DJ Mike ‘Surreal’

Mike started dj'ing back in the early 1990's, his sound being influenced by DJ’s such as Eddie Richards, Mr C, Terry Francis & Nathan Coles at parties like Heart & Soul and Wiggle. By 1995 he was playing at numerous parties and clubs in and around London including Wiggle, Kerfuffle, Swag,Original Sin, Positive Sound System, Technology, Pressure Point, The End, AKA, The Zap, The Concorde and many others. Playing his mixture of funky, deep, groovy house and tech-house. Lots of big basslines, crisp clean sounds, snappy percussion with emotive strings and melodies.

In June 1996 Mike started ‘Surreal Recordings’ with Paul Culver (Swag Records) which provided an outlet for music made by himself and friends. Surreal was slow in developing but after a few years was firmly established as one of London’s key ‘Tech-House’ labels, and over the years played a small part in shaping the sound as it is known today. Clocking up 30 releases from artists including Terry Francis, Housey Doingz, Asad Rizvi, Nathan Coles, Matthew Bushwacka, Mr G, The Mingers, Timmy S, Soul Doubt, Derek Marin, Dave Mothersole, Transparent Sound, Spincycle, Richard Grey, Affie Yusuf & the guys from Strange Weather Studio's (Laurant Webb, Dave Coker & Justin Bailey) who in their various guises were the production team behind a huge number of releases at this time.

In 1998 Mike began his second long term residency at the Optical nights he hosted every two weeks in Brighton which went on for three years before coming to a close. During that time he played alongside some of the worlds finest underground DJ’s including: Terry Francis, Eddie Richards, Nathan Coles, Mr C, Dave Angel, Dave Mothersole, Kenny Hawkes, Richie Hawtin, Carl Craig, Chris Duckenfield, Colin Dale, Tyler Stadius, Asad Rizvi & Richard Grey to name a few. Shortly after the Optical nights began Mike began taking his sound further afield and over the follow years played many times in the Czech Republic, Belgium, Macedonia, Kosovo, and further afield still in Isreal and Brasil where in 2001 he was voted the best International DJ by Rraurl (the country’s biggest Electronic Music web site).

Mike worked at Eukatech Records from July 2000 to July 2003 and along with Marco Lenzi & Nils Hess supplied London’s underground with the vinyl it craved. He also formed an integral part of the Eukatech DJ’s playing at parties in clubs like The End, AKA, Ultimate Base and Renaissance.

After his initial success in Brazil in 2001 Mike returned many times and began working with the Hypno Agency in July 2003 playing for a number of the country’s biggest and most respected names in electronic music including: D-Edge (Campo Grande, Sao Paulo), Lov.e (Sao Paulo), Propaganda (Porto Alegre), Fulltronic (Porto Alegre), Joy Lounge (Belo Horizonte), Josefine (Belo Horizonte) , Na Sala (Belo Horizonte), Bloom (Passo Fundo), In Love (Curitiba), Garage (Campo Grande), Forum (Campinas), Diretorio (Criciuma), to name a few. He has also travelled further afield in Latin America playing in Uruguay and at Pacha in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mike is now living in Belo Horizonte in Brasil and having left the Hypno agency is currently persuing a solo career.