Mike Perjanik

Mike Perjanik is a New Zealand-born musician, record producer, composer, arranger and bandleader who became well known in Australia from the late 1960s for his work on pop and rock recordings, and as a composer, arranger, bandleader and producer of music for film, television and advertising.

Perjanik grew up in the New Zealand North Island town of Dargaville. While attending Dargaville High School he joined The Spotlights, an instrumental band formed with fellow students Doug Jerebine (guitar) and Barch Sevren (drums). They entered a talent quest at the Auckland Town Hall and came third. The group expanded to five, with Ken Lawrie replacing Sevren, and Roy Calkin (guitar) and Ray Mayall (bass) joining.

Although largely self-taught as a keyboard player, arranger and composer, Perjanik's skills soon made him a prominent figure on the thriving New Zealand music scene of the mid-1960s. After moving to Auckland in 1963 he joined local group The Embers and encouraged his friend Doug Jerebine to follow him; Jerebine eventually joined Perjanik in The Embers after a short stint in the popular band The Keil Isles.

When The Embers split up, Perjanik took some of the members to form his own group, The Mike Perjanik Band, which became the leading session group on the Auckland recording scene between 1964 and 1966. They also worked as the backing band for many popular New Zealand solo artists including Tommy Adderley, whom they backed on The Dinah Lee Spectacular, Dinah's farewell tour of New Zealand before her move to Australia.

Perjanik began writing music and his songs were recorded by New Zealand pop singers of the day including Dinah Lee; he also arranged music for Ray Columbus and toured with visiting international performers like Gene Pitney. One of the Perjanik Group's first sessions was backing a new singing duo discovered by Viking Records boss Ron Dalton; the duo, Sue and Judy Donaldson (who were childhood friends of La De Das guitarist Kevin Borich) were renamed by Perjanik as The Chicks; The Mike Perjanik Group backed them on their debut single "Heart of Stone"/"I Want You To Be My Boy" and in 1966 they also backed The Chicks on their single "The Rebel Kind".

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