Mike Viola

Mike Viola's name sits on credits for an unusually wide range of artists. Born Michael Anthony Viola in 1966, he is an American producer, musician, singer and songwriter whose work appears with Dawes, Panic! at the Disco, Andrew Bird, Ryan Adams, J.S. Ondara, Mandy Moore and Jenny Lewis. As a teenager in the early 1980s, he played Boston-area clubs with the Bottom Line, and his parents paid for his equipment.

His professional break came in the mid-1990s as the musical architect of New York band Candy Butchers, who released three critically acclaimed albums on RPM/Sony Records before he turned his attention to production. Film work followed. Co-produced with Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, the title track of Tom Hanks's 1996 film That Thing You Do! earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, and Viola sang lead on it. For Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story in 2007 he wrote or co-wrote seven songs, including "A Life Without You (Is No Life at All)", and in 2010 he contributed songwriting to Get Him to the Greek, including tracks for Russell Brand's Aldous Snow.