multiple beat battle wins and a successful iPhone app for detecting beat-boxing (Vocal Beater), Mike Gao is a Los Angeles beat scene secret. He was an underground hip-hop producer touring the US and Japan scratching for MCs, when he began winning beat battles and sharing the stage at Low End Theory with residents and artists like Exile, Flying Lotus and Nosajthing. His technology projects have been featured on WIRED twice and spans everything from iPad/iPhone apps for writing chords, to software for recognizing turntablist moves. His underground hip-hop material has received critical acclaim since 2005 with nods from publications such as XLR8R. He has performed instrumental beats, or his songs with MCs such as Luckyiam, Mestizo, and Qwel have been performed at MacWorld, Coachella, Rock the Bells, Low End Theory, and countless more. He holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and is currently pursuing his PhD. in Computer Music under Miller Puckette (the MSP in Max/MSP), at UCSD. He holds a masters degree from Stanford, studying under the top names in music technology including Julius Smith, Ge Wang (Smule), and Jonathan Abel (Universal Audio). Mike Gao is an artist that is continuously changing and adding to his arsenal of knowledge and technology.