PureVolume

Members: Simeon Ziff - Drums / Sam Johnson - Bass

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- 2007 Songwriter of the Year, Pacific Songwriting Competition
-2007 International Acoustic Music Awards Male Artist of the Year Runner-Up
- 2006 Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Competition Finalist
- 2006 Endorsed Artist by the Independent Artists Registry
- Winner: 2005 AAA Album of the Year, Los Angeles Music Awards
- Winner: 2004 Male Singer/Songwriter of the Year, Los Angeles Music Awards
- 2005 Orange County Music Awards Nominee
- 2005 Finalist: KRCL/Founders Folk Festival Songwriter Contest
- 2005 Pacific Songwriting Competition Hot Pick Artist
- Winner: 2004 Call to Arts Song Contest
- 2004 and 2005 Billboard World Song Contest: Honorable Mentions

The Story
Surviving cancer at age 16… At 18, traveling the country in a van with a group of wacky Catholic hippies giving retreats to young people… Criss-crossing Europe through college with his guitar… Hanging with monks deep in desert monasteries… Living in the Vatican as a seminarian in his 20's on the way to becoming a priest, yet preferring to play gigs in local Roman pubs, or studying Buddhism in the piazza when he should've been in class…

What would a person like this have to say about life? Plenty, especially when magnified through the prism of a song.

Meet Michael Tiernan. Through the experiences of what could be ten lifetimes, Michael is an artist who has plunged into and explored the deep spaces of personal and worldly conflict, the beauty of love and nature, as well as the meaning of suffering and pervasive unhappiness that threatens our human experience on all sides. In his music, he resurfaces from these depths beaming with a positive outlook for all of us.

In his newest CD, "Spaces", Michael explores several types of both the real and metaphorical spaces that life offers each of us, from the space that exists between people in relationships, to the vast space of nature that surrounds us, to the deep and sometimes ominous space in our own hearts. His songs offer a helping hand to explore those spaces in each of our lives with realism, hope, courage, and ultimately, joy.

In one of his featured songs, "Same Sky", he celebrates how two people can be completely bonded and connected, even when distance and time separate them. However, in the title track, "Spaces", he ponders the paradox of how two people who love each other intensely can be so close in physical distance, but emotionally miles apart. He shows how each person requires his own space, not to be smothered by another's control, but to be respected and loved as a free individual. The end result is love without a controlling and self-centered ego.

Taking the idea of Spaces to a more universal level, Michael's song "You Hide" demonstrates that all humanity shares key common experiences that bind us all as one, despite being dressed up in different cultural expressions, languages, and religions.

To many, the world appears to be a frenetic, fast-moving, and even negative place. Michael Tiernan's new CD is a gift of self-examination and self-empowerment that finds the still point amid the bustle. It encourages and inspires us to make conscious choices which affirm the good that is all around and deep inside us, and it treats the negative with humor and a light heart.