Outside the Office is a new GeekWire series that spotlights members of the Seattle tech community on a passion or hobby they pursue outside of work.
Name: Mark Michael Area
Day job: Co-founder and CEO of Deva , a Seattle startup whose platform is used by big brands and/or their agencies to build websites and landing pages.
Outside of the office passion: Michael isn’t a big sports guy who fills his time watching football all weekend. He’s into fine arts and more so in the area. And just before the pandemic, he started giving piano lessons.
After a while, his teacher insisted that it was time for a recital because it was the best way to get better. So about three years ago, his first recital was in her backyard. The event was attended by 43-year-old Michael and a bunch of young children.
“And when I played that concert and my two songs on the piano, I tell you, I thought I was Elton John or Liberace,” Michael said. “It was 11 a.m. on a Saturday, I was wearing a black tuxedo. My head was so big.”
He took singing lessons with the same teacher and recently gave a performance in Seattle for about 80 people.
“Terrible, terrible, terrible,” he said of his singing. “Except the audience loved it because they couldn’t tell if it was real. There was something strange about it.”
On September 26th, he’ll do it again, in another country, in Kennebunkport, Maine, a vacation destination he loved with his wife. He calls the upcoming concert – to which he has earnestly invited former President George W. Bush – a mix of Dean Martin and ’80s synth sounds.
The chase aspect of this: Michael admits to feeling full of anxiety and “extremely uncomfortable” during the show, but pushing through feels like finishing a race or something you worked hard for.
“It’s a release of all the tension,” he said. “And when it’s done, so high, whatever you call it, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow.’”
Lessons he brings back to work: Michael said playing the piano creates a focus that serves him well at Devhub.
Being in front of himself can be a question in his music. When he plays well, Michael gets overconfident and imagines he’ll sell out Madison Square Garden soon. Working brings everything back to reality and helps him focus on “the thing.”
His music also fills the void on weekends after a week full of tasks, projects, and momentum at work.
“What am I going to do, work on myself for the weekend? Am I going to let people on LinkedIn?” he laughed. “At least [music] has some other kind of brain element to take me through until Monday. So I can start Monday like, ‘Yeah, okay, that was that thing, now it’s back to that thing.’”
Do you have a hobby outside of the office or an interesting side hustle you’re passionate about that would make a fun profile for Geekwire? Drop us a line: tips@geekwire.com In the area
