Ottawa Senators, Mika Z. Pursues Dream of Making Music

Mika Zibanejad, born April 18, 1993 is a Swedish professional hockey player. Selected sixth overall in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, he currently plays for Canada’s Ottawa Senators.   His career highlight so far is scoring the winning goal for Sweden in the 2012 World Junior hockey championship game against Russia. With the hockey career going strong, Zibanejad now is able to concentrate on pursuing his other dream—making music. 

Born in and raised in Huddinge, Sweden, Zibanejad says he gets his love of sports from his father, Mehrdad Zibanejad, who played volleyball for Iran. After Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, Zibanejad’s father, who is Christian, left Iran and immigrated to Sweden. Once in Sweden, he played a amateur football for Trelleborg and Åtvidaberg . But if Zibanejad has his father to thank for his love of sports, he credits his mother Ritva’s side of the family for his large structure and long limbs, saying, “Grandpa was very tall and my uncles are very tall.” 1

As for his love of music, that just might be all Mika. Since 2013, the hockey player has been performing at local Ottawa clubs as DJ Z-Bad. What is now a full-fledged passion started out as a something he did “to unwind and take his mind off hockey.” (3) But as his talent as a DJ grew, so did Zibanejad’s desire to take it to the next level. “I’m very into house music. It’s something I’ve been listening to a lot and something I have a passion for,” he says, citing Swedish House Mafia and Hardwell as two favorites. (3)

Now, Mika Zibanejad the Swedish-born hockey player for the Ottawa Senator’s is transitioning from playing other people’s music to learning how to create the music he hears in his head. 

In order to make this dream a reality and learn how to create the music he hears in his head, Mika has signed up with Recording Connection of Canada.  The Recording Connection is a mentor-apprentice based audio school that has matched him with Eric Eggleston from Johnny Hall Productions in Ottawa.  There Zibanejad receives hands-on coaching on the making, recording and performing music from Eric and other industry pros.

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