Mike Smith

Michael Smith is a British musician, arranger, musical director, music producer and composer.

He is a frequent collaborator of musician Damon Albarn, having performed live with most of Albarn's projects including Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad & the Queen as well as in Albarn's solo band.

Early life

Smith grew up in Bridport, Dorset and cites his music teacher Rex Trevett as the reason he took up music. and Jamiroquai. In 2015 he was part of PJ Harvey's live music installation at Somerset House recording her album The Hope Six Demolition Project.

Blur Smith was originally hired as a saxophonist when Blur toured with a brass section in 1994. He later returned to Blur in the 2000s, playing saxophone on the song "Jets" from the Think Tank (2003) album and joining the Think Tank tour as musical director and keyboardist, a role he has reprised for the band on all of their tours since. He worked with Christoph Bauschinger to score The Exchange (2021 film).

Documentary film composing includes ‘Last Stop Coney Island: The Life and Photography of Harold Feinstein’, ‘Madeleine – One Year On’, and ‘Betrayal’ (Scott Calonico 2019 Tribeca Film Festival).

Smith was also a co-music producer for Aardman’s 2018 animated feature A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.