Max Sedgley

Growing up amid an eclectic array of global rhythms, Max Sedgley absorbed influences ranging from his father’s vintage collection of old-school R&B and funk to the reggae records his Jamaican mother regularly played at home. This environment cultivated an early and lasting connection to soulful, beat-driven sounds. By toddlerhood he had already signaled his intent to pursue drumming, hammering away on kitchen pots and pans before receiving his first proper kit a few years afterward. A school music instructor connected him with the esteemed percussionist James Blades, under whom he trained for the remainder of the 1980s. Later, while enrolled in music studies at university in Edinburgh, Sedgley balanced daytime lessons in Mozart with nighttime immersion in the hip-hop and drum’n’bass scenes flourishing in the mid-1990s. His first single, “Happy,” appeared in 2001 and gained widespread U.K. exposure when adopted as ITV’s football theme a few years later; the track ultimately sold more than 250,000 copies and peaked at number 30 on the national singles chart. Buoyed by this success, Sedgley secured a recording agreement with Sunday Best Records, which issued his debut album, From the Roots to the Shoots, on July 17, 2006. The set included the tracks “Slowly,” “The Devil Inside,” and the signature anthem “Happy,” helping to extend his reach both within Britain and beyond its borders. He continues to perform both as a solo DJ and alongside his five-piece ensemble, Max Sedgley & the Shoots.