In this two part episode, I’m so honored to be hosting Atmospheric Instrumental Music Creator Composer, Mike Barden!
He’s the perfect guest to show us the bridge to an expanded awareness within the realms of creativity, because he’s experiencing it first hand.
Our conversation was so full and rich that we’ve chosen to deliver it to your ears, minds and hearts in two parts!

Mike is super gifted musically, his technical musicianship is off the charts (he studied music theory and jazz piano and went on to get his masters degree in composition, he records and produces his own & other musicians music, he’s played with many well known bands and has worked with some legendary greats. (For Mike’s full professional bio, scroll below)

In Part 1, we start at the beginning, with Mike’s early years of discovering his natural ear and curiosity for music, certain charmed experiences that offered confirmation to his path, and how that grew into a lifelong passion and study. Throughout the conversation, Mike returns to his knowing that he’s always felt a leaning toward using his creative force toward something meaningful, that could really make a positive difference to life.
We talk about some pivotal times when Mike started consciously recognizing creativity in flow in his life through his formative and young adult years, building and leading up to the bigger life shifts during 2020 and pandemic times that really amplified Mike’s growing and evolving understanding of creativity as a natural force that’s accessible and available to all of us.
In this segment of Part 1, our conversation reveals what led to Mike’s new creative artist name, i minus i, which for Mike describes his newest musical creation process … but also upholds a way of perceiving and living life for him.
With all of the newness in Mike’s musical creation, we talk about the reality of re-birthing, recreating himself as an artist … allowing vulnerability, calling upon courage, and putting himself out there in all the social streams in a whole new, authentic way.
We talk about BEing the conduit, the channel, and being aware that this is what is happening for him when he creates from this state of Presence.
This conversation is SO powerful. I’m grateful x infinity for Mike’s willingness to explore and expand Inside Creativity with me!

In Part 2 (click here to listen to Part 2), we talk more about what Mike refers to as Stream of Consciousness Creativity. We’ll get to hear all about Mike’s latest improvisational composition, Emergence (an apt title!), and how it came to be, purely by way of allowing, trusting, and being receptive beyond the context of technical rules and thought/mind constructs. (Emergence is the beautiful track you hear at the beginning and end of both Part 1 & 2.)
I ask Mike what happens during the creative process when his ‘i’ self enters and attempts to distract, judge, doubt or impart feelings of inadequacy or fear of failure when he’s in creation mode … how to accept, embrace and send it all higher.
We talk about being in the moment … trusting … listening … and responding … from the space of Presence.
The difference between thinking and feeling perception and processing gets some attention …
W