Michael Lee

Michael Lee

Michael Lee is the name shared by two different musicians in the provided information: a composer and solo artist from Napa Valley associated with the Chico music community, and an English drummer whose work spans hard rock and classic rock projects in the 1990s and 2000s.

Solo artist and composer

As a solo artist, Michael Lee releases the album Yesterday and Every Day After, which centres on nostalgia, reflection and personal experience. His writing draws on struggle, travel, places he has visited, people he meets, and the energy he takes from live shows and other musicians. He describes music as a way to process what he is going through, and he values the feeling of sharing songs with an audience that connects with them.

Lee is from Napa Valley and is active in the Chico music community, where he lives. Alongside his solo work, he is a member of Surrogate, Mute Witness and Carousel. He speaks of being inspired by the musicians around him in Chico, and family life also shapes his approach: his father played in a band and sang in a choir, his mother sings often, his older brother plays guitar and bass and has performed with him in several bands, and his younger brother is studying music at college.

His favourite instruments include the piano, cello and French horn, which he feels create a more intimate sound. The acoustic fingerpicking in songs such as “The Jealous Type”, “English” and “Sad Song” is presented as especially characteristic of his style. A glockenspiel part in “Hide” is also singled out as giving the music a dream-like quality. The album is available on iTunes.

English drummer

The other Michael Lee is Michael Gary Pearson, an English drummer born on 19 November 1969 and died on 24 November 2008. He is best known for touring and recording in the 1990s with Little Angels, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

Lee begins his professional career as drummer with Little Angels, a band from Scarborough that becomes one of the main British rock acts of the early 1990s. During the Young Gods tour, he is replaced by Mark Richardson after it emerges that he has auditioned for The Cult. He then plays the full Ceremony world tour with The Cult in 1991 and 1992.

After that he works with Echo & the Bunnymen and the re-formed Thin Lizzy. He also records with Holosade, where he receives his first album credit under the name Damian Lee, and plays with Alaska and Sweet Janes. His highest-profile work comes through Robert Plant, leading to his involvement with Page and Plant. He receives writing credit for all songs on the 1998 album Walking into Clarksdale.

Lee also tours with Jeff Martin, playing drums on Martin’s solo album Exile and the Kingdom, and works on Ian Gillan’s 2006 album Gillan’s Inn. His drumming style uses unusually large drum sizes, which he links to his height of 6'5"; his bass drum measures 26 inches and his snare is a brass 14" x 14" shell.