Following the release of his debut EP Life, Mike Waters and his summation of living so far are as personal and earnest as you’d expect.
Choosing to step away from a beige existence in a job he didn’t like and into music has allowed him to stop ‘feeling fake and not really yourself’ - which was the inspiration behind the local lad's most popular track Gambling Man.
The most apparent asset for Waters is his voice. He has great control and range, he has a command over his voice and sings about an octave higher than you world expect. Let’s be honest, if you looked at Waters, you’d expect a low, gristly voice, but what you get is closer to a Sufjan Stevens.
Most of the set passes by in the same way, given that the songs on this EP sound pretty similar to each other. Some of these tracks though sound better in recorded form than they do live. And, is that a hint of an American accent in some of his songs? However, you forgive him because his voice is angelic, in a way that makes an audience deafeningly silent.
The in-between conversations contextualises his work pretty well. He wrote a song for his mum who died when he was fifteen called Dreams about how his mother visited him when he slept to give him advice.
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His stage demeanour lends itself to creating a personal, earnest and humble environment in a packed out Shebeen band room. But there are definitely exceptions, like when he played Gambling Man. This is without a doubt the stand out track; the audience knew every single word, whistled, heckled, and then spontaneously broke out into a rendition of Happy Birthday.
Embarrassed and flattered, he moved right along to Girl Like You. Waters sits somewhere between indie folk and pop, what sets him apart is his blatantly honest chit-chat and his ability to stick to higher octaves.
