Michael Colin Spreitzer is one of the guitarists of the American heavy metal band DevilDriver. He has been with the band since 2004. Born in the Los Angeles County city of Torrance in 1981, he started playing guitar at the age of 10. In his younger years, he was heavily influenced by bands such as Metallica, Def Leppard, Black Sabbath, and Megadeth.
Mike’s first electric guitar was a Fender Squire that he purchased from one of his guitar teachers for $300 along with a cheap Gorilla practice amp. He claims to still own the guitar, stating that he never plays it anymore, but would never sell it. His next relationship with a guitar was with a Fernandes Dragonfly Elite, but that relationship came to an end when he joined DevilDriver and found a home with ESP.
Devildriver was originally formed in Santa Barbara, CA in 2002 and was comprised of Dez Fafara, John Boecklin, Jeff Kendrick, Jon Miller, and Evan Pitts. After their debut album was released and only two tours of the United States, DevilDriver asked Mike to join the band in place of Evan Pitts. Since then, Michael has continued to tour with the band and contribute on the albums The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand (2005) The Last Kind Words (2007) Pray For Villains (2009) and Beast (2011). He has also written and recorded music for movie projects including the documentary Tokyo Comedy Store that has been featured on the Documentary Channel. In 2010 Michael co-wrote three songs for the video game MX vs ATV Reflex with Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde-Wolbers of the band Fear Factory and fellow band mate Jeff Kendrick.
Before joining DevilDriver, Mike studied music at Santa Barbara City College and UC Santa Barbara. In 2005, he moved back to the Los Angeles area and has taken an interest in producing. He is currently working on his producing debut with the Boston-based metal band Give Zombies the Vote which is expected to be finished in early 2011.