Mike Hackbert is the creative force behind Hackdaddy, which provides an outlet for Mike's music projects. Mike has been an active musician since the early 70's, when he began playing brass instruments (trombone, cornet and trumpet). Settling on the trumpet as a primary instrument, Mike was involved with a number of bands and ensembles in high school (Culver Military Academy) and college (Wittenberg University). Mike's composing and arranging skills were honed while working on a double major in music and business at Wittenberg, and are still in use today.

In the 80's and 90's Mike was based in Champaign-Urbana Illinois and could be seen in a number of groups around the area in addition to work as a soloist, in the theatre pits and in local recording studios. The main focus at this time was the group Champaign Brass, a brass quintet founded by Mike in 1986 that is still active today (the rights to Champaign Brass were sold to Peggy Billing Huson in 2000 when Mike left central Illinois). Mike wrote a considerable number of arrangements for the group in a wide variety of styles to support Champaign Brass' reputation as the premier Brass Quintet in central Illinois.

Mike's main influences are jazz and progressive rock, with some baroque, classic and new age thrown in as well. He has been accused of never finding an added-note chord he didn't like, and is fond of complex rhythms and time signatures. With Hackdaddy, these creative projects (some are years old, some are months old, some are only weeks old) from Mike are finding a wider audience for listening and enjoyment.