MICHAEL J DOWNEY AND THE WORLD

CALIFORNIA BASED SINGER/SONGWRITER AND FORMER LEAD GUITARIST FOR FEMME FATALE IS BUILDING POWERFUL CULTURAL AND MUSICAL BRIDGES BETWEEN ‘AMERICA' AND KOREA AND JAPAN , WHERE HIS BAND HAS TOURED EXTENSIVELY OVER THE PAST YEAR

Recently Accepted As A Competitor By The 2007 L.A. Music Awards, Downey Is Holding A Contest Via His Myspace Page For The Best Americana Footage To Incorporate Into His Upcoming Video For The Title Track To His New Album ‘America'

Driven By His Passion for Asian-American Cultural Exchange, Downey Launched Hashi.Org, A Non-Profit Organization Dedicated To Providing Opportunities for Americans and Southeast Asians To Connect; Hashi (“Bridge” In Japanese) Recently Awarded Its First $1000 Scholarship

When Michael J Downey titled his four song 2006 breakthrough EP and its title single and video Bridge of No Return, he drew upon his tireless dedication to the importance of cultural exchange between the U.S. and Asia . The bridge was a historical metaphor about the end of the Korean War, when families were torn apart as citizens were given a choice between staying and crossing from North to South Korea .

The popularity of Bridge of No Return throughout Asia led Downey and his all-female band The World to tour Korea last November and Japan this past March and April. The EP title could also apply to the fascinating evolution of the multi-talented artist's career. Establishing himself as a indie singer/songwriter on 2004's Your World, Downey has come a long way since his lead guitarist days with late 80s glam hair band Femme Fatale.

While that era was defined by reckless excess and extreme hedonism, the multi-talented artist is now focused on reaching as many people as possible with a simple message he recently echoed on a video blog: “Be good to each other and put something good out in the world.”

Downey's latest contribution to that philosophy is his new, ripe for AC radio recording America, which features the four songs from Bridge Of No Return (including “Hajimemashite,” which means “It's nice to meet you for the first time) as well as the perfect combination of a lush love song (“In Love Again” ), a heartbreaker (“ Wish ”), a gritty rocker about what we can all learn from “ History ” and the cutting edge pop/rock fun song “ Fly Away .”

The Bridge songs were produced by David Longoria (Sting, U2, Train) and the newer tracks by Robert Eibach and Downey himself at the helm. His current touring band includes keyboardist Christina Rasch (Ringo Starr, John Tesh, Latino heartthrob Diego) and bassist Jessica Fagre—both of whom also do extensive USO tours.

Currently in pre-production for shooting a video for “ America ”—an anthemic track that is purposely ambiguous as it asks the listener to question our country and his/her place in it—Downey is launching an ingenious three-week Submit-Your-Video contest via his myspace page (myspace.com/mjdmyspace), which will include a banner ad on the login page of MySpace. Offering $50 to those whose video clips make the final video, the singer is hoping to incorporate authentic visual slices of Americana from people all over the country.

Entrants will send Downey links to videos they have posted on You Tube. “The director Mike Britten, who did my video for ‘ Bridge Of No Return ' said we could travel all across the country trying to get footage,” says Downey , “or make it more exciting and invite people to participate this way. Myspace pages are so often just about the band, but I think they should be about encouraging fans to get involved like this.”

The Bridge concept extends into the artist's overall mission with his recordings, performances and extra-musical activities, which is to create a vibrant and mutually beneficial way for Americans and Asians to interact. After returning from his first tour of Japan a year and a half ago, he was motivated to start hashi.org, a California non-profit organization dedicated to promoting unique cultural exchange opportunities between Southeast Asia and America . True to the meaning of its name (“Hashi” in Japanese is “bridge”), the website offers overseas job listings, home-stay opportunities, pen pals, language studies, exchange students and scholarships.

“We are constantly culling the internet to create a site that is a one stop shop database of these kinds of opportunities,” Downey says. “Our scholarships offer $1,000 to defray the cost of helping people of all ages participate. We recently awarded our first scholarship to a female Japanese architectural grad student, who is studying the architectural and cultural similarities and differences between Japan and Korea . She'll get to spend a year in Korea continuing her studies. We are offering a total of three scholarships this year, with separate application periods for people in the U.S. , Korea and Japan .”

While some of the tracks on America are inspired by the prevalent post 9/11 Zeitgeist, Downey 's overall fascination for Asian culture dates back even further. “I like to say I have a lifelong unexplained interest in Asia , and the past five or six years has only increased my awareness of the importance of being part of the global community,” he says. “I've always been fascinated by the way that Japan , Korea and China have this blend of the ultra traditional and cutting edge modern styles and approach to life. Even as they've become thriving modern societies, their people didn't sacrifice their traditions. They still maintain a sense of honor, loyalty and pride, which is admirable to me. I've traveled to many places around the world and found hip people and genuine, warm people in different spots. In Asia , the people are both at the same time.”

Conversational in Japanese and working hard on his Korean language skills, Downey is diligent about explaining the meaning of his English songs to audiences when he performs in those countries. “One of the cool things about Southeast Asia is that it's very hip to speak English there,” he says. “Part of their fascination with American music is that they can better expose themselves to English. I think playing music in those places and here in the U.S. is about finding my own little way to put something good out there. I'm based in Santa Cruz , center of far left liberal politics and people spend a lot of time there Bush bashing and protesting the war. I don't disagree, but I also want to contribute positive things rather than just be mad about the negative.”

Michael J Downey and The World were recently chosen as a competitor for the L.A. Music Awards competition, which runs for four months and culminates in November. Beyond gigs in and around Los Angeles this year, the band also plans a lot of extended Western U.S. weekend gigging in places like Seattle and San Diego . All of this feels like home for Downey , who grew up in Gary , Indiana , honed his guitar chops playing clubs on Chicago 's South Side and toured the country in a variety of Top 40 bands and, later, popular bands like The Sharks (in which he was known as “Mick Nichols”) and Femme Fatale. His evolution as a solo artist began when he started doing unplugged, acoustic gigs throughout the Bay Area.

“For me, making music is no longer about being a rock star, but simply trying to reach as many people as possible with a positive message,” he says. “Now more than ever, each of us needs to do our best to contribute to making the world a tolerant, more loving place. It's wonderful to have the opportunity to make music that can touch people in this way.”