mike seal musician

Mike currently plays for a number of professional artists. He plays upright bass for blues artist Sean Taylor, and has done five UK and three European tours with him. Sean has a growing worldwide following and ten acclaimed albums to his credit. He won male artist of the year 2024 for FATHEA magazine. He was shortlisted for best acoustic artist of the year by the UK Blues Federation in 2023, and this year was nominated for best traditional artist, best acoustic album and best acoustic artist. Several of Sean's albums were produced in Texas by legendary producer Mark Hallman and received four-star reviews in Mojo, named americana album of the month, and have been played on BBC Radio 2.  Sean has opened for Robert Cray, John Fogerty, John Mayall, Neville Brothers, Tony Joe White, Band Of Horses, Richard Thompson, Eric Bibb and many other legends. Mike plays on the recent Sean Taylor Band live album and on on the album ‘Short Stories’, nominated as best blues album in  2024. Mike co-wrote three songs. 

Live reviews say

     ‘a duo that can only remind you of the halcyon days of John Martyn and Danny Thompson’. (Blues Matters) 

     ‘Mike’s bass is solid and dependable and adds just the right amount of depth to emphasise Sean’s lyrics and guitar/ piano’ (RnR) 

Mike also plays upright bass with 'A Different Thread', a collaboration between Robert Jackson from Lichfield, England, and Alicia Best from Durham, North Carolina, USA. Following the release of their debut album ' On A Whim' they have garnered a loyal following across the UK, Europe, the US and Central America. Their music has garnered the attention of the BBC and NPR radio and landed them support slots with the likes of Jody Stevens (Big Star) Native Harrow, and the Milk Carton Kids. Even country legend, Steve Earl, praised their live performance at Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival where the artists shared a bill. Their second album 'Call of the Road', featuring Mike, came out in August 2023.

Mike plays upright bass and banjo for Farefeld (Caitlin Jones and Chris Elliot), who were described by 'Bright Young Folk' as experienced storytellers who bring timeless to their music'. They have won several accolades, including the Shrewsbury Folk Festival open mic competition in 2018, and the 2022 Downend Folk & Roots Cliff Woolley Award. They were a featured artist at the 2021 Folk Expo in Manchester. Their second album, ‘A game of two halves’,  features Mike and came out in January 2024. 

Mike plays multiple instruments for Joe Bayliss. Joe’s music sits somewhere amidst a cross section of John Martyr, Damien Rice a Nick Drake. Whilst imaginative metaphors, intersperse, carefully crafted lyrical pictures. Described as:

‘ His soft mellow speaking voice transcends into his vocal performance, to soft, yet punctuated high tenor that's barely a whisper , but can be heard in the back of the room , and in contrast, his baritone - vibrato rich and full, resounds in your chest as you listen....A headline act that can grace any venue in the country -  Birch & Stock folk club

In terms of songwriting, Mike co-wrote interlude music for several children’s programmes including the Beeps (48 episodes) and the theme music for Radio 4 programme 'X marks the spot'. Mike has a publishing deal with 'another planet music' managed by Mark Stratford (Rough Trade, BMG Rights, Cherry Red, Windsong, EMI, Universal, President, PIAS). 

Mike has also played as a musician in dance, drama and theatre productions. The latest was Chain Stories 'an exciting site-specific performance telling the story of those who came to contact with the chains made in the Black Country''. involving dance companies from the Black Country, Ghana and Grenada. A documentary on the project has just been released. 

In terms of his own projects, Mike plays with Lonesome Gods (Americana/Country) who are signed to Animal House Records. Their eponymous album came out in October 2020 and they are working on their second. He also plays for the Avant-Garde Jazz trio Told Americans. They feature an intense experimental sound with political overtones. Fatea reviewed them thus 'Told Americans possess an abundance of expert musicianship with energy, passion and a desire to truly experiment with preconceptions and push the artistic envelope... unusual, stimulating and most invigorating'. 

Mike also plays guitar with the Queen has Two Heads, who' s debut EP, Ready to Go, was released in late 2018 and are about to release an album with a new line up (reduced from 8 to 4), and are playing festivals this summer. Mike is also a part of folk/ Americana/ electronica duo Manna, with Anna Reuben, who have released two albums on Nub Country records. They are surrently recording their third album.

More recently Mike has been writing and co-writing spoken word pieces. This includes 'One Clear Mind' a recording with Kostas Bechlos (Told Americans, Dr Schwamp) featuring renowned free jazz sax player Bruce Coates. It is taken from a novel that Mike wrote about his experiences of working with homeless people over 25 years ago - the novel was abandoned, but at the start of each chapter was a rant based on characters Mike had met and worked with - these are these rants, still relevant today - difficult to hear, often misanthropic, narcissistic and challenging, but nevertheless one 'clear mind'. He is working on another spoken word dance album 'Normality is a Pathology', to be released in Sprin 2024. 

Mike played guitar and was co songwriter for Red Bird Sky (Folk Americana). They played across the UK and Canada. Their first album, released on Tree Top Records and produced by Paul Milner in Canada. Folk words described it thus 'This album reaches for you to ensure you share in the intensity of its songs and the potency of its melodies'. Their second album, The Unravelling', was given a four-star review by R2 and described as a 'scintillating experience'. Mike previously played double bass and was co-songwriter for Blue Soup who played at the Jazz Cafe, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Canterbury Jazz Festival, Ealing Jazz Festival and toured Europe twice. In 2012 they released 'Attention' on A Major Sounds produced by Paul Milner (Keith Richards, Eddy Grant, Sting) which was nominated for a Grammy. 

Outside of music Mike is a professor, author of 15 books, and a freelance educational consultant.