Personal
Marital status: Unmarried.

Hobbies: Drawing and playing guitar.

Musical Influences: Killing Joke, Cheap Trick, David Bowie, T-Rex, Frank Sinatra, Link Wray and others.

Bands other than Course of Empire
The Calling, Three on a Hill (live), Jump Rope Girls (live), Novachrome (live), Kleenex (live), Slow Roosevelt (live), Shadows on the Moon (more recently known as Halls of the Machine), Deathwish Five (live), Chinese Stars (live), Mermaid Purse (live).

Course of Empire
Mike Graff met Anthony Headley at the Southern Methodist University film department. The two began playing music together and decided to become more organized. The idea for a band had them advertising in local music stores where their posted flyer caught the eye of Vaughn Stevenson. Mike brought his friend Chad Lovell in and the idea for a second drummer came into being. Paul Semrad joined the band directly afterward, and Course of Empire was formed. Throughout the years, Graff has become well known for his amazing style of playing. In 1991 he won the 1st Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Guitarist Award at the Dallas Observer Music Awards, and in 1994 he was profiled in Guitar School magazine.

After Course of Empire
Mike Graff still resides and works in the Dallas area, and has formed an ambient guitar project originally entitled Shadows on the Moon (with Michael Jerome and Van Eric Martin). This page contains information about the current state of the project, now called Halls of the Machine. Graff and Jerome performed some of their new songs at the Liquid Lounge on January 15th and April 2nd, 1999. Later in the year, on August 24th, Mike played an ambient guitar set with Casey Hess (of Doosu and the Jump Rope Girls) at the Cavern Upstairs. The Art Bar, in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas, offered an exhibition of Mike's artwork during September 1999. After Van Eric Martin joined the group, there were live shows at the Ridglea Theater on December 16th, 1999 and at the Curtain Club on February 17th, 2000. Additionally, Mike worked with Van Eric Martin on remixes of two songs by the Sony Germany recording artists Weissglut. On April 8th of 2000, Mike performed an acoustic solo show at the Red Blood Club, and then spent time in Los Angeles recording songs with James Hall and performing with him in several states. On December 21st, Mike had another special evening of ambient guitar atmospheres with Casey Hess. The long-awaited Halls of the Machine album (titled "Atmospheres for Lovers and Sleepers") was released in October 2001, followed by several live performances in Dallas. Mike also played guitar for a Dallas bands called Chinese Stars and Mermaid Purse (featuring Eric Shutt of Doosu). In 2005, Mike performed several solo shows in Dallas and even traveled to Austin for a record store performance that included a live collaboration with Inversion Effect. He later joined The Calling (a band he played in before Course of Empire) for a reunion show. As of 2008, Mike still performs solo guitar shows around Dallas. Please see his MySpace page for more updated news.

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