Mike is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, media composer, and producer with over 40 years of industry experience. His career began at 21 as a session musician and arranger for producer Adam Kidron (Delta 5, Orange Juice, Scritti Politti). When Kidron produced Ian Dury’s Four Thousand Weeks Holiday (1984), McEvoy became arranger and co-writer on half the tracks, including “Ban the Bomb.” With Dury stepping away from the Blockheads, McEvoy filled the role, launching his path as a writer and Musical Director.
During the ’80s and ’90s, he performed on records by Mark Morrison (Return of the Mack), Soul II Soul (“Dreams a Dream,” “Love Enuff”), the James Taylor Quartet—co-producing Love the Life—and Curiosity Killed the Cat, co-writing their hit “Name and Number.” He also co-wrote “Love Come Through” on Soul II Soul’s 1990 New Decade and later co-produced and co-wrote tracks for JTQ and several Boogie Back Records releases, including Lalomie Washburn’s Try My Love.
In 1994, he joined Steve Winwood’s band Traffic for an 88-date US, UK, and European tour, including Woodstock II, later serving as musical director and contributing to Junction 7. Moving to Nashville in 1998, he began composing for media, scoring documentaries for A&E, PBS, and 615 Music. His credits include Battle of the Hood and Bismarck (2001) and PBS/NOVA’s Einstein’s Big Idea (2005). Returning to the UK in 2003, he earned a master’s at the Royal College of Music as PRS Sir Arthur Bliss Scholar.
Between 2008 and 2012 he scored films including Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles and Forget Me Not. His work has appeared in Wild Card, Wild Target, The Wire, and Dark Angel. He has collaborated widely, released three jazz albums, and earned a 2019 Ivor Novello nomination for Mother Medusae. He is committed to music education and is an FHEA and Mental Health First Aider.
