Mike Banks (musician)

Michael Anthony Banks, better known as "Mad" Mike Banks, is an American record producer. He is the co-founder, along with Jeff Mills, of record label Underground Resistance and was a key player in the "second generation" of Detroit techno.

Mike Banks, 2010

Banks lives in Detroit, Michigan and is a former studio musician (bass/guitar), having played with Parliament/Funkadelic among others.[1] He worked in the second half of the 1980s with the collective Members of the House, releasing several 12" singles. Banks and Mills founded the label Underground Resistance in the late 1980s, and the pair, along with Robert Hood, produced most of the label's early releases.[2] After Hood and Mills's departure from Underground Resistance, Banks headed the label himself, releasing material from acts such as Drexciya and Sean Deason in addition to his own productions.[2]

He is also co-founder and co-owner with Christa Robinson of Submerge Distribution since 1992. Submerge, along with Underground Resistance, is an independent record label which distributes Detroit-based techno worldwide.[3]

Among Banks's early influences are Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Marshall Jefferson; his later work shows his increasing interest in acid house and industrial.[2] Banks has hewn strictly to an ethic of the underground and refuses to be photographed in public as part of this ethic.[3] His releases often deal with elements of political and social commentary, which have made him a controversial figure from within the Detroit electronic music scene.[1] Banks quit playing live shows in the late 1990s due to continuing problems with bringing electronic equipment through customs agencies, but began doing live shows again in the mid-2000s.[4]