The Neo Classical Shred Violinist

For this week I decided to go out and find out more about a musician of who i had seen and tried speaking to but was unable to do so with any success as he has just started with his performance some twenty minutes ago that first evening we saw him. There was tremendous energy in his performance as he played in this relatively darker corner on grand central on 42nd street as he constantly swayed and danced to the music blasting out of his amp.
This week, when even I finally did manage to locate him and speak to him, he told me to wait till he took a break.
Michael Shulman looks like he belongs in a heavy metal band with his long straight hair and clothes to match. His violin he informed me, was a shred violin and its particularly interesting to look at. Its almost as though somebody stripped a violin bare to its structural bone. Michael then told me his story of coming to New York many years ago from Moscow with his shred violin and a dream to make a career from the same.
He told me he had started studying violin when he was 8 years old but hadn't really been serious about it till much later. He then told me he'd been playing in the subway soon after he reached New York but he's also working on his music album and has local gigs every now and then, although he admits the shred violin isn't necessarily a popular instrument in bars so his venues are selective.
I ask him about his influences since his music sounds far removed from Classical Violin and I tell him "It reminds me more of bands like Megadeth(dark heavy metal band), no offense."
Michael beamed at me telling me that while personally he does prefer the heaviest and darker genres of metal he does incorporate elements of pop or alternative rock into his music but said he was happy that I could recognise where he was coming from. Hereafter he started talking about his music and opened up unexpectedly. He told me he makes decent money to work on his private projects, is also in a band and that people a almost always encouraging "down here" and then I smirk and jokingly tell him i've been watching him perform for forty five minutes the two times i've seen him and the money looks more than decent. He smiles mischievously and tucks his long strands of hair behind his ear (that reminded me of so many rockers interviews i'd seen on tv). I ask Michael of his relationship to people underground and he tells me that people are usually encouraging and he's become friends with some of the other musicians who play underground. He then proceeds to show me these little lights on his shred and he tells me he adjusts them to different colored settings every few songs, shows me how he does it and then tells me he has to go back and play but that i should check out his website http://www.blackviolin.com/ which features many videos from youtube and his mysapce links.