Keyboardist Michael Loyd is one of the most prominent musicians on the gospel music scene today. Through his work with the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (P.A.W.) and Andrew Gouche’s Prayze Connection ensemble, he’s performed with many of gospel’s biggest names, including Edwin and Walter Hawkins, BeBe Winans, Denise Williams, Beverly Crawford, J. Moss, and many more. Though he’s mostly known as an organist, Michael also plays piano and synths, and he’s relied on Roland gear for most of his professional musical life.

Michael’s father is a Pentecostal pastor, and he grew up playing music in his dad’s church in Pittsburgh, PA. He started out on drums, but it was his mother’s desire for him to play piano. “When I was seven or eight years old, my mother took me by the hand, put me on the piano, and said, ‘Play.’ So, I did. And I’ve been on keyboards ever since.”

When Michael was 13, his father became pastor at a church in Bridgeport, CT, and he continued playing piano there. But soon after, the church bought a Hammond organ, and Michael wanted to play it instead. His father told him, “Son, if you want to play organ in my church, you’ve got to be good.” So, every day after school, he took Michael to the church and locked him in, where would hone his chops on the new instrument. This hard work quickly bore fruit, opening up his future as a professional musician. “From that time of discipline, I got national exposure at a very young age, and I started playing at all the international P.A.W. conventions and conferences,” he says. “These conferences had attendances anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 people, and I’d go and just play, and I was exposed to many artists through that.”

In the 1980s, he became interested in synthesizer music through listening to jazz musicians Chick Corea and Jeff Lorber. “I was enthralled with synthesizer sounds,” he says. This led him to acquire his first Roland keyboard, a JX-3P, one of the earliest MIDI-capable instruments. “I’d put that rascal right on top of the old B-3 and use it in church,” he says. After a move to Dallas, TX, in the early 1990s, he dove headfirst into the world of MIDI and sequencing. “The church had a television ministry,” Michael says. “It was my job to write the music for the show. I had a D-70 synthesizer and an MC-50 sequencer, and it got to the point where I’d sequence whole shows. For example, I’d sequence an entire Christmas pageant. During the show, I’d start the sequencer and get up and direct the choir, while the backing music played on its own.”

A few years later, Michael ended up in Los Angeles, CA, where he still resides. He quickly hooked up with Andrew Gouche, a well-known bassist in gospel music, and the current music director for Chaka Khan. “He and I hit it off, and I started to do a lot of stuff with his band,” he says. “I was one of his main keyboardists. He did this thing on Sunday night called Prayze Connection, which was a gospel jam session. All the gospel guys would come through, and we had great singers. The keyboards were all Roland: XP-80, XP-50, and I played a D-50.” Through Andrew, Michael began his involvement with the McDonald’s Gospelfest, one of the nation’s preeminent annual gospel events and one that Roland sponsors. “I was in the house band,” he says. “I used a Roland VK-7, the single-manual organ, and I’d play the XP-80 as an auxiliary keyboard. Eventually, I was able to get that XP-80. It became my personal ‘board, and I still have it! There’s an electric grand patch—PR-A008—that is my main piano patch, even when I do jazz gigs.”

These days, when playing with Andrew Gouche and various Roland-sponsored events, Michael often plays a Roland VK-88 dual-manual organ with bass pedals. After cutting his teeth on the ubiquitous Hammond B-3, he’s very satisfied with the sound and feel of the VK-88. “If you have the overdrive on the right setting and you know how to set those drawbars, you’re gonna have a good night,” he says. “The bottom is real nice off the pedals, and if you know what you’re looking for, the VK-88 gives you a legitimate, authentic sound.”

In his personal studio, Michael does a lot of songwriting and music production work for various artists, including his oldest daughter. “I’m working on her first record now,” he says. “Also, I just got through with the Gospel Workshop of America record, the Los Angeles chapter, and I have two songs on there. And I’m in the middle of recording my instrumental jazz project.” Two of Roland’s latest instruments have been seeing lots of action there recently. “I really like a lot of the synth lead patches on my Fantom-G7,” he says. However, he’s particularly smitten with his RD-700GX Digital Stage Piano. “The keys feel wonderful,” he enthuses. “And I love the sounds. The acoustic pianos are expressive, the electric pianos are very warm, and the strings are fat and lush. Matter of fact, some of the synth sounds are so cool—there’s a patch called “Jazz Scat,” and I’m writing a tune around it now.”

As Michael continues his career working with the biggest names in the gospel world, Roland instruments remain with him and continually inspire his music. “I am always working on something,” he says, “and Roland is very much a part of what I do.”

If you’d like to get in touch with Michael, he can be contacted at: drmike464@yahoo.com