The Music of Greg Mihaly

Update: 2025-07-24

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The Beach Maniac Island Music Podcast
(audio):

The Beach Maniac Island Music Podcast
(complete video):

You probably know Greg Mihaly from his melodic Trop Rock tune, Sunshades on 30A. In that song, Greg takes us on a musical tour of the iconic Highway 30A in the Florida Panhandle, singing about the white sand beaches, emerald waters and the laid-back charm of the beach towns dotting the Gulf Coast. While Sunshades on 30A has become his signature song in the Trop Rock world, Greg's music stretches far beyond that. He blends gritty rock, coastal vibes, and introspective lyrics into a sound that's truly his own, something he highlights in another standout track called A Little Bit of Everything. In this Podcast, Greg talks about his unique style, his journey in Trop Rock, his background, and his deep appreciation for the musicians and fans who have warmly welcomed him in the Trop Rock community.

Takeaways:

'Sunshades on 30A' was intentionally written for the Trop Rock genre.
Collaboration has been a key focus for Greg in his recent work.

Music evokes similar feelings across different genres.
Greg's style is rooted in rock, influenced by 70s and 80s music.
Trop Rock welcomes diverse sounds and influences.
Greg's upbringing in Pensacola shapes his music and lyrics.
He aims to create music that resonates with beach culture.
The Trop Rock community is supportive and inclusive.
Greg's upcoming EP will feature a mix of traditional and heavy rock influences.
He values the connections made through music and looks forward to future collaborations.

Highlight Reels:

Musician and songwriter Greg Mihaly thanks the Trop Rock community for warmly welcoming him and his music.

Greg Mihaly laughingly tells how he is now thankful that Jesse Rice turned down an offer to record his hit song ‘Sunshades on 30A’

Why musician and songwriter Greg Mihaly sees plenty of room for rock influences in Trop Rock.

Musician and songwriter Greg Mihaly on how we all will shape the future of the Trop Rock music genre.

Highlights:

Greg Mihaly has captured the attention of Trop Rock fans with his hit song Sunshades on 30A. But as a Rock/Alt-Rock artist and bass player at heart, his music brings new layers to Trop Rock.
Greg wrote Sunshades on 30A with plans to pitch it to other Trop Rock musicians. He even pitched it to Jesse Rice. However, Jesse said he wasn’t lookiing for new music at the time and actually already, very coincidentally, had his own song in the works about Highway 30A. So Greg released it on his own. “And I would like to thank Jesse Rice for passing on that one because it’s turned out to be a pretty good song for me,” Greg said with a laugh.
Greg, who lives in the Pensacola Beach area, drove up and down Highway 30A to inspire the song. “I put myself in a vehicle when I was writing it and kind of drove myself around the area. What's over there? What's over here? And so I just kind of really mapped out what anyone would see if they spent enough time down there.”
His song, A Little Bit of Everything, is about the many influences and styles working their way into music, particularly country music. “It's a love piece about bringing everything into a genre and everybody just, you know, get together, having a good time, listening to, whether it's trap beats or rock riffs or, you know, soulful singing or whatever it is, it all can exist under one umbrella.”
Lower Alabama Way has the elements of the quintessential beach song but has a deeper meaning. Greg recalls when his family moved to Pensacola and he first heard that part of the Florida panhandle referred to as Lower Alabama. “Yeah, as a youngster that was the first time I ever heard that term was Lower Alabama and … since I've been writing songs I figured that there was always going to be a chance for me to write that song about Lower Alabama and so a few years ago I went ahead and brought that one up and developed it.”
Covered in Sand is about the beaches in the Pensacola area but, “on a grander scale, the baked-in message in this one is the message of abundance and bounty and sharing.”
And My Beach embeds even deeper meaning. “This song really speaks to just the bipolar nature of the of the happiest you can be and the saddest you can possibly be all in the same place for completely different reasons and you just try to keep going. That song really is, even though it sounds like a fun song, it's really a song that's got struggle and conflict kind of laced into it.”
Other songs, like Stroll On, also mix beach themes with more gritty rock vibes and philosophical messages. “So to me, beach music, with what I grew up on, that setting and that feel, there's a lot more allowance for some really, really heavy grungy content there. And so it's still here. I'm still trying to bring it.”
Greg, who is booked for Meeting of the Minds in October, said he is very appreciative of the way the Trop Rock community has welcomed him and his music. “I'm looking forward to finally getting out amongst some of the folks that have been supporting my music for the past few years, and getting out to these festivals and concerts is going to help me do that. So I'm definitely stoked about that. Definitely excited.”
“So I guess if there's any send-off message I have, it's thank you. It is just thank you for everything, and I'm going to keep putting music out and hopefully everyone will keep requesting it and I really hope to see more people more often at some of these events that you were talking about and yeah, just looking forward to what things lie ahead between my new music and collaborations, again, that I'm working on as well that I can't wait to tell you about. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun going forward. I'm excited.”

Podcast Transcript:

You probably know Greg Mihaly from his melodic, Trop Rock tune, Sunshades on 30A. In that song, Greg takes us on a musical tour of the iconic Highway 30A in the Florida Panhandle, singing about the white sand beaches, emerald waters and the laid-back charm of the beach towns dotting the Gulf Coast. While Sunshades on 30A has become his signature song in the Trop Rock world, Greg's music stretches far beyond that. He blends gritty rock, coastal vibes, and introspective lyrics into a sound that's truly his own, something he highlights in another standout track called A Little Bit of Everything. Greg Mihaly, welcome to the Beach Maniac Island Music Podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here, Bill.

All right, and you're joining us from Pensacola, Florida, is that right?

Yep, Pensacola Beach, Florida, is where I'm based out of, so yeah, that's where I am, yep.

All right, and that explains Sunshades on 30A. So I want to talk more about all of your music and how you got to where you are today, but first I want to jump right in and focus on Sunshades on 30A. Tell me a little bit about that song and what's the inspiration behind it.

This was probably, not probably, this was absolutely the first really intentional song that I wrote that was going to be a Trop Rock song. I know you went back and probably listened to a bunch of other stuff that I've done along the way that spans. There is a breadth there. But with Sunshades on 30A, it's definitely a different beast because this was the first one I wrote intentionally to be a Trop Rock song. It's also the first one that I've written, you know, semi-recently that I really planned on sharing with somebody else and expanding into, you know, the Trop Rock community and to some other artists, you know, through collaboration. I remember I was talking with Kenny Tice who's over at Radio Trop Rock now and we were having one of our little conversations on Saturday morning and we were just talking about who was doing well in Trop Rock and we had mentioned Monallo and Jesse Rice and stuff like that and I just decided that was kind of going to be my day that I was going to go in and really start a song that could be a collaborative song, and so that Saturday afternoon I started writing that song and by Monday the song was done already past the point of really needing collaboration or whatever, you know, I was like, okay, well I'll just go ahead and demo this up anyway, maybe somebody else will want to cut it, because again, I'm writing this for someone else. And so I demoed