Harvey Summers

Harvey was born to a musical family on December 31st, 1974. His passion for music became evident at the age of eleven when he began composing with electronic instruments and sequencers. By fifteen, his mastery of the Atari ST and electronic composition was such that he composed an entire score for a school production of 'The Tempest', which gained Harvey an interview on local TV. While working on his debut album, Dream Spinning , he was commissioned to compose the soundtrack to Sci-Fi video 'In Memory Alone' starring Doctor Who's Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. Still just seventeen years old, Harvey collaborated with friend and mentor Phil Thornton on his album for New World Records, 'Alchemy'. Harvey spent the next few years working on a follow-up to his successful debut album while honing his production skills as assistant engineer at CRS studios, where his clients included Mark Morrisson, Electronic and The Coldstream Guards. Circle was released in 1997 and secured Harvey a publishing deal with PXM Publishing (publishers of Rick Wakeman from 'Yes'). He had by this time mastered several instruments including guitars, mandolin, recorders and whistles and was recording and touring with indie band 'Iguanahead'. Following his re-mix of Faithful Dawn's single 'I am Nothing' which reached no. 1 in many club charts, and mixing and mastering a single for The Peter Kirtley Band featuring Sir Paul McCartney, more collaborations with Phil Thornton and music to a TV commercial for The World Wildlife Fund, Harvey received an unusual challenge. He was commissioned to compose a set of three albums based on the concept of Feng Shui for the Disky/EMI label. Harvey's extensive study of Chinese music paid off as the albums have been hugely successful. His relationship with the label continues to this day through over 12 solo albums. Harvey has to date sold over half a million albums worldwide. Harvey's production skills have graced many artists recordings, not least of these, the late pianist Russ Conway. Along with arrangements on Russ's 'Old and New' album, Harvey's re-mix of 'Roulette' was a regular feature on Mark and Lard's Radio 1 show for many months. Harvey has also composed, produced, recorded and designed sound for Doctor Who audio books, working with Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Peter Davidson, Sophie Aldred, Nicola Bryant and Mark Gatiss (of The League of Gentlemen) among many others. Recently, Harvey has enjoyed collaborations with virtuoso Hammond player Kenny Craddock on his solo album, two library albums for Digital Vision and a feature film soundtrack, Kevin of the North (2001), starring Leslie Neilson, Rik Mayal, Natasha Henstridge and Skeet Ulrich (directed by Bob Spiers). Harvey was responsible for arranging, orchestrating, producing and recording the original soundtrack. 2002 has seen many more successful projects including around 15 original tracks from Harvey for the Buddha Experience Asian Dance compilations, a new solo album, 'Angels', to be released in the new year, and the formation of his new band, 'nexusspysyndicate'. Harvey is still just 28 years old, but his extensive knowledge of composition, orchestral scoring, production and his talent as a multi-instrumentalist have set him as a driving force in the independent music industry and a dynamic new light as a film-music composer.