Michael Gray

Michael Gray is a UK house DJ and producer from Croydon, England, born in 1966. He works in house, dance and electronic music, and is also associated with hip hop, R&B and dancehall. He records on Sultra Records and has been involved with a wide range of projects and aliases, including Hustlers Convention, Full Intention, Friends of Matthew, Essence, Disco Tex presents Cloudburst, Ronaldo’s Revenge, Disco-Tex, Sex-O-Sonique, Araknofobia, Greed, Portobella, Definitive, Endive, Mike Gray & Jon Pearn, The Rule, Grade A, Deep Down and Arizona.

Solo releases and chart success

Gray is best known for The Weekend featuring Shena, which reaches number 7 in the UK and number 1 in Poland. The track gains wider exposure through television advertising, including campaigns for Honda Cars, BBC Football Focus and Ugly Betty. Another single, Borderline featuring Shelly Poole, enters the UK chart at number 12 as the week’s highest new entry. His other singles include Somewhere Beyond with Steve Edwards and Missing You. Walk Into The Sun appears on his Analogue Is On album, which is originally only available in Japan because of contractual issues and is later revisited as a single.

Writing and production work

Gray co-writes and produces for Portobella, leading to an album deal with Island Records. He also co-writes and produces Shena’s solo single Electro Sexual with James Winchester; that track is used in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. His other writing and production credits include Danielle Senior, Penny Foster, Errol Reid, Kenny Thomas, Decree, credited as Femi Santiago, and new artist Maddy. He also completes an album with Midnight Mystery Club.

Full Intention

Gray’s work with Jon Pearn as Full Intention is a major part of his career. The pair receive Grammy-nominated recognition and build a long run of club and chart releases and remixes. Their catalogue includes I Love America, I’ll Be Waiting, Duke’s So in love with you, Everybody Loves The Sunshine and Sex-O-Sonique’s I Thought It Was You. They work with artists including Paloma Faith, Dominica, Jamiroquai, Whitney Houston, Barbara Tucker, Frankie Knuckles, Ella Henderson, Ultra Naté, Robert Owens, Inner City and Purple Disco Machine. Their more recent productions appear on labels such as Defected, OFF, Simma Black, Suara, Toolroom and Rebirth, as well as their own Full Intention Recordings.

Other projects and collaborations

Gray also works on projects such as Soul Asylum, which reaches number 1 on Traxsource for three weeks on Simma Black in 2016. His release Walk Into The Sun is reworked by Full Intention, Kizzmo and Focus, with vocal contributions from Steve Edwards, Shena, Xavier and Ann Saunderson. His work is supported by DJs including Kaiserdisco, Philippe Zdar, Tedd Patterson, Jean Paul Ghetto and Joyce Muniz.