| Mike Turner | |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Birth Name: | Michael A. Turner |
| Alias: | Emtee |
| Birth Date: | June 5, 1963 |
| Birth Place: | Bradford, England |
| Origin: | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Instrument: | Guitar, vocals |
| Genre: | Alternative rock |
| Occupation: | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
| Years Active: | 1980s–present |
| Associated Acts: | Our Lady Peace, Fair Ground, Crash Karma |
Michael A. Turner (born June 5, 1963), also known as Emtee, is an English-born Canadian musician and producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist and founding member of the band Our Lady Peace[1] and current member of alternative rock supergroup Crash Karma.[2]
Born on June 5, 1963, in Bradford, England, Turner grew up heavily influenced by punk rock. His first guitar was a gift from his mother on his seventeenth birthday. He played in a variety of bands during the 1980s.
Turner moved to Ontario, Canada at the age of eighteen. He studied English literature at the University of Western Ontario. He lived in Saugeen-Maitland Hall at the University of Western Ontario along with fellow Our Lady Peace band member Duncan Coutts.[3]
See main article: Our Lady Peace.
In late 1991, Turner placed an ad in Toronto-based Now newspaper in search of musicians. Michael Maida, a criminology student at the University of Toronto,[4] was the first to reply. The two formed a band called As If, inviting Jim Newell as drummer and a friend of Turner's, Paul Martin, to play bass. After they played a number of gigs in Oshawa with sets containing a mix of original and cover material, Martin departed soon after, and the band placed an ad for a replacement bassist. Chris Eacrett, a business student at Ryerson University, replied and was accepted after an audition. During that time, Turner and Maida attended a music seminar where they met songwriter and producer Arnold Lanni, the owner of Arnyard Studios. The band, with Lanni, commenced writing new material and recorded some material under the As If name.
Soon thereafter, the band's name was changed to Our Lady Peace, with Maida changing his first name to Raine to avoid confusion, after a Mark Van Doren poem of the same name. It took the band eventually a year and half of constant back and forth talks with Sony to secure a record deal. With encouragement from their producer Lanni and his management team, the band performed some gigs in Eastern Ontario and Montreal in conjunction with The Tea Party eventually supporting acts. It was not until Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin heard a song of OLP on the radio that he asked them to be a support on his tour.[5] and Alanis Morissette.
Turner left Our Lady Peace in late 2001, citing musical and creative differences.[6]
In the summer of 2021, Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida announced that Mike Turner was involved with the production of their tenth studio album, Spiritual Machines 2.[7]